Chapter IV: Part 4

Reindeer milk is excellent for making cheese, a pail of about three quarts yielding a large quantity. On this account those who keep cows add a portion of it to their milk; by which method they obtain much more cheese than otherwise.

The reindeer suffers great hardship in autumn, when, the snow being all melted away during summer, a sudden frost freezes the mountain Lichen (_L. rangiferinus_), which is his only winter food. When this fails, the animal has no other resource, for he never touches hay. His keepers fell the trees in order to supply him with the filamentous Lichens that clothe their branches; but this kind of food does not supply the place of what is natural to him. It is astonishing how he can get at his proper food through the deep snow that covers it, and by which it is protected from the severe frosts.

The reindeer feeds also on frogs, snakes, and even on the Lemming or Mountain Rat (_Mus Lemmus_), often pursuing the latter to so great a distance as not to find his way back again. This happened in several instances a few years ago, when these rats came down in immense numbers from the mountains.

The Pike pairs in this neighbourhood as soon as the river becomes open. I met with some strangers who had been six or eight miles, or more, to the north of Lycksele, and had resided there on a fishing party ever since Easter. I accompanied one of them to his hut. Each man had collected about twenty pounds of fish, which were drying.

It is certainly very unjust that these people, settled more than eight miles down the country on the other side of Lycksele church, should drive the native Laplanders away, and be allowed to fish in these upper regions, which have no communication with the sea shore, and this without paying any tax to the crown or tithe to the curate of the parish, which the fishermen of the country are obliged either to do, or to farm the fishery of the land-holder, who pays tribute for his land, and who justly complains of the hardship he suffers in various respects, without daring to make any open resistance.

When any of these complaints were made by the Laplanders in my hearing, I asked why they did not seek redress in a proper manner.

"Alas!" replied they, "we have no means of procuring access to our sovereign. Nobody here exercises any authority to protect us, or to prevent these interlopers from doing with us just as they please. We cannot procure witnesses in our favour, scattered about as we are in an unfrequented desert, and therefore we are robbed with impunity. We can never believe that this happens with the approbation of our Gracious Sovereign. If we were assured that it was his will, we should submit with dutiful resignation."

The clergy also complained to me that, after having resided in this wilderness, and fulfilled the duties of their calling with all possible care and diligence, they are never in the way of promotion, like those employed in schools, or any other station, where they are more at hand to solicit preferment. Indeed it seems very just, that, after having served here for twenty years, they should obtain some small preferment in a more cultivated country, where their children might be properly educated, and enjoy the advantages of civilized society.

A schoolmaster at this time resident here, who had exerted himself in the most exemplary manner, so as to do as much in two years as his predecessor had done in ten, with respect to teaching Swedish to the children of the Laplanders, a task harder than that of the plough, had no other prospect than still to remain in obscurity, even his great merit not being likely to procure him any further advancement.

In the forests of this neighbourhood good pasturage is now and then to be found; but the corn-fields and meadows are poor, especially the former. After the marshes have been mowed one season, or at most two, they produce no more grass. The Bog-moss (_Sphagnum_) overruns them, and renders them barren. Surely this extensive country might be as well cultivated as Helsingland, which is equally mountainous, and in other respects less fit for improvement than this. I have noticed large tracts of loose bog or moss land, which I am persuaded would make excellent meadows, if any drain, though ever so small, were made to carry off the water. This, I was told, had been tried in some instances, but that no grass grew on the land in consequence of it; on the contrary, the whole was dried up and barren. This arises from the turfy roots of the rushy tribe of plants, which, though killed by the draining, still occupy the ground.

As to the pine forests, if the superfluous part of them were felled, and birch trees permitted to grow in their stead, a better crop of grass would consequently be produced. When the country is mountainous, this would be attended with less success; but with least of all where the soil is of the barren sandy kind (_Arena Glarea_), of which I have already spoken several times in the course of my tour. On such a soil, after the burning of a pine forest, nothing grows for the ensuing ten or twenty years. But might not even this dreary soil be improved by felling the trees, and leaving them to rot upon the ground, so as to form in process of time a layer of vegetable mould? In Scania, Buck-wheat (_Polygonum Fagopyrum_) is sown on a sandy soil, but here the climate is too severe. Yet perhaps some other plant might be found to cultivate even here. It would be very desirable to discover some means of eradicating the Bog-moss.

The reason why the marshes prove barren, after the grass has been mown, is easily explained by considering the nature of the rushy plants, whose roots extend themselves gradually upwards, and choke the _Carices_ and other grasses, when the latter are cut down to the ground, so that their roots wither. Might this evil be cured by burning?

I wondered that the Laplanders hereabouts had not built a score of small houses, lofty enough at least to be entered in an upright posture, as they have such abundance of wood at hand. On my expressing my surprise at this, they answered: "In summer we are in one spot, in winter at another, perhaps twenty miles distant, where we can find moss for our reindeer." I asked "why they did not collect this moss in the summer, that they might have a supply of it during the winter frosts?" They replied, that they give their whole attention to fishing in summer time, far from the places where this moss abounds and where they reside in winter.

