Part 2

The northern bank of the river is nearly perpendicular. I wondered to see it so neat and even, which may probably be owing to a mixture of clay in the sand; or perhaps it may have been smoothed by art. Horizontal lines marked the yearly progress of the water. The sun shone upon us this morning, but was soon followed by rain.

Elf-Carleby is two miles and a half further. On its north side are several sepulchral mounds.

Here for the first time I beheld, what at least I had never before met with in our northern regions, the _Pulsatilla apii folio_ (_Anemone vernalis_), the leaves of which, furnished with long footstalks, had two pair of leaflets besides the terminal one, every one of them cut half way into four, six or eight segments. The calyx, if I may be allowed so to call it, was placed about the middle of the stalk, and was cut into numerous very narrow divisions, smooth within, very hairy without. Petals six, oblong; the outermost excessively hairy and purplish; the innermost more purple and less hairy; all of them white on the inside, with purple veins. Stamens numerous and very short. Pistils cohering in a cylindrical form, longer than the stamens, and about half as long as the petals.

We had variable weather, with alternate rain and sunshine.

A mile from Elf-Carleby are iron works called H[:a]rn[:a]s. The ore is partly brought from Danemora in Roslagen, partly from Engsi[:o] in Sudermannia. These works were burnt down by the Russians, but have since been repaired.

Here runs the river which divides the provinces of Upland and Gestrickland. The soil hereabouts is for the most part clayey. In the forests it is composed of sand (_Arena mobilis_ and _A. Glarea_). The post-houses or inns are dreadfully bad. Very few hills or lakes are to be met with in Upland. When I had passed the limits of these provinces, I observed a few oak trees only in the district of Medelpad.

GESTRICKLAND.

The forests became more and more hilly and stony, and abounded with the different species of Winter-green (_Pyrolae_).

All along the road the stones were in general of a white and dark-coloured granite.

I noticed great abundance of the Rose Willow (_Salix Helix_), which had lost all its leaves of the preceding season, except such as composed rosaceous excrescences at the summits of its branches, and which looked like the calyx of the _Carthamus_ (_Safflower_), only their colour was gone.

Near Gefle stands a Runic monumental stone, rather more legible than usual, and on that account more taken care of.

I noticed a kind of stage to dry corn and pease on, formed of perpendicular posts with transverse beams. It was eight ells in height. Such are used throughout the northern provinces, as Helsingland, Medelpad, Angermanland, and Westbothland.

_May 14._

I left Gefle after divine service, having previously obtained a proper passport from the governor of the province and his secretary. I was well received and entertained by the Comptroller of the Customs, L[:o]nbom.

At this town is the last apothecary's shop and the last physician in the province, neither the one nor the other being to be met with in any place further north. The river is navigable through the town. The surrounding country abounds with large red stones.

At the distance of three quarters of a mile stands Hille church. Here begins a chain or ridge of hills extending to the next post-house, three quarters of a mile further, and separating two lakes. On its summit, a quarter of a mile from Gefle, a number of different sepulchral mounds are observable, composed of stones.

The Fir trees here all appeared tall and slender, and were laden with cones of three different stages of growth; some a year old, not larger than large peas, and of a globular figure; others two years old, ovate and pointed; and the remainder ripe, with their scales open and reflexed, having been four years on the tree.

In the marshes on the left the note of the Snipe (_Scolopax Gallinago_) was heard continually.

At the distance of a quarter of a mile before we come to Troye, on the right, are the mineral springs of Hille.

Troye post-house, which Professor Rudbeck the elder used to call Troy, is surrounded by a smooth hill.

The road from hence lay across a marsh called by the people the walls of Troy, a quarter of a mile in extent, destitute of large trees. The Sweet Gale (_Myrica Gale_), laden with catkins about its upper branches, was abundant every where, as well as the Dwarf Birch (_Betula nana_). These form a sort of low alley through which the road leads. This _Betula_ had also catkins upon it, which are sessile and erect, not pendulous as in the Common Birch, about half an inch long and as thick as a goose-quill, situated about the lower part of the branches. The female catkins are more slender than the male, erect, and sessile upon the upper branches. Their scales ovate and almost leafy, green, pointed, three-cleft, with three pair of purplish pistils. Here and there grew the Marsh Violet (_Viola palustris_), with its pale grey flowers, marked with five or seven black forked lines on the lower lip.

In the forest on the other side of this marsh were many kinds of Club-moss (_Lycopodium clavatum_, _Selago_, _alpinum_, and _complanatum_).

A quantity of large stones lay by the road side, which the governor of the province had caused to be dug up in order to mend the high-way. They looked like a mass of ruins, and were clothed with _Campanula serpyllifolia_ (the plant afterwards called _Linnaea borealis_), whose trailing shoots and verdant leaves were interwoven with those of the Ivy (_Hedera Helix_).

