A Tour in Lapland
August 4.
A reindeer may be driven in a carriage twelve (Swedish) miles in a day, or, at the utmost, fifteen; but the animal is generally killed immediately afterwards with the Laplanders' spears, and eaten.
The Laplanders are perhaps so called from the (Swedish) word lappa, to sew or patch together, because their garments usually answer to that description. The degree of cold is certainly greater on the alps than in less elevated regions; for instance, it is colder in Jämtland than at Tornio, though the former lies about one hundred miles further south. Thus it appears that the cause of the severity of the cold does not depend so much on the approach towards the pole, as on the elevation of the ground, which ought to be carefully observed. Hence the plants of the north of Lapland are such only as are capable of resisting the most severe and long-continued cold, and hence snow lies on the alps of Italy.
Alpine plants are, for the most part, perennial, except the Little Blue Centaury (Gentiana nivalis), and perhaps the Single-flowered Lychnis (apetala). I wish botanists would endeavour to discover and make known any new kinds of pulse or grain, especially such as are of a hardy constitution, and not likely to suffer from the severity of winter. Some are perhaps to be found among the grasses. It is necessary to as certain what degree of northern latitude they would bear, and whether they are capable of growing within the frigid zone. It is worthy of inquiry in what respects the Alps, properly so called (of Switzerland,) agree with ours of Lapland, as well as how far, and by what means, they are susceptible of culture. The descriptions that have been given of them may be consulted. The Greenland alps would also be worth examining, to see how far these different countries agree in their native plants, in varieties of situation, and in plenty of soil, compared with the proportion of rocks or large stones. Do they all agree in the diminutive stature of their plants?
The tranquil existence of the Laplanders answers to Ovid's description of the golden age, and to the pastoral state as depicted by Virgil. It recalls the remembrance of the patriarchal life, and the poetical descriptions of the Elysian Fields