These people eat a great deal of flesh meat. A family of four persons consumes at least one reindeer every week, from the time when the preserved fish becomes too stale to be eatable, till the return of the fishing season. Surely they might manage better in this respect than they do. When the Laplander in summer catches no fish, he must either starve, or kill some of his reindeer. He has no other cattle or domestic animals than the reindeer and the dog: the latter cannot serve him for food in his rambling excursions; but whenever he can kill Gluttons (_Mustela Gulo_), Squirrels, Martins, Bears or Beavers, in short any thing except Foxes and Wolves, he devours them. His whole sustenance is derived from the flesh of these animals, wild fowl, and the reindeer, with fish and water. A Laplander, therefore, whose family consists of four persons, including himself, when he has no other meat, kills a reindeer every week, three of which are equal to an ox; he consequently consumes about thirty of those animals in the course of the winter, which are equal to ten oxen, whereas a single ox is sufficient for a Swedish peasant.

The peasants settled in this neighbourhood, in time of scarcity eat chaff, as well as the inner bark of pine trees separated from the scaly cuticle. They grind and then bake it in order to render it fit for food. A part is reserved for their cattle, being cut obliquely into pieces of two fingers' breadth, by which the fodder of the cows, goats, and sheep is very much spared. The bark is collected at the time when the sap rises in the tree, and, after being dried in the sun, is kept for winter use. They grind it into meal, bake bread of it, and make grains to feed swine upon, which render those animals extremely fat, and save a great deal of corn.

The Laplanders dye their wool red chiefly with the Blood-root or Tormentil, _Tormentilla erecta_. A red colour is given to their leather by means of fir bark. The men wear a kind of trowsers which reach down to their feet, and are tied round their half boots, so as to keep out water. They wear no shirt nor stockings. The waistband is fastened by thongs, not buttons.

As to the diseases of these people, I was informed here that fevers are very rare indeed, and that the smallpox is also of unfrequent occurrence. Hence, when it does come, many old people with grey hairs fall a sacrifice to the latter disorder, which however is not widely communicated, any more than fever, because of the very thin population. Of intermittent fever I met with only one example, and of _calculus_ another. They cure a cough by sulphur laid on the lighted fungus which serves them as tinder, or on the fire, the smoke of which inhaled into the lungs is esteemed a specific; but it is a very fallacious one. For the headache a small bit of the aforesaid fungus is laid on the place where the pain is most violent, and, being set on fire, it burns slowly till the part is excoriated. This therefore is the _Moxa_ of the Laplanders. In case of a _prolapsus uvulae_ they cut off the protuberance with a pair of scissars. For the colic or belly-ache they rub the nails with salt, besides which they administer oil internally.

I here satisfied myself about the native species of _Angelica_, which are two only, not three. The Bi[oe]rnstut is _Angelica sylvestris_, the Botsk _A. Archangelica_. (See _Flora Lapponica, n. 101, 102_.)

The bountiful provision of Nature is evinced in providing mankind with bed and bedding even in this savage wilderness. The great Hair-moss (_Polytrichum commune_), called by the Laplanders Romsi, grows copiously in their damp forests, and is used for this purpose. They choose the starry-headed plants, out of the tufts of which they cut a surface as large as they please for a bed or bolster, separating it from the earth beneath; and although the shoots are scarcely branched, they are nevertheless so entangled at the roots as not to be separable from each other. This mossy cushion is very soft and elastic, not growing hard by pressure; and if a similar portion of it be made to serve as a coverlet, nothing can be more warm and comfortable. I have often made use of it with admiration; and if any writer had published a description of this simple contrivance, which necessity has taught the Laplanders, I should almost imagine that our counterpanes were but an imitation of it. They fold this bed together, tying it up into a roll that may be grasped by a man's arms, which if necessary they carry with them to the place where they mean to sleep the night following. If it becomes too dry and compressed, its former elasticity is restored by a little moisture.

_June 6._

In order to observe how fast the water rose in the river, which was increasing daily, I had fixed a perpendicular stick the preceding evening at eight o'clock close to the margin of the stream. This morning at five it had gained a foot in depth and two feet in breadth. Near the bank, which is continually undermining in some part or other by the current, stones are found incrusted with sand, coagulated as it were about them by means of iron. Some of them seem as if they had been blown to pieces with gunpowder.

I was told that the peasants had in the winter preceding foretold an unusual rise of the river, and a great flood, in the course of this summer, which when it happens is a considerable detriment to those whose pasture grounds are overflowed by it. Their mode of judging is by the swelling of the stream in winter, to which they observe that in the ensuing summer always to bear a proportion.

The colonists settled in Lapmark sow a great deal of turnip seed, which frequently succeeds very well and produces a plentiful crop. The native Laplanders are so fond of this root, that they will often give a cheese in exchange for a turnip; than which nothing can be more foolish.

At Gr[:a]no I met with perfectly white flowers of the Dog's Violet (_Viola canina_): also _Bistorta alpina sobolifera_, or more properly perhaps _vivipara_ (_Polygonum viviparum_), as the bulbs had grown out into small leaves.

Rain fell in the night, accompanied with thunder and lightning.