On the right is the lake Hamr[:a]nge Fj[:a]rden, which adds greatly to the beauty of the road.

The morning of this day was bright, but the afternoon was diversified with sunshine and rain, like the preceding. The wind however changed from north to south.

On the mountainous ridge at Hille, above described, I remarked on the ends of the Juniper-branches a kind of bud or excrescence, consisting of three leaves, longer than when in their natural state, and three or four times as broad, which cohered together except at their tips. They enveloped three smaller leaves, of a yellow hue, in the centre of which lodged either a maggot or a whitish chrysalis. (This produces the _Tipula Juniperi_. See _Fauna Suecica_ 438, and _Fl. Suec._ 360).

I arrived at Hamr[:a]nge Post-house during the night.

The people here talked much of an extraordinary kind of tree, growing near the road, which many persons had visited, but none could find out what it was. Some said it was an apple tree which had been cursed by a beggar-woman, who one day having gathered an apple from it, and being on that account seized by the proprietor of the tree, declared that the tree should never bear fruit any more.

_May 15._

Next morning I arose with the sun in order to examine this wonderful tree, which was pointed out to me from a distance. It proved nothing more than a common Elm. Hence however we learn that the Elm is not a common tree in this part of the country.

I observed that in these forests plants of the natural family of _bicornes_ (with two-horned antheras) predominated over all others, so that the Heath, _Erica_, in the woods, and _Andromeda_[5], in the marshes, were more abundant than any thing else. Indeed we meet with few other plants than _Vaccinium Myrtillus_ and _Vitis-Idaea_, _Arbutus Uva-Ursi_, _Ledum palustre_, &c. The same may be said of the upper part of Lapland.

[5] It is a curious circumstance that Linnaeus in his MS. here has the word _Daphne_; but his remark is not in any respect applicable to that genus, and he evidently can mean only _Andromeda polifolia_. He had not as yet named either of these genera in print. The origin of _Andromeda_ will be explained hereafter, and the fanciful idea which gave rise to it had not perhaps at this time occurred. He therefore now either intended to call this plant _Daphne_, or he accidentally wrote one name by mistake for the other, having both in his mind.

The spiders had now spread their curious mathematical webs over the pales and fences, and they were rendered conspicuous by the moisture with which the fog had besprinkled them.

The Red-wing (_Turdus iliacus_), the Cuckoo (_Cuculus canorus_), the Black Grous (_Tetrao Tetrix_), and the Mountain Finch (_Fringilla Montifringilla_), with their various notes made a concert in the forest, to which the lowing herds of cattle under the shade of the trees formed a base. The weather this morning was delightfully pleasant.

_Lichen islandicus_ grows abundantly in this forest.

After travelling about a mile and half from Hamr[:a]nge I arrived at the river Tonna, which divides Gestrickland from Helsingland, and empties itself into the bay of Tonna. The abovementioned lake, called by the inhabitants Hamr[:a]nge Fj[:a]rden, extends almost to the sea. I was told it did actually communicate with the ocean. At least there is a ditch in the mountain itself, whether the work of art or nature is uncertain, called the North Sound, hardly wide enough to admit a boat to pass. This is dammed up as soon as the hot weather in summer sets in, to prevent the lake losing too much water by that channel, as the iron from several founderies is conveyed by the navigation through this lake.

HELSINGLAND.

I had scarcely travelled a quarter of a mile beyond the river when I observed a red earth close to the road, which promises to be very useful in painting, if it should prove sufficiently plentiful, and capable of being cleansed from its impurities. The people at the next post-house informed me that the same earth, but of a much better quality, was found in the parish of Norrbo.

The Common and Spruce Firs (_Pinus sylvestris_ and _P. Abies_) grow here to a very large size. The inhabitants had stripped almost every tree of its bark.

A number of small white bodies were hanging on the plants of Ling (_Erica_), of a globular form, but cut off, as it were, though not open, on the lower side, each about the size of a Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_), and consisting of a thin white silky membrane. A small white insect was lodged within.

There were also affixed to some plants ovate white bodies of a silky texture, apparently formed of innumerable silky threads. These contained each a small insect.

A little further on I observed close to the road a rather lofty stone containing in its substance large fragments of _mica_.

At last to my great satisfaction I found myself at the great river Liusnan. From this part of the forest to the sea the distance is three miles. Here and there in the woods lay blood-red stones, or rather stones which appeared to have been partially stained with blood. On rubbing them I found the red colour merely external, and perfectly distinct from the stone itself. It was in fact a red Byssus (_B. Jolithus_).

Many sepulchral mounds are in this neighbourhood.

Not far from Norrala, situated about a mile from the last post-house, the water in the ditches deposits a thick sediment of ochre.

