Part 10

This day I examined two nondescript species of fish, belonging to the genus _Cyprinus_. The first is called Stemma (_Cyprinus Grislagine_). Its head is oblong and obtuse, black on the top, silvery at the sides, and white beneath. The back of the fish is also blackish; its sides of a shining silvery hue; the belly white. Eyes round and white, their _irides_ dotted, especially the upper part, which is moreover marked with a large verdigrise-green spot just above the black pupil. Nostrils round, accompanied with a pair of smaller roundish orifices. Mouth without teeth. Tongue blunt. Lower jaw a little the shortest; that part which covers the gills consisting of five connected, obtuse, not spinous, rays on each side. Dorsal fin solitary, of ten rays, the first of which is very short and undivided; the second twice as long, but likewise simple; each of the rest twice forked, except the tenth, which is only obscurely cloven. Tail forked, acute, of eighteen rays, one of which on each side is very long and simple, the others gradually shorter, twice forked, some of them still more subdivided. Anal fin of eleven rays, like those of the dorsal one, the external ones longest, as in that, both fins appearing forked when unexpanded. Ventral fins of nine rays each, one of them long and simple, the rest, as in the foregoing, gradually shorter, the last being cloven. These fins are not forked when unexpanded. Brachial (or pectoral) fins of seventeen rays like those of the foregoing, except that each is much shorter than its preceding neighbour, the ultimate one being scarcely discernible. Scales in seventeen rows on each side, including the dorsal and ventral rows in each reckoning, otherwise only fifteen. In the tenth row the lateral line is marked by a minute ovate-oblong dot on each scale of a silvery white, so that there are about fifty such dots on each side. The dorsal fin is blackish, the rest pale, the ventral ones very slightly yellowish.

The whole length is two palms and five lines.

From the nose to the dorsal fin three inches.

Base of the dorsal fin eight lines; its length thirteen lines.

From that fin to the tail three inches and five lines.

Length of the tail one inch and four lines; its diameter at the base seven lines.

From each point to the fork ten lines.

From the tail fin to the anal one, one inch, two lines.

Base of the latter eight lines; its length eleven.

From the anal to the ventral fins one inch, five lines.

Base of the latter eight lines; their length eleven.

From the ventral to the pectoral fin one inch, eight lines.

Base of the latter four lines, length eleven.

Length of the head one inch, five lines.

Greatest diameter of the body one inch, five lines.

The other fish was a smaller _Cyprinus_, of a yellowish silvery hue, called at Pithoea _Wimba_. (_C. Wimba._ _Syst. Nat. ed. 12. v. 1. 531_). I could not perceive it to differ in any character from the preceding, except that it had sixty dots on each side, so that though a smaller fish it had more numerous dots and scales. The colour of the back was paler, and less black; the sides of a pale silvery hue. Ventral fins reddish at the outer and anterior edges, as is the lower edge of the tail.

Both these fishes differ from the Roach (_Cyprinus Rutilus_) in the colours of their eyes and fins, as well as in being thinner at the back.

_June 21._

I took my leave of the old town of Pithoea, and arrived at the more modern one of Lulea. All along by the road side I remarked the curious manner in which the Fir blossoms. Its branches produce a fresh shoot every year from their extremity; by observing the series of which shoots the age of the tree can be accurately computed. They retain their original leaves, which are needle-shaped, for three years; but when these fall the same branch never acquires any more. The male flowers, each of which is a _corymbus_ of stamens, grow from the side of the present year's shoot, near its base; but the female ones proceed from the extreme point, and are round and red. Both kinds of flowers are however but seldom found on the same shoot.

In the Money-wort (_Linnaea borealis_), though its flower is, not without reason, reckoned by every body of the regular kind, its stamens indicate the contrary. They are four as in labiate flowers, two small, and two longer ones near the other side. Betwixt these the pistil is situated, being bent towards one side as in labiate plants. The upper lip therefore is to be understood as consisting of two lobes, the lower of three, though all the lobes are alike[50].

[50] In this instance the Linnaean system led to a true knowledge of the natural affinity of the plant, which one founded on the corolla would scarcely have done.

