June 21.

I took my leave of the old town of Piteå, and arrived at the more modern one of Luleå. 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 Moneywort (Linnæa borealis), though its flower is, not without reason, reckoned by everybody 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.<58>

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 Sedum (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 corn fields 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.

(Here follow, in the manuscript, sketches of the leaves, with Latin descriptions, of Salix 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 Källa, 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 ire 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 Elæagnus. (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 Piteå, 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 Luleå grew Ranunculus minimus parisiensis (R. reptans).

The new town of Luleå 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 Luleå, half a mile distant. Here I met with a curious kind of grass, which in Småland is called Kaffa skiægg, or Old-man's beard: at Piteå its name is Svinborst, Hog's bristles: and at this place it is known by the denomination of Lapp-här, 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 Småland. Many herbaceous plants grow here which are not to be found in Uppland, Södermanland, Östergötland, nor Skåne, though natives of Småland.

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 (antennæ).

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.<59>

June 23.

I went to see the old church of Luleå. 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.<60>

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 nowhere 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 Västerbotten 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 aost.
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 consistency is denominated mesosmör, and with meal is added to the preceding.
13. Sötost, 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. Mjölost, Meal Cheese, is milk coagulated with rennet, mixed with meal, and boiled.
15. Tatmjölk, is fresh milk poured on leaves of Butterwort, Pinguicula, as already mentioned.
16. Servet milk. See Aug. 10.
17. Gös-mjölk. See Aug. 10.
18. Lapmjölk, 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 the Nasaphiel silver ore, and the curious iron ore of Lulean Lappmark, 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 Jokkmokk, and is called Rutawari. I procured also from the parish of Piteå some pencil lead, or leadlike 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 Luleå, in order to proceed to Lulean Lappmark, and arrived at the river of Luleå. 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,<61> 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.

June 26.

I gathered Gramen paleaceum (Juncus bufonius), both kinds of Tetrahit (Galeopsis Tetrahit and G. versicolor, Fl. Brit.), Geranium (silvaticum) with a pale white flower. At Bredåker 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 Umeån Lappmark, especially in. 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 Västerbotten 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 Lappmark. Their fur is more valuable in proportion as they come further north.

1. The black is the dearest of all. From sixty to two hundred dollars of copper money are paid for one of these skins. People of rank in Russia use them for hoods or head-dresses. All their counsellors have caps of black foxes skin.
2. The rusty-coloured kind, with grey legs, sells for sixty dollars.
3. The cross foxes skins, black over the shoulders, loins and backbone, sell for three or four plates (rather more than as many shillings sterling).
4. Blue foxes are worth from six to ten dollars.
5. Red foxes, which are of a yellowish hue, and
6. White ones, fetch but three dollars each.

The Sting-gnat (Culex pulicaris) is a very minute insect, much the smallest of its genus, being about the size of a large flea, of a greyish or clouded white. Its sting is very severe, and leaves a blackish spot as large as that caused by a flea-bite. The wings of this species lie one over the other, as in (C. reptans) the kind already mentioned. In this part of the country, as in Umeån Lappmark, are many elevated fields of barren sand adjoining to the river, and sloping towards it, each of them divided into quarters by transverse ditches. The river has washed away one of its banks so far as frequently to form a perpendicular cliff, exhibiting strata of light-coloured barren sand, which must be supposed to have been deposited there by water, as they lie horizontally. The neighbouring alps must have been the original boundaries of the current, till the quantity of water decreased. Then the large river shaped out its course, leaving several smaller channels, intersecting what is now the adjacent plain, with islands between them.

Half way between Svarlå and Harns met with the (Pedicularis) Sceptrum carolinum, first observed by Professor Rudbeck. This stately plant was not yet in flower. It grew in a dry soil. In the neighbouring watery places grew a new species of Marsh Ranunculus, (R. lapponicus,) having a calyx of three pale reflexed leaves, five or six narrow acute rue-like yellow petals, more upright than usual, their claws each furnished with a scale. Stamens nine to twelve. Pistils six to twelve. Leaves commonly two to one stem.

June 27.

Near Harns is found a fine handsome blue clay, in some measure fire-proof; also a rare kind of iron ore.

The corn-fields here produce Echioides (Lycopsis arvensis), and the woods the most slender kind of Equisetum (sylvaticum). On the river's bank near Laxeden grew the Sorrel whose leaf is cut away in the middle, called Acetosa folio in medio deliquium patiente, (Rumex digynus,) but it was not now in flower.

On the other side of the river stands a Pine tree marked with the yearly elevation of the water, as well as its greatest decrease. In 1669 it rose eight feet perpendicular more than the present year, and in 1667 it rose still one foot higher; but since that time it has every year fallen more and more short of such an elevation. Not far distant is a mineral spring, which of all that I have met with deposits the greatest quantity of ochre. Its taste is highly astringent. Some persons have drunk the water medicinally, not altogether without benefit.

Near the river I noticed the Pinguicula, and everywhere hereabouts the Least Cotton-rush (Eriophorum alpinum).

The people here, who dread their children should be marked with that kind of spot called Eldmarke, which resembles a burn, as soon as the umbilical cord is cut, rub some of its blood upon the face, hands and breast of the infant, by way of prevention.

I was here told of a specific to destroy House Crickets (Gryllus domesticus), which consists of grated carrots mixed with arsenic. This they eat greedily, and are all infallibly poisoned.

We passed the night in a large sailingboat upon the river, in which we had performed the chief part of this day's expedition.

June 28.

In the morning we continued our voyage to Storbacken a mile and half distant, from whence we were afterwards obliged to walk five miles to Jokkmokk. This day indeed we only reached Pajarim,<62> where we slept all night in a smoky hut, ventilated merely by holes in the roof.

I found in the woods the (Erysimum) Barbarea, with a stem four feet high, but its leaves were neither so broad, nor so much auricled, as in the garden plant. Crooked pine trees were to be seen in several places, the under side of which is always as hard as box-wood, and this part is used for naves of wheels and the bottoms of sledges. Such wood is called kior.

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