_June 7._

Early in the morning I left Gr[:a]no, and in passing through the forest observed on the Juniper magnificent specimens of that gelatinous substance, about which and its heroic virtues in curing the jaundice so much has been said[37]. I picked up a curious insect which I then named _Cantharis niger maculatus et undulatus_ (_Cicindela sylvatica_), and which I afterwards met with in great abundance throughout the pine forests of this province, though rare elsewhere, flying or running with great celerity along the roads and paths. Here also it was my fortune to see a rare bird not hitherto described. If I am not mistaken, it is what Professor Rudbeck called _Pica Lapponum_. I could only examine it through my spying-glass, but I perceived all the characters of a _Turdus_, so that I do not scruple to define it _Turdus caud[^a]_, _rubr[^a] medio cinere[^a]_. It had moreover the flight and voice of a _Turdus_, screaming in the same manner. Towards evening I noticed a black sort of Plover, with legs of a yellowish green, and had also an opportunity of killing a Lomm (_Colymbus arcticus_), which I stuffed, and of which I made a description in my ornithological manuscript. The bill was not toothed.

[37] _Tremella juniperina_ of Linnaeus, _T. Sabinae_ of Dickson: see
_English Botany, v. 10, t. 710_, which I am persuaded is merely an
exudation from the shrub that bears it.

Towards evening I reached Stocknasmark and Iamtboht, where grew the pretty little _Cameraria_ of Ruppius and Dillenius (_Montia fontana_), a plant that had never fallen in my way before. In K[:a]llheden it was peculiarly abundant, and afterwards I found it common throughout Westbothnia. It is one of the smallest of plants.

The Laplanders in this neighbourhood had set traps to catch squirrels. Each consists of a piece of wood cloven half way down, and baited with a piece of dried fungus with which the animal is enticed. The fungus used for this purpose is an Agaric with a bulbous stalk and crimson cap (_A. integer [beta]. Sp. Pl._).

In the huts I observed suspended over the tables two tails of the great female Wood Grous (_Tetrao Urogallus_), spread so as to make a kind of circular fan, which had a handsome appearance.

The Little Cotton-Grass (_Eriophorum alpinum_) and the _Mesomora_ (_Cornus suecica_) grow abundantly in this neighbourhood. About the water were several _Ephemerae_. I also caught a little insect of the beetle (or coleopterous) kind, the shells of which were red, the thorax blue with a red margin, the whole shining with a tinge of gold. In Lapland are scarcely any fleas, no bugs, though plenty of lice, nor any frogs nor serpents.

_June 8._

Very early in the morning I set out again on my journey, and in my way examined the Palmated Orchis with a green or pale flower, differing from all others in the shape of its nectary, which is like a bag and not a spur. Hence I have referred it to _Satyrium_ (_S. viride_). It connects that genus with the real _Orchides_ with palmate bulbs[38].

[38] The more correct characters, founded by Haller and Swartz on
the anthers, reduce this plant very successfully to the genus
_Orchis_, with _Satyrium hircinum_ likewise.

I remarked that all the women hereabouts feed their infants by means of a horn, nor do they take the trouble of boiling the milk which they thus administer, so that no wonder the children have worms. I could not help being astonished that these peasants did not suckle their children.

About four o'clock in the afternoon I found myself once more at the town of Umoea. Large flies like gnats with great black wings were flying about in the air, which I had before taken, May 27, for some species of _Musca_; but their peculiar flight now gave me another opinion, which was strengthened by the form of their poisers (_halteres_) and the round entire figure of their wings. (_Empis borealis_). Here I found a curious Ladybird (_Coccinella trifasciata_) of an orange colour, with oblong, not round, spots.

A remarkable change had taken place in the appearance of the country during the fortnight which had elapsed since I was here before. The Aspen trees were then quite leafless; now they were in full foliage; the grass was very dry, and about a quarter (of an ell?) high.

It is a general practice throughout Lapland in the autumn to set traps in the more unfrequented parts of the woods to catch the Wood Grous (_Urogallus_). Some of these traps were still remaining, but I could never properly observe their construction till I met with one in the course of this day's journey. This machine consists of six parallel pieces of wood, each at a little distance from the next, and all joined together by a transverse piece at each end. Over them the twig of a tree is placed horizontally, one end of it being fastened to the frame, the other introduced into a loop holding a weight. An upright splinter of wood is made to support this twig in an arched position, so that when the bird goes under it to roost, or otherwise touches the splinter, the latter falls down, and the bird is caught.

This being a day of public thanksgiving, I remained at Umoea.

Agues are very uncommon in this country, but St. Anthony's fire seems to be proportionably more frequent, insomuch that every body complains of being troubled with it. At Upsal and Stockholm agues are common, and at Lund acute fevers terminate in that complaint.

Throughout Lycksele Lapland there are no other domestic animals than Reindeer and Dogs. The latter are generally of a hoary grey colour, and a middling size.

The Laplanders use no artificial beverage.

_June 9._

Near the town of Umoea, in a springy spot on the side of a hill, I met with three or four curious species of moss.

1. A kind of _Hypnum_ or _Polytrichum_, with a branched stem bearing flowers in the form of shields. (_Mnium fontanum Sp. Pl. Bartramia fontana Fl. Brit._ The male plant.)