The bogs were now white with the tufts of both kinds of Cotton-grass, the upright and the pendulous (_Eriophorum vaginatum_ and _polystachion_). The marshes were clothed with the white blossoms of _Ledum_ (_palustre_). The Dwarf Bramble (_Rubus arcticus_) became gradually less abundant. The forests also were white with the _Trientalis_ and _Mesomora_ (_Cornus suecica_), which began to fade, and the Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_) was taking their place, along with the _Melampyrum_ (_sylvaticum_) and _Geranium_ (_sylvaticum_). The meadows were perfectly yellow with the upright _Ranunculus_ (_acris_), and some of the cornfields were no less so with _Brassica campestris_; but where the _Behen_ (_Silene inflata, Fl. Brit._) was beginning to shoot forth, the former withered away. The rivulets were white with _Menyanthes_ (_trifoliata_). The Cotton-grass and Willows now began to scatter their winged seeds.

DISTRICT OF LULEA.

(Here follow, in the manuscript, sketches of the leaves, with Latin descriptions, of _Salix phylicifolia [beta]_, _pentandra_, _caprea_ and _myrtilloides_, to be found more complete in the _Flora Lapponica_.)

Close to the shore, on the right of the ferry of Gaddewick, is a considerable spring, named Kall K[:a]lla, or Cold Spring, having a strong current and abounding with ochre, which is deposited abundantly along its course. The water bears a silvery film, and has a mineral taste, though not a strong one. It gushes forth with impetuosity, and never freezes in its course to the river, which is about eighteen ells distant. No high hill is near, but it springs from a swelling bank about two ells in perpendicular height above the level of the river. The mouth of the spring is towards the north-east. The inhabitants use it for washing.

In places near the highway, where the people had laid bridges, the soil appeared very thin. The gravel and sand were commonly about a span deep in moist places; in dry ones much more. The clay was often two ells in thickness, under which gravel again occurred. Between the dark-coloured sand and the clay, as well as where the clay terminated, especially near the sand, runs water, which deposits clay, as the abovementioned spring does ochre.

I noticed the following insects.

1. A large black Capricorn Beetle, variegated with a lighter hue. (_Cerambyx Sutor_, the female.) The horns were longer than the body, black, consisting of ten joints, each joint ash-coloured at its base. Body black, rugged, its wing-cases besprinkled here and there with clustered dirty spots. Abdomen cylindrical, covered towards the thorax with beautiful red lice, (_Acarus coleoptratorum_).

2. A minute black fly, with a roundish body and white wings, (_Culex equinus_). This infested the horses in infinite multitudes, running under their mane, and attacking them with great fierceness, being not easily driven off. (See its figure subjoined to the former.)

3. A grey Gnat, with striated wings, a blackish body, and black legs surrounded with white rings. (Mentioned, in the _Fauna Suecica_, as a large variety of _Culex pipiens_, the Common Gnat.) This cruelly tormented me and my most miserable horse. Its wings are whitish, appearing striated near the veins by the refraction of the sun's rays. The thorax was hairy, especially underneath. Abdomen oblong, dotted with black at the sides. All the other parts were grey. While the insect feeds, it raises up its hind feet into a horizontal posture. If I stooped ever so little whilst walking in the meadows, my nostrils and eyes were filled with these gnats.

_June 22._

I gathered a shrubby Willow, with lanceolate downy leaves like those of _Elaeagnus_. (This was _Salix arenaria_.) It is rather a large shrub, but rarely rises to the size of a tree. The leaves are furrowed along the course of the veins, and convex between them, slightly downy and of a greyish green on the upper side; clothed with snowy woolliness beneath. The lower scales of the bud nearly smooth above, and very green. Stem smooth, almost flesh-coloured, or pale brown; the young branches reddish, clothed with white down. (See _Engl. Bot. v. 26. t. 1809_.)

Near the new town of Pithoea, close to the shore, grew the round-leaved Water Violet (_Viola palustris_) with perfectly snow-white flowers.

The Dwarf-cypress moss (_Lycopodium complanatum_) is rather plentiful hereabouts, and is used for dyeing yarn. For this purpose it is boiled with birch leaves, gathered at midsummer. It gives a yellow colour to woollen cloths. On the shore near old Lulea grew _Ranunculus minimus parisiensis_ (_R. reptans_).

