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

June 13.

A very bright and calm day. The great Myrgiolingen<48> was flying in the marshes. 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 Hógmarkbœrget.

At the post-houses of Gremersmark 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 Umeå, 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 Sätmiolk, by some people Tätmiolk. In the neighbourhood grows the plant called Tätgrass, 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 Mesosmör.

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.<49>

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 Notonectæ (Boatflies), 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 Ephemera (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.<50> 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 chamæmorus), and the Thyme-leaved Bell-flower (Linnæa 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.<51>

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 someone 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 Scarabæus 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 principal clergyman 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 mainland, 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 Västerbotten, 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 Piteå, 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 Piteå, 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, hut 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 bluish-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 bluish 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<52> 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 Linnæus, 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 plaited 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.<53> 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 Gadfly, (Asilus crabroniformis). Our Natural Historians confound the Oestrus with the Tabanus, which are as distinct from each other as a hare from a bear.<54> 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.

June 18.

Sunday. The people brought me a peasant's daughter, a year and half old, who was deprived of sight, requesting me to say whether her complaint was a cataract. Finding the eyes well formed, without any unusual appearance, and quite free from specks or clouds, I was rather inclined to say the child had a gutta serena,<55> but was soon convinced that this could not be the case, as she evidently enjoyed being in the light near the window. But at the same time I remarked curious convulsive motions in the eyes, and that when the child was spoken to, and tried to look towards the speaker, they were turned upside down, so that only the white part became visible. She was born in this state. I inquired of the mother whether, when she was with child, she had seen any body turn their eyes in this manner. She replied that she was then in constant attendance on her mother, or mother-in-law, who was supposed to be dying, but afterwards recovered, and whose eyes were affected with similar convulsions. Hinc illæ lachrymæ; this was the cause of the infant's misfortune. I believe it was not originally blind, but that the focus was situated too much on one side of the eye-ball, so that vision was impossible unless the eyes were placed in a particular position with respect to the rays of light, as is observable in persons that squint. The natural situation of the eyes in the subject before me was partly under the upper lid, so that only half the pupil was exposed, and this was sufficient for vision in one particular direction only. I know no remedy for such a misfortune, except perhaps glasses, cut in a peculiar manner for this express purpose, might help it. I recommended however that the child's cradle should be placed with the feet towards the window, so that she might, though not at first without inconvenience, gradually acquire a habit of turning her eyes downward in pursuit of the light; for by repeated efforts anything becomes possible and easy. Bartholin's management of squint-eyed people is founded on the same principles.

After a violent storm of thunder with much rain, I went, about four in the afternoon, to the new town of Piteå, and examined several gardens, in order to learn what plants are able to stand the severe winters of this inhospitable climate. Among them were the Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba) and the Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita). Some young oaks had been raised from acorns the preceding year, the greater part of which were killed by the winter frosts. A few of them only had put forth a fresh shoot just above the ground. The apple-trees were almost entirely destroyed.

June 19.

I set out very early in the morning on a sea voyage to explore the natural productions of the tract called Skärgård and the islands belonging to it. The water a mile out at sea was scarcely salt, on account of the numerous rivers which here discharge themselves into the bay. No plants worth notice were to be found, though I searched carefully every place likely to afford any. Near the beach, where the tide often rises in winter ten or twelve fathoms, I observed an Alder thicket now white with little patches of Trientalis and Mesomora (Trientalis europæa and Cornus suecica), whose snowy blossoms were a great ornament to the shore. Ray therefore justly mentions<56> the latter plant as growing in maritime places in Sweden. Here likewise grew the Male and Female Lychnis (L. dioica), for the most part with red flowers, very rarely with white; as well as the Gramen miliaceum (Milium effusum?), and a Rush two feet high, with its sharp stem reaching a span above the panicle, which is lateral, and divided into three principal branches. Of this there was also a smaller variety. (This Rush must have been the Juncus effusus. See Fl. Lapp. n.117.)

The people hereabouts talked much of mountains haunted by hobgoblins, particularly the hill called Svenberget, situated between new and old Piteå; also of seas and fishing-places, where nothing is to be caught, unless by those who come unexpectedly. Their discourse moreover ran on that useful sort of witchcraft by which a thief is put to his wit's end and detected. The origin of these fables may partly be traced in history, and the rest is to be attributed to invention.

The fishes of this neighbourhood are the Crusian (Cyprinus carassius), the Miller's Thumb (Cottus gobio), the Bream (Cyprinus brama), the Asp (Cyprinus aspius) called in this part of Lapland Kuroupek, the Stäm (Cyprinus grislagine), the Three-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), the Laxäkel, a species of Trout (can this be the small or young Salmon, mentioned in Fauna Suecica n.345.?), the Rud (Cyprinus erythrophthalmus), and the Holken (what this last is I know not).

In the island of Longoen three miles from Old Piteå, I was lucky enough to find, growing under a Spruce Fir, the Coral-rooted Orchis (Ophrys corallorrhiza, Engl. Bot. t.1547.) in full bloom, which had never fallen in my way before. It is a very rare plant, and grows so sparingly, that, after finding one specimen, there is little hope of soon meeting with another.<57>

The root is throughout of the thickness, of a very small quill, white, smooth, fleshy, almost horizontal, branched and subdivided like a coral; the branches obtuse, and very slightly compressed; destitute of capillary fibres. Stem erect, simple, smooth, six inches high. Leaves none, except three sheaths, each longer and narrower than that below it, which reaches above its base, and all cylindrical, of a pale flesh-colour. Flowers generally about eight or ten, spreading in three rows, occupying an inch and half of the upper part of the stem; all equidistant, sessile, each with an acute scale at its base, cloven with an obtuse sinus. Germen oblong, striated, curved slightly outwards, but at length becoming erect and rugged. Calyx of three oblong, narrow, acute, purple-tipped, concave, equal leaves, longer than the petals, one of them being superior, the others inferior. Petals three: two of them ovate, adhering by their edges, constituting an upper lip; their summits reddish: the lowermost a flat, reflexed, obtuse, white lip, sprinkled with purplish dots near its base.

June 20.

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 verdigris-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 ovateoblong 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.<9>
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 Piteå 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.

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