From the root arises an oblique stem (a) about half an inch long, entirely clothed with very sharp-pointed leaves. From thence the main stem (b) grows perpendicularly to the height of an inch, of a purple colour, clothed with ovate, acute, membranous, whitish scales, each half embracing the stem. Between the bases of these is a solitary line or rib, into which they are inserted in an alternate order. I imagine the oblique part of the stem (a) to be of autumnal or winter growth, and the upright portion (b) to have been put forth in summer or spring. At the summit of the latter stands a sort of blossom (c), composed of six scales, of which the three lower are opposite and shortest; the three upper larger, ovate, pointed, somewhat spreading, permanent, of a whitish green colour. Within these scales or petals is a flat, or slightly convex, disk, composed of innumerable very slender whitish filaments with reddish tips, much shorter than the surrounding scales. Can these filaments be the stamens? They are by no means rudiments of leaves. One, two or three branches grow out at the base of this flower, the latter being for the most part perennial, and go through the same mode of growth and flowering as the parent plant. The calyx therefore, contrary to the nature of the common _Polytrichum_, is proliferous from its base.

It is curious that all the flowers, in each tuft composed perhaps of a hundred plants, rise exactly to the same level. It is also remarkable that the new stems form a similar angle to that made by the growth of the preceding year (d), so that the whole assemblage of them is as regularly disposed as a body of soldiers.

2. This moss (_Bartramia fontana_, the female plant) agrees in many respects with the preceding, but differs in the following particulars. The roots or shoots of the preceding year are quite black, while those of the present season are of a paler or whitish green; nor are the scaly leaves so far remote from each other as that the red stem appears so regularly between them. The plants are also more branched, and less curved. In the last place, this is a fruit-bearing kind, having purple stalks two inches long, each of which sustains a globular head, larger than usual in mosses, bent obliquely, and of a green colour. The _calyptra_ or veil is remarkably small, smooth, and membranous.

3. is a moss (_Bryum bimum Fl. Brit. Engl. Bot. t. 1518._) whose stem and leaves partake of a blood-red hue. The latter are regularly and alternately imbricated, oblong, pointed; the upper ones forming a head at the summits of the branches, as in No. 1, but the disk is not exposed, for the lower leaves which surround it are the longest, and the inner ones shortest, just the reverse of No. 1. This No. 3 therefore is the male, and No. 4 the female, both found on the same plant[39]. The latter bears, on a long purple stalk, greenish at the upper part, an oblong pear-shaped pendulous head (or capsule). The veil is very small.

[39] Here we find the Hedwigian theory of the fructification of
mosses forestalled by the good sense and accurate observation of
Linnaeus, though out of respect for Dillenius he soon after adopted
the erroneous opinion of the latter, making what is really the male
the female, and _vice versa_. See Transactions of the Linnaean
Society, _v._ 7. 255. Not being able to investigate every point of
systematical and physiological botany thoroughly himself, he, with
amiable deference, often trusted to those who had more particularly
studied certain subjects.

5. is a small _Lichen_ or _Marchantia_ (_Riccia_) with oblong leaves, contracted in the middle, sprinkled with brown powder.

The annexed figure represents a large kind of gnat caught in the same place (_Tipula rivosa_).

_June 10._

(Here occur in the manuscript long Latin descriptions of _Rubus arcticus_ and _Betula nana_, which are printed in a more finished state in the _Flora Lapponica_, _ed._ 2. 170 and 274.)

_June 11._

Being Sunday, and a day of continued rain, I remained at Umoea.

_June 12._

I took my departure very early in the morning. The weather was so hazy I could not see the distance of half a gun-shot before me. I wandered along in a perpetual mist, which made the grass as wet as if it had rained. The sun appeared quite dim, wading as it were through the clouds. By nine o'clock the mists began to disperse, and the sun shone forth. The Spruce Fir (_Pinus Abies_), hitherto of an uniform dark green, now began to put forth its lighter-coloured buds, a welcome sign of advancing summer[40].

[40] Linnaeus, in the _Am[oe]nitates Academicae_, says the Swedish
summer is in its highest beauty when "the fresh shoots of the fir
illuminate the woods."

_Chamaedaphne_ of Buxbaum (_Andromeda polifolia_) was at this time in its highest beauty, decorating the marshy grounds in a most agreeable manner. The flowers are quite blood-red before they expand, but when full-grown the corolla is of a flesh-colour. Scarcely any painter's art can so happily imitate the beauty of a fine female complexion; still less could any artificial colour upon the face itself bear a comparison with this lovely blossom. As I contemplated it I could not help thinking of Andromeda as described by the poets; and the more I meditated upon their descriptions, the more applicable they seemed to the little plant before me, so that if these writers had had it in view, they could scarcely have contrived a more apposite fable. Andromeda is represented by them as a virgin of most exquisite and unrivalled charms; but these charms remain in perfection only so long as she retains her virgin purity, which is also applicable to the plant, now preparing to celebrate its nuptials. This plant is always fixed on some little turfy hillock in the midst of the swamps, as Andromeda herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her feet, as the fresh water does the roots of the plant. Dragons and venomous serpents surrounded her, as toads and other reptiles frequent the abode of her vegetable prototype, and, when they pair in the spring, throw mud and water over its leaves and branches. As the distressed virgin cast down her blushing face through excessive affliction, so does the rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and paler till it withers away. Hence, as this plant forms a new genus, I have chosen for it the name of _Andromeda_[41].

[41] Linnaeus has drawn this fanciful analogy further in his _Flora
Lapponica_. "At length," says he, "comes Perseus in the shape of
Summer, dries up the surrounding water and destroys the monsters,
rendering the damsel a fruitful mother, who then carries her head
(the capsule) erect."