The new town of Lulea is very small, situated on a peninsula, encompassed by a kind of bay. The soil is extremely barren. Indeed the town stands on a little eminence, which is a mere heap of stones, with sea-sand in their interstices. It seems as if the sea had carried away all the earth, and, like a beast of prey, had left nothing but the bones, throwing sand over them to conceal its ravages.

I quitted this new town at one o'clock, there being nothing to be got; and as no horse was to be procured in the whole place, I proceeded by sea to old Lulea, half a mile distant. Here I met with a curious kind of grass, which in Smoland is called Kaffa skiaegg, or Old-man's beard: at Pithoea its name is Svinborst, Hog's bristles: and at this place it is known by the denomination of Lapp-h[:a]r, Lapland hair. (_Nardus stricta_, _Engl. Bot. t. 290_.) It was now in blossom. The root seems half bulbous, or as it were an aggregation of numerous bulbs. The leaves are bristly like a beard, and rough to the touch. The spike is unilateral, and scarcely thicker than the stem, composed of equally narrow alternate oblong scales.

The presence of this grass, as well as the whole aspect of the forests, marshes, cornfields, meadows, waters and herbage, evinced a great conformity betwixt this country and Smoland. Many herbaceous plants grow here which are not to be found in Upland, Sudermannia, Ostro-gothia, nor Scania, though natives of Smoland.

In passing over a meadow towards the water-side I heard something snap and crackle in the marshes, as if the water had been boiling. In several places the latter was dried up, so that mud only remained, and these spots were almost entirely covered with a kind of shell-fish which made the above-mentioned noise. I observed the same in several similar places, but in others none were to be seen till I had stirred up the mud, when it proved full of these animals, which seemed to have made their way deeper and deeper into the soil as the water had withdrawn. The same sound may be observed in a thousand places, originally dry, when the water has access to them, but I had never ascertained the cause till now. (These shells seem to have been the _Mya arenaria_, _Faun. Suec. n. 2127_.)

The _Swammerdamia_ flies of Swammerdam and Lister were flying about here, as numerous as atoms. I observed an insect unknown to me, with a yellowish globular body the size of a lentil. Amongst the grass were thousands of the most minute species of Gnat, (_Culex pulicaris_,) the males being distinguished by their hairy foretops (_antennae_).

The water swarmed with innumerable small fishes, just spawned, so pellucid that they were rendered conspicuous chiefly by their large eyes. The observer of nature sees, with admiration, that "the whole world is full of the glory of God."

This neighbourhood abounds with the _Stellaria minima_ of botanists, (_Callitriche_,) generally supposed to be very rare. It is evidently no naturally distinct species, but a variety caused by circumstances. Every one knows that the common kind always floats in the water; whereas this _minima_ never grows where water is actually present, but where it has been dried up in consequence of hot weather. Not being, therefore, able to sustain itself upright, it must creep, and becomes at the same time diminutive from a deficiency of its usual aliment. If any one doubts this, let him place this dwarf plant in a rivulet, or the larger one in a situation from which the water is retiring, and the result will remove every doubt.

The inhabitants here are frequently afflicted with the scurvy, whence arise ulcers of the mouth and _uvula_, ulcerous sores and swelling of the feet, as well as aching pains in the legs and feet, and dropsical swellings of the latter. It may be expected that the peasants will be most liable to these latter diseases on festival days[51].

[51] Linnaeus perhaps means, that they may have a pretence to avoid the drudgery of going to church, through some of the hardships he has already described; yet here the church seems to have been near at hand, and in itself not unentertaining.

_June 23._

I went to see the old church of Lulea. Close by the door I was shown a hole which the monks had formerly caused to be made in the stone wall. It was perfectly circular, sixteen lines in diameter, and terminated in an obtuse oval cavity. It was intended as a measure to decide in some cases occasionally brought before the ecclesiastical court. Within the church is a magnificent altar-piece, adorned with old statues of martyrs, in the heads of which are cavities to hold water, with outlets at the eyes, so that these figures could, at the pleasure of the priests, be made to weep. There are two pedestals, with an image upon each, whose hands are so contrived that, by means of a cord, they could be lifted up in adoration, as the people passed by them in entering the church[52].