Several pair of semicircular baskets made of wicker work were placed in the water, intended principally to catch Bream (_Cyprinus Brama_). Here I observed the Lumme, or Black-throated Diver (_Colymbus arcticus_), which uttered a melancholy note, especially in diving.

From Norrala I proceeded to En[:a]nger, through a heavy fog, as it had rained violently while I rested at the former place. Towards evening it thundered and lightened. In the course of this whole day's journey I observed a great variety in the face of the country as well as in the soil. Here are mountains, hills, marshes, lakes, forests, clay, sand, and pebbles.

Cultivated fields indeed are rare. The greater part of the country consists of uninhabitable mountainous tracts. In the valleys only are to be seen small dwelling-houses, to each of which adjoins a little field. Even in these there is no great proportion of fertile land, the principal part being marshy.

The people seemed somewhat larger in stature than in other places, especially the men. I inquired whether the children are kept longer at the breast than is usual with us, and was answered in the affirmative. They are allowed that nourishment more than twice as long as in other places. I have a notion that Adam and Eve were giants, and that mankind from one generation to another, owing to poverty and other causes, have diminished in size. Hence perhaps the diminutive stature of the Laplanders[6].

[6] The original is very obscure, and I have been obliged partly to guess at the sense of the intermingled Latin and Swedish. I beg leave to suggest that the deficiency of brandy among this sequestered people is perhaps a more probable cause of their robust stature, and even of their neatness and refinement, than that assigned by Linnaeus.

Brandy is not always to be had here. The people are humane and civilized. Their houses are handsome externally, as well as neat and comfortable within; in which respects they have the advantage of most other places.

The old tradition, that the inhabitants of Helsingland never have the ague, is without foundation. In every parish where I made the inquiry I found many persons who had had that disorder, which appears to be not unfrequent among them.

Here were plenty of Mountain Finches (_Fringilla Montifringilla_); but, what is remarkable, they were all males, known by the orange-coloured spot on the breast.

_May 16._

Between Eksund post-house and Spange is the capital iron forge of Eksund, which has two hammers and one blast furnace. The sons of Vulcan were working in their shirts, and seemed masters of their business. The ore used here is of three or four kinds. First, from Dannemora; second, from Soderom; third, from Grusone, which contains beautiful cubical pyrites; fourth, a black ore from the parish of Arbro, which lies at the bottom of the sea, but in stormy weather is thrown upon the shore. At this place, as well as further north in the same district, a kind of blueish stone[7] is used for building the tunnels or chimneys, which is considered as more compact and better able to resist heat than _Lapis molaris_ or _Pipsten_ (_Cos molaris?_). The limestone placed between the other stones was procured from the sea shore, and abounded with petrified corals.

[7] Probably _Saxum fornacum_, _Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12. v. 3. 79_.

Granite, I believe of all the different kinds existing in the world, abounds every where in the forests.

In every river a wheel is placed, contrived to lift up a hammer for the purpose of bruising flax.

When it is not wanted, a trap door is raised, to turn the stream aside.

Several butterflies were to be seen in the forest, as the common black, and the large black and white. Here I noticed _Lichenoides terrestre scutatum albicans_, (_Lichen arcticus_), which has larger fructification than the common _L. caninus_, with which it agrees in other respects, except colour. (See Linnaeus's opinion respecting this Lichen, in which however he is certainly mistaken, in _Fl. Lapponica n. 442_.)

By the road side between Nieutaenger and Bringstad, a violet-coloured clay, used in building bridges, is here and there to be met with.

On a wall at Iggsund I found a nondescript hemipterous insect. (What this was cannot now be ascertained.)

Between the post-house of Iggsund and Hudwiksvall the abovementioned violet-coloured clay is found in abundance, forming a regular stratum. I observed it likewise in a hill near the water which was nine ells in height.

The strata of this hill consisted of two or three fingers' breadths of common vegetable mould; then from four to six inches of barren sand (_Arena Glarea_); next about a span of the violet clay; and lastly barren sand. The clay contained small and delicately smooth white bivalve shells, quite entire, as well as some larger brown ones, of which great quantities are to be found near the water side. I am therefore convinced that all these valleys and marshes have formerly been under water, and that the highest hills only then rose above it. At this spot grows the _Anemone Hepatica_ with a purple flower; a variety so very rare in other places, that I should almost be of the opinion of the gardeners, who believe the colours of particular earths may be communicated to flowers.

I observed that the mountains, after the trees and plants had been burnt upon them, were quite barren, nothing but stones remaining.

The produce of the arable land here being but scanty, the inhabitants mix herbs with their corn, and form it into cakes two feet broad, but only a line in thickness, by which means the taste of the herbs is rendered less perceptible.

Hudvikswall is a little town situated between a small lake and the sea.