Every where near the road grew the _Mesomora_ or Herbaceous Cornel (_Cornus suecica_, very minutely described in _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 39_. See also _English Botany, v. 5. t. 310_.).

All the little woods and copses by the road side abounded with Butterflies of the Fritillary tribe, without silver spots. The great Dragon Fly with two flat lobes at its tail (_Libellula forcipata_), and another species with blue wings (_L. Virgo_), were also common.

Various modes of rocking children in cradles are adopted in different places. In Smoland the cradle is suspended by an elastic pole, on which it swings up and down perpendicularly. The poorer Laplanders rock their infants on branches of trees, but those of superior rank have cradles that commonly roll from side to side. In the part of the country where I was now travelling, the cradles rock vertically, or from head to foot, as in the figure.

Close to the road hung the under jaw of a Horse, having six fore teeth, much worn and blunted, two canine teeth, and at a distance from the latter twelve grinders, six on each side. If I knew how many teeth and of what peculiar form, as well as how many udders, and where situated, each animal has, I should perhaps be able to contrive a most natural methodical arrangement of quadrupeds[42].

[42] Here the Linnaean system of _Mammalia_ seems first to have
occurred to the mind of its author.

I could not help remarking that the very best fields of this part of the country, in which from six to ten barns commonly stood, were almost entirely occupied with turfy hillocks producing nothing but Hair-moss, _Polytrichum_, and that quite dried up. Some of the barns were evidently in a decayed state; which made me suspect this condition of the land to be an increasing evil, and that it had formerly been more productive than at present. Indeed some of these tumps were so close together that no grass had room to grow between them. If the cause of this evil, and a cure for it, could be discovered, the husbandman would have reason to rejoice. Wherever these hillocks abounded, the earth seemed to be of a loose texture, consisting of either mud or clay. When I stepped upon them they gave way, and when cut open they appeared all hollow and unsound. I conceive the frost to have a great share in their formation, which when it leaves the ground causes a vacuity, and the turf, loosened from the soil, is raised up.

The insects which occurred to my notice this day, besides those above mentioned, were the following:

A black _Ichneumon_, like a Humble Bee, with club-shaped antennae four lines long, and blueish wings. Its mouth armed with a pair of toothed forceps. Thorax hairy, with several smooth spots interspersed. Abdomen depressed, ovate, rough at the base with greyish hairs, and furnished with a series of scales beneath, see fig. b. Feet pale red, otherwise the general colour of the insect is black. It lives on the willow. (This appears to be the _Tenthredo lucorum_, a species not preserved in the Linnaean cabinet.)

A small _Papilio_, of the fritillary tribe, with one silver mark underneath of the form of a shield. See it among those of Petiver collected in Portugal. (This must surely be _Papilio C album_.)

A greyish Butterfly with feathered antennae, whose female has no wings. See Swammerdam. (_Phalaena antiqua._)

An elegant little blackish Butterfly, besprinkled with snow-white spots like rings, smooth and polished on the under side, was very plentiful in the paths.

A black _Tipula_ was running over the water, and turning round like a _Gyrinus_ or Water Flea. (_Cimex lacustris._)

In the wells, the _Swammerdamia_ of Swammerdam and Lister ran about with great velocity. Among these was a very minute insect, which I could not ascertain.

An _Elasticus_, (_Elater_, probably the _aeneus_,) of a golden black, with striated cases to the wings, and geniculated antennae.

A reddish _Cantharis_, with black antennae, and light grey cases to the wings.

I now entered the territory of Pithoea. It rained about eleven o'clock for half an hour, otherwise the day was fine.

PITHOEA.

_June 13._

A very bright and calm day. The great Myrgiolingen[43] was flying in the marshes.

[43] What this word expresses I am unable to determine.

The country here is rather flat, yet now and then considerable hills present themselves, not very high indeed, but abounding in steep declivities. The stones about these hills were variegated, and as if inlaid, glittering with talc; many of them rusty, and spontaneously corroded. On one spot, in the road itself, is produced a brown pale-purplish earth, which is very likely to be useful for painting. The hill where this earth or ochre is found is called H['o]gmarkb[oe]rget.

At the post-houses of Gremers-mark and Sela, I was told of a mountain about two miles distant, reported to contain copper. Three years previous to my travelling this way, a man had been sent by the Board for Mining Affairs to investigate this mountain; but the peasants of the neighbourhood, in consequence of the threats of the burghers of Umoea, were deterred from giving him proper directions, and put him on a wrong scent. They kept this stranger from the knowledge of Hans Person, a peasant at Webomark, who would have conducted him right. The father of this Hans was the first discoverer of the mountain in question, and undertook a journey to Stockholm with a small barrel of the ore; but before he set off, his neighbours made him drunk, and took out the proper ore, replacing it in his barrel with lumps of granite. His son is now at all times ready to show the mountain to any one who inquires for it, and I had some thoughts of going to find out this man, though his residence was far out of my road. Learning however that he was not now at home, but employed somewhere at a distance in building or repairing a bridge, I thought it useless to inquire any further.

At some few places at which I stopped for refreshment in the course of this day's journey, I procured some of that preparation of milk called _S[:a]tmiolk_, by some people _T[:a]tmiolk_. In the neighbourhood grows the plant called _T[:a]tgrass_, or _Pinguicula_, with its most curiously constructed flower. When the inhabitants of these parts once procure this plant, they avail themselves of it during the whole year; for they preserve it dried through the winter, and use it as a kind of rennet till the return of spring.