[52] In Tuneld's Geography, I am told, is the following account of this church: "The parish church of Lulea is regarded as the oldest in Westbothnia, having been built in the very earliest ages of Christianity, and was very famous while the catholic religion prevailed in Sweden. It contains a remarkable old altar-piece, the gilding of which cost 2408 ducats. In the vestry a copy of the canonical law, in seven volumes folio, is still preserved."

A quarter of a mile to the north of the town is a mineral well, the water of which the dean and some other persons had used medicinally. The dean, who was gouty, had, in consequence of drinking this water, formed some chalk-stones. The well is situated in a steep mossy and marshy bank. Its water throws up sand as it rises, looks clear, ferments in a glass, with an iridescent appearance in the sunshine. It has a slight taste of vitriol, but is smooth in drinking. When shaken, it emitted a smell like that of gun-powder. A solution of galls turned it reddish, but the mixture did not stain white paper. Blue paper is not affected by this water. It deposits a great quantity of ochre, and the surface bears a silvery film.

This day and the two preceding, indeed every day since the 18th, had been bright, warm, and for the most part calm. The meadows were still fine and beautiful in their aspect, and every thing conspired to favour the health and pleasure of the beholder. If the summer be indeed shorter here than in any other part of the world, it must be allowed, at the same time, to be no where more delightful. I was never in my life in better health than at present.

The meadows in this neighbourhood abound with an arborescent willow, whose leaves are like those of an _Alaternus_, or a laurel. (_Salix phylicifolia_, _Engl. Bot. t. 1958_. _Fl. Lapp. n. 351. t. 8. f. d_). It is remarkable for the undulations, or flexures, between the serratures of the leaf.

The use of milk among the inhabitants of Westbothnia is very great; and the following are the various forms in which it serves them for food:

1. Fresh, of which a great deal is taken in the course of the day.

2. Fresh boiled.

3. Fresh boiled, and coagulated with beer, which is called _[:o]lost_.

4. Sour milk, deprived of its cream, and capable of being cut.

5. Sour milk eaten with its cream.

6. Butter, made, as usual, of cream shaken till its oily part separates and floats.

7. Butter-milk, what remains after the butter is made.

8. Cheese, made of fresh milk heated, coagulated with calves' rennet, then deprived of its whey and dried.

9. This whey being boiled, the scum which rises is repeatedly collected, and called _walle_.

10. The remaining whey is used instead of milk or water in making bread.

11. The same fluid kept for a long time till it becomes viscid, is preserved through the winter, and called _syra_.

12. The whey of cheese boiled to a thick consistence is denominated _mesosm[:o]r_, and with meal is added to the preceding. See _p. 197_.

13. _S[:o]tost_, or Sweet Cheese, is made of fresh milk boiled till it is partly wasted, and the remainder, of the thickness of pap or gruel, is eaten fresh.

14. _Mj[:o]lost_, Meal Cheese, is milk coagulated with rennet, mixed with meal, and boiled.

15. _Tatmj[:o]lk_, is fresh milk poured on leaves of Butterwort, _Pinguicula_, as already mentioned, _p_. 196, 197.

16. Servet milk. See _Aug._ 10.

17. _G[:o]s-mj[:o]lk_. See _Aug._ 10.

18. _Lapmj[:o]lk_, is milk mixed with sorrel leaves, (_R. Acetosa_,) and preserved till winter in the stomach of a reindeer, or some other animal.

19. The milk of the reindeer is placed in a cellar to prevent its quickly turning sour, in order to obtain the more cream; if it freezes, they thaw it again.

_June 24._

Midsummer day. Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and of spring, and for what is here in greater perfection than almost any where else in the world,--the air, the water, the verdure of the herbage, and the song of birds!

I walked out in the morning to botanize, but met with nothing curious, except _Arisarum_ of Rivinus (_Calla palustris_), the flower of which is described in my _Characteres Generici_; and the _Corallorrhiza_.

Here I was first informed of a disease which had made great ravages amongst the cattle in this neighbourhood, and which was of so pestilential a nature, that, though the animals were flayed even before they were cold, wherever their blood had come in contact with the human body, it had caused gangrenous spots and sores. Some persons had had both their hands swelled, and one his face, in consequence of the blood coming upon it. Many people had lost their lives by it, insomuch that nobody would now venture to flay any more of the cattle, but they contrived to bury them whole. As a preventative they had adopted the practice of swimming their cattle once a day, which they believed rendered the animals proof against the disorder.

