Vasemmalta katseleva Bayard Taylor (kuva Wikimediasta) oli Wikipedian mukaan runoilija, kääntäjä, kirjallisuusarvostelija ja matkakirjoittaja. Joulukuun 6. 1856 hän aloitti kahden kuukauden reissun Tukholmasta kiertäen Ruotsia, Norjaa ja Lappia. Matkakokemuksistaan hän kirjoitti kirjan Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland , joka ilmestyi syksyllä 1857."Lapland" osuudessa Taylor kävi myös Suomen Lapissa. Kolarin kirkolta hän kertoo:
At last, at last, Kolare church on the river bank came in sight; we crossed to the Russian side, and drove into the yard of the inn. It was nearly midnight, 47° below zero, and we had been for seventeen hours exposed to such a temperature. Everybody had long been asleep. Locks and bolts are unknown, however, so we rushed into the family room, lit fir splinters, and inspected the faces of the sleeping group until we found the landlord, who arose and kindled a fresh fire in the milk-room. They made us coffee and a small bed, saying that the guest's room was too cold, which indeed it was, being little less than the outside temperature. On opening the door in the morning, the cold air rushed in as thick and white as steam. We had a little meat cooked, but could not eat enough, at such an early hour, to supply much fuel. As for taking anything with us for refreshment on the road, it was out of the question. One of our Finns turned back to Muoniovara with the laziest horse, and we got another from our Russian landlord. But it was a long, long journey to the next station (twenty miles), and the continuance of the extreme cold began to tell upon us. This part of the road was very heavy, as on the journey up—seemingly a belt of exposed country where the snow drifts more than elsewhere.
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