Here also I learned another preparation of milk. After cheese is made, the whey is boiled and skimmed, which operation is repeated till a sediment forms as thick as flummery. This is afterwards dried, and kept in casks for use. It makes an ingredient in bread, and is called _Mesosm[:o]r_.

The fire-places here were furnished with a regular apparatus for boiling the kettle. The Laplanders in general content themselves for this purpose with a large stick, which they place obliquely in the ground, so as to lean over the fire, and on which they suspend either a kettle or a fish; but here they have adopted quite another mode.

A square beam (a) is placed perpendicularly, so as to be turned upon a pivot at its base. To this a transverse beam (b) is fixed by a peg or joint, so that its extremity may be moved up or down, and teeth are cut in this beam, to hang the kettle upon, at a greater or less distance from the upright support. Underneath is another shorter piece of wood (c), forked at the extremity to catch the lower teeth of the last-mentioned beam, and fixed likewise by a joint at its base, in order to be elevated more or less at pleasure. The advantages of this contrivance are many.

1, the materials cost nothing, whereas any iron machinery is
expensive.

2, here is no waste, for iron may be employed to more important
purposes.

3, this is capable of being raised higher or lower according as the
height of the fire may require, which an iron trivet cannot.

4, the iron trivet is troublesome to move about, which this machine
does not require.

5, when the trivet happens to lose one of its feet, it is no longer of
any use.

6, the circular part of the iron trivet must be proportioned to the
size of the kettle it is to support, but this machine will hold any
sized kettle.

The fields in this part of the country are excellent, being extensive and level, the soil consisting of sandy and argillaceous earth. The crops are abundant, provided the corn be not injured by frost, as it had been the preceding year. Owing to this misfortune, I found bread made of spruce fir bark at present in general use. The Buckbean (_Menyanthes trifoliata_) is very seldom used, on account of its bitterness[44].

[44] Linnaeus in the _Flora Lapponica, ed. 2. 53_, tells us that "in
times of extreme scarcity the roots of this plant, dried and
powdered, are mixed with a small quantity of meal, and serve to make
the miserable bread of the poorer settlers in Lapland, which is
extremely bitter and detestable." In the same work, _p. 259_, he
describes an excellent kind of bread made of the roots of _Calla
palustris_, which though acrid when fresh, become wholesome if
dried, and boiled afterwards in water, as is the case with its near
relation our common _Arum_, and the _Jatropha Manihot_, or Casava,
of the West Indies.

Flax is scarcely ever cultivated here.

In the evening I strolled out from the post-house at Bumoen towards the sea side in search of natural productions. The brooks close to the shore swarmed with innumerable little oval _Notonectae_ (Boat-flies), no bigger than nits (_N. minutissima_); as well as with the lesser ovate _Dytiscus_, shaded with grey, and known by its blunt cloven _sternum_. (_D. cinereus._) On the beach multitudes of black insects without wings, and half covered with shelly cases, were running about. (Probably _Cimex littoralis_.) There were also abundance of _Ephemerae_ (May-flies), all which had two prominent fore feet, and three bristles at the tail. I caught several, thus rendering their transient existence still shorter. They were of two species, one larger, of a blackish hue, with dark clouded wings (_E. vulgata_); the other about half as large, with a blackish thorax, and white wings. (This does not agree with any species in the _Fauna Suecica_.)

Not far from the shore, on a small elevation, where the trees and underwood had lately been burnt down, grew the Strawberry-leaved Bramble (_Rubus arcticus_) with jagged petals, a remarkable and elegant variety. (See _Fl. Lapp. t. 5. f. 2_.)

_June 14._

It rained very hard in the course of this day, as well as in the preceding night.

The cornfields hereabouts vary in soil, being sometimes clay or sand, sometimes a good mould, and often a mixture of all three. In general they yield some kind of a crop, whatever the weather may be, except it should prove severely cold, which is the ruin of the country.

The forests are beautiful, consisting of Spruce Fir, Common Fir, and plenty of Birch, so that no part of Sweden is more pleasant to travel through while the summer lasts.

The principal subsistence of the inhabitants is derived from selling deals. The price is sixteen silver styvers (about three English farthings each) for a dozen of deals. Tar is sold at six dollars, copper money, a barrel.

I wish those who deny that certain plants are peculiar to certain countries could see how abundantly the Birch, the Lapland Willow, the Strawberry-leaved Bramble, the Cloud-berry (_Rubus Chamaemorus_), and the Thyme-leaved Bell-flower (_Linnaea borealis_) flourish in this district, and how the _Ranunculus acris_ entirely covers the pasture lands with its brilliant yellow flowers.

On arriving at the post-house of Sunnanaen, I was gratified with the view of a fine river, and the very neat little town of Skelleftea, consisting of two principal streets and several cross ones, with a church. The houses are about three hundred and fifty or four hundred, and their white chimneys give them a cheerful aspect. I was informed that every peasant in the parish had a house of his own in the town, for the use of his family during festivals[45].