Near this place the Arctic Bramble (_Rubus arcticus_) was beginning to shoot forth, while _Lychnis dioica_ and _Arabis thaliana_ were in flower.

The larger fields here are sown with flax, which is performed every third year. The soil is turned up by a plough, and the seed sown on the furrow; after which the ground is harrowed. The linen manufactory furnishes the principal occupation of the inhabitants of this country.

Towards evening I reached Bringstad. The weather was fine, it having rained but once in the course of the day.

_May 17._

Continuing my journey at sunrise, I saw some sepulchral mounds near the church of J[:a]ttedahl. As soon as I had passed the forest, I overtook seven Laplanders driving their reindeer, which were about sixty or seventy in number followed by their young ones. Most of the herd had lost their horns, and new ones were sprouting forth. I asked the drivers what could have brought them so far down into the country. They replied that they were born here near the sea coast, and intended to end their lives here. They spoke good Swedish.

Near the post-house at Gnarp, to the westward, grows a birch tree, with more than fifty or sixty of those singularly matted and twisted branches which this tree sometimes produces.

MEDELPAD.

Between Gnarp and the post-house of Dingersj[:o] stands the boundary mark between Helsingland and Medelpad or Medelpadia, consisting of two posts, one on each side the road. Here I began to perceive the common Ling, _Erica_, to grow more scarce, its place being supplied by a greater quantity of the Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_). Birch trees became more abundant as I advanced. On the left of the road are large mountains of granite. At the foot of those rocks the whole country was covered with stones, about twice as large as a man's fist, of a greyish green colour, lying in heaps, and covered with a fine coating of moss, seeming never to have been disturbed.

I had scarcely passed the limits of Helsingland, when I perceived a brace of Ptarmigans (_Tetrao Lagopus_) in the road, but could not get near enough to fire at them. Viewed through my spying-glass, they appeared for the most part of a reddish cast, but the wing feathers were snow-white.

Close by the post-house of Dingersj[:o] grew the large Yellow Aconite (_Aconitum lycoctonum_), called by the peasants Giske or Gisk. All over the country through which I passed this day, it is as common as heath or ling. Not being eaten by any kind of cattle, it grows luxuriantly, and increases abundantly, in proportion as other herbs are devoured. Thus Nature teaches the brute creation to distinguish, without a preceptor, what is useful from what is hurtful, while man is left to his own inquiries.

To the north of Dingersj[:o], on the right hand of the road, stands a considerable mountain called Nyaeckers-berg, the south side of which is very steep. The inhabitants had planted hop-grounds under it. As the hop does not in general thrive well hereabouts, they designed that this mountain should serve as a wall for the plants to run upon. They were not disappointed as to the success of their plantations; for the hops were very thriving, being sheltered from the cold north wind, and at the same time exposed to the heat of the sun, whose rays are concentrated in this spot as in a focus.

At the distance of a quarter of a mile from the post-house, on the left, stands the highest mountain in Medelpad, according to the inhabitants, which is called Norby Kullen, or more properly Norby Knylen. It is indeed of a very considerable height; and being desirous of examining it more minutely, I travelled to Norby, where I tied my horse to an ancient Runic monumental stone, and, accompanied by a guide, climbed the mountain on its left side. Here were many uncommon plants, as _Fumaria bulbosa minima_, _Campanula serpyllifolia_ (_Linnaea borealis_), _Adoxa moschatellina_, &c., all in greater perfection than ever I saw them before. I found also a small rare moss, which I should call _Sphagnum ramosum_, _capsulis globosis_, _petiolus_ (pedicellis) _longis erectis_, if it may be presumed a _Sphagnum_, as I saw no calyptra. The little heads or capsules were exactly spherical[8].

[8] Linnaeus's ideas concerning the genera of Mosses were at this time in a very unsettled state. Could this be any thing else than _Bartramia pomiformis_?

After much difficulty and fatigue, we reached the summit of the mountain to the westward. Here the country-people kept watch during the war with the Russians, and were obliged to attend twice a day, as this place commands an extensive sea view. They had collected a great quantity of wood, on which stood a pole, with a tar-barrel placed transversely on its top. This was to be set on fire at the landing or approach of the enemy, being conspicuous for many miles around.

I brought away with me a stone, which seemed of a very compound kind. Every sort of moss grows on this mountain, that can be found any where in the neighbouring country. The trees towards the upper part were small, but some of considerable dimensions grew about the sides of the hill.

When at the summit, we looked down on the country beneath, varied with plains and cultivated fields, villages, lakes, rivers, &c. We saw the appearance of a smoke between us and the lower part of the mountain, which was not perceptible as we descended, being a slight mist or exhalation from the ground. The dung of the hare was observable all over the very highest part of the hill; a certain proof of that animal's frequenting even these lofty regions.