I was told that the cattle grazing on a certain declivity at Tornoea die to the number of two or three hundred in the course of the summer. I must examine whether the cause of this may not be the Water Hemlock (_Cicuta aquatica_).

Could not meadows be freed from their wart-like tumps by burning? These swellings might be cut off with an oblique hatchet, in spring after the frost ceases, and burnt in a heap; their ashes would serve as a valuable manure for the corn-field. Sandy grounds are rendered fertile with bog-earth; clay with sand. _Ledum_ (_palustre_) is laid among corn in the barns, to drive away mice.

I here obtained some of Nasaphiel's silver ore, and the curious iron ore of Lulean Lapmark, called _gubbsilfver_ (old man's silver). The mine is not yet exhausted. The working of it had been for some time discontinued, but it is now resumed. It yields sixty per cent. It is situated a mile distant from Jockmock, and is called Rutawari. I procured also from the parish of Pithoea some pencil lead, or lead-like _mica_ (black lead) which blackens the fingers.

The weather continued extremely fine, which in the opinion of the common people portended a good harvest.

_June 25._

Sunday.--After divine service, I took leave of Lulea, in order to proceed to Lulean Lapmark, and arrived at the river of Lulea. I was informed that the salmon, which remain all winter in the Western Ocean, proceed gradually, as spring advances, up the river to this place to spawn. They enter the river about the middle of May, and reach this part of it by midsummer. Hooks have been found sticking in the side of some of the fish, which proved their having been here before.

The _Subularia_, a new _Melampyrum_[53], and _Pedicularis_ (_sylvatica_) with a white flower, occurred to me at Sunnerby. The white bog-moss (_Sphagnum palustre_) powdered, is applied to excoriations in the skin of young children. Towards evening I found in a sand-hill a loose kind of sandstone containing three per cent of iron.

[53] What this was does not appear. _M. pratense_ and _sylvaticum_ only have been found in Lapland.

_June 26._

I gathered _Gramen paleaceum_ (_Juncus bufonius_), both kinds of _Tetrahit_ (_Galeopsis Tetrahit_ and _G. versicolor_, _Fl. Brit._), _Geranium_ (_sylvaticum_) with a pale white flower. At Bredacker I noticed the _Conyza_ (_Erigeron uniflorum_ or _E. acre_), the purple-flowered Millefoil (_Achillea Millefolium_), and the _Cirsium_ (_Carduus heterophyllus_.)

The Laplanders boil all their meat very thoroughly, and treat their guests with grease, by way of dainty, which is eaten with a spoon. They milk their reindeer twice a day. Each gives not more at a time than half a pint, or at the utmost three quarters.

The natives of the country tan their leather with birch bark, buying hides of the colonists for this purpose. The hides, after being plunged into warm water, are buried in some out-of-the-way corner of the hut, and taken up every day till the hair begins to separate, which is then scraped off with a roundish knife. The recent inner bark of the birch, cut into small pieces, is then boiled in common water for half an hour; in which liquor, when partly cooled, the skin is immersed. On the two following days it is taken out, the liquor warmed, and the skin replaced. Afterwards it is dried in the open air in the shade. This leather is much better and softer than what the colonists themselves prepare, but these last-mentioned people are very tenacious of their own modes and customs.

Near the margin of the river various species of Willow, which I had already gathered and described, were growing in high beauty, and contributed greatly to the ornament of its banks. The neighbouring forests consist of pine trees intermixed with birch, but the latter tree is much less abundant here than in Umoean Lapmark, especially in Siodorne. Leaves of the Meal-berry (_Arbutus Uva-ursi_) are used in tanning or dyeing; which saves a great deal of alum. Many barrels of these leaves are sent for sale to Stockholm.

The Laplanders of Westbothnia give their young children the unripe berries of this shrub boiled, by way of a laxative or purge. Ten or twelve are the usual quantity, but the dose varies according to the age of the patient.

Several kinds of Foxes are found in Lapmark. Their fur is more valuable in proportion as they come further north.