[45] In T[:o]rner's work on the Geography of Sweden is the following
curious account: "Skelleftea, a parish consisting of about one
hundred and fifty whole farms (in Swedish _hemman_), and containing
four thousand souls, is situated near a cove or arm of the sea, in
which is an island, formerly of considerable extent but now very
small. St. Stephen is said to have prophesied that the day of
judgment will come as soon as this island is entirely washed away.
The island certainly diminishes yearly, but every one must judge for
himself as to the probability of the prophecy."

Proceeding a little further, I remarked a steep hill near the road carefully covered over with boughs of spruce fir. On removing some of these, the ground evidently appeared to have been broken up, and apparently blasted with gunpowder. This should seem to have been done by some one in search of ore, of which however I could not perceive the least indication. I carried away a few specimens of the rock.

After passing the next post-house, I was ferried over a river about half way towards the third, when an Owl appeared, flitting every now and then, at short distances, before me. Laying hold of my gun, I ventured to take aim, though my horse kept going on at a good rate. It was a quarter past twelve at night, yet not at all dark. I was lucky enough to hit the bird, but in such a manner that one side of it was too much damaged to allow of stuffing and preserving the specimen. (This was the _Strix Ulula_, the Latin description of which, made on the spot, is given, somewhat, corrected, in the _Fauna Suecica_; but the annexed sketch is too great a curiosity to be suppressed).

Just as I was about to draw up a description of this Owl, a little Beetle crept out of its plumage. It was evidently a _Scarabaeus_ by its antennae. The whole body was oblong, shaded with blue and black; the belly white. When touched or alarmed, it lay perfectly still. (Probably _Dermestes murinus_.)

Near the road lay a trap to catch Salmon, made of long slender laths, bound together with six flexible twigs of osier into a cylindrical form, open at the base, and furnished with twigs in that part placed like the wires of a mousetrap, but in a double row, that they might be so much the stronger. The open space between them was enough to admit a man's head. On one side further on was a door to take out the fish when caught.

_Oniscus aquaticus_ was in the water.

The Dean of Skelleftea told me an anecdote of a Laplander who, at the last court of justice held there, summoned his neighbour for having twice as much land, without paying any greater share of taxes than himself. The man summoned was of course sentenced to pay double what he paid before. This provoked him so much, that he immediately gave information of a vein of silver on his own estate, in consequence of which he was, by the fundamental laws of the realm, exempt from all taxes whatsoever. He then went to his adversary in triumph, exclaiming, "See how matters go now! I am exempt from taxes, but how is it with you?"

_June 15._

This day afforded me nothing much worthy of notice. The sea in many places came very near the road, lashing the stony crags with its formidable waves. In some parts it gradually separated small islands here and there from the main land, and in others manured the sandy beach with mud. The weather was fine.

In one marshy spot grew what is probably a variety of the Cranberry (_Vaccinium Oxycoccus_), differing only in having extremely narrow leaves, with smaller flowers and fruit than usual. The common kind was intermixed with it, but the difference of size was constant. The _Pinguicula_ grew among them, sometimes with round, sometimes with more oblong leaves.

The Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_) presented itself most commonly with red flowers, more rarely with flesh-coloured ones. _Myrica Gale_, which I had not before met with in Westbothnia, grew sparingly in the marshes.

In the evening, a little before the sun went down, I was assailed by such multitudes of gnats as surpass all imagination. They seemed to occupy the whole atmosphere, especially when I travelled through low or damp meadows. They filled my mouth, nose and eyes, for they took no pains to get out of my way. Luckily they did not attack me with their bites or stings, though they almost choked me. When I grasped at the cloud before me, my hands were filled with myriads of these insects, all crushed to pieces with a touch, and by far too minute for description. The inhabitants call them Knort, or Knott, (_Culex reptans_, by mistake called _C. pulicaris_ in _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 382_.)

Just at sunset I reached the town of Old Pithoea, having previously crossed a broad river in a ferry boat. Near this spot stood a gibbet, with a couple of wheels, on which lay the bodies of two Finlanders without heads. These men had been executed for highway robbery and murder. They were accompanied by the quartered body of a Laplander, who had murdered one of his relations.

Immediately on entering the town I procured a lodging, but had not been long in bed before I perceived a glare of light on the wall of my chamber. I was alarmed with the idea of fire; but, on looking out of the window, saw the sun rising, perfectly red, which I did not expect would take place so soon. The cock crowed, the birds began to sing, and sleep was banished from my eyelids.

_June 16._

This morning I made an excursion to the northward, in order to examine a well, reported to be of a mineral nature. It is situated about half a quarter of a mile from Old Pithoea, and seemed to me only a common cold spring, having no taste, nor could I perceive any ochre about it, nor any silvery film on its surface. In the road to this spring stands a steep hill called _Brevikberget_, which I climbed with great difficulty. In the clefts of the rock lay several wings of young ravens and crows, with feet of hares, &c. "See," said I to my companion, "here has been the nest of an Eagle Owl!" On arriving at the next crag, a little higher up, we discovered a pair of birds of this species (_Strix Bubo_) sitting in a hollow of the rock. Their eyes sparkled like fire, for the iris in each of them was luminous in itself, like touchwood, glow-worms, or rotten fish. These birds were as large as young geese. I durst not venture to attack them with my hands; but approaching them with a stake, I then first perceived they were almost full grown, though not yet able to fly. The extent of their wings when spread was four feet; their colour blackish, with red-brown spots; their plumage very soft down, of a blackish hue tipped with white, mixed with sprouting quills. The smaller feathers were underneath of a reddish brown, marked with very narrow curved lines. The hue of the larger feathers, especially of the breast, where they were most apparent, was a brick colour, each being marked with a black indented longitudinal stripe. The feathers over the eyelids were small and black; upper part of the cheeks dark coloured, lower whitish. The wings and tail were not yet come to their full growth, but their quill feathers were blackish, with roundish red-brown spots. Feet like those of a hare, red-brown and downy, with naked claws. Bill black, the cere or membrane at its base black, accompanied by whitish whiskers. Nostrils at the fore part of the cere, roundish, separated by an oblique partition. Throat white. Iris of the eye round, large, saffron-coloured, with a very large blueish-black pupil. The ears were large, and I could have wished they had fallen under the inspection of an able anatomist, as they would certainly have afforded him matter for curious observation. The bones called the _stapes_, _incus_, &c., as well as the _cochlea_, were of large proportions. The eyes also were large and prominent, dilated at their base like an onion. When the white outer coat was removed, which was easily accomplished, the cornea appeared of considerable thickness, in which, when in a room, external objects were very accurately delineated, but not so abroad. The crystalline lens was remarkably soft, and scarcely of more consistency than the vitreous humour. The _tunica arachnoidea_ was very conspicuous, filled with innumerable vessels, and of such firmness as to be very easily separable from the cornea. In the middle, near the optic nerve, it looked red from the number of blood-vessels, but the sides were of a blueish black. There were two orifices at the larger corner of the eye.

On this same mountain grew in abundance a kind of _Muscus lichenoides_ of a greyish black colour, as if scorched or burnt, different from what authors have described, being more coriaceous and greenish, while that is black and brittle, almost like burnt paper, and smooth underneath; whereas the plant I here observed has the under side entirely covered with fibres like little roots. (This was the true _Lichen velleus_ of Linnaeus, preserved in his herbarium, and figured in Dillenius, _tab. 82. f. 5_. See _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 360_.)

The branches of Spruce Fir here began to show that appearance to which Clusius, if my memory does not deceive me, has given the name of _Pinus nodosa_. These knots consist of innumerable little plates, looking as if all the buds had been cut short, and platted together. In the inside is lodged a great mass of very small oblong insects, or rather eggs.

_June 17._

Although I walked about a good deal, and was not inattentive to what came in my way, I met with nothing peculiarly worthy of notice. On the grass I frequently observed that substance like saliva, which the common people call Frog-spittle, and which envelops a little pale flesh-coloured insect like a small Grasshopper. This insect, though not arrived at maturity, moved in some degree, and showed sufficient signs of the family to which it belonged, though it was not yet old enough to cut capers. I removed the frothy moisture from some of these insects, and on returning to them in the course of an hour, I found them covered as before; a proof of the origin of the froth, which is produced by the animal for the purpose of protecting its tender skin against the violent heat of the sun.

Whilst I was busied in these observations, a number of cattle came running over the fields with the greatest velocity. Even the most miserably lean cows, which one would think scarcely able to drag one leg after another, went skipping along like does. _Hic pauper cornua sumit_[46]. They twisted their tails round and round, and went bounding and frisking about, till they at length reached a puddle, where they stopped all at once, as having found a sure asylum against the enemy that had put them to flight. Anxious to investigate what it could be that excited such extraordinary agitation, and prompted such exertions as neither the whip nor the fear of immediate death could occasion, I discovered it to be an insect which I had already met with lower down in the country, and which is no other than an _Oestrus_ or Gad-fly, (_Asilus crabroniformis_). Our Natural Historians confound the _Oestrus_ with the _Tabanus_, which are as distinct from each other as a hare from a bear[47]. Cattle indeed are as much incommoded by the _Broms_ (_Tabanus bovinus_) as by the very worst of the Fly or _Musca_ tribe, to which the _Tabanus_ certainly belongs; but by the _Oestrus_ (_Asilus_) they are frightened out of their wits. This insect does not fix itself on the body of the animal, but on the feet, between the larger and smaller hoofs. As it scarcely ever flies higher above the earth than two or three spans, and in general not more than four or five inches, the cattle, when aware of it, run as fast as they can till they get their feet into water or marshy ground, in which situations they are free from danger. The habit of the insect is that of an _Ichneumon_, and it much resembles a Hornet, being of a yellowish colour, with a small sharp point at its tail curved forwards. See the figure and description of Frisch, and my own specimen.

[46] "Here the poor takes up horns." Alluding to Horace's "_addis
cornua pauperi_."

[47] By this comparison, and the subsequent allusion to an
_Ichneumon_ and a Hornet, Linnaeus at the present period appears to
have taken this _Asilus_ for one of the hymenopterous order, and he
even calls it an _Ichneumon_ in _Act. Upsal. ann. 1736, p. 29, n.
8_. The history of its attacking the feet of cattle is given in the
first edition of _Fauna Suecica_, 308, on the authority of the
country people, but is omitted in the second, probably because
Linnaeus found he had been misinformed. My learned entomological
friend the Rev. Mr. Kirby observes that the real _Oestrus Bovis_ is,
as has from all antiquity been believed, the cause of the
above-described agitation in cattle, who escape it by running into
cool damp places, which it dislikes to frequent.

_June 18._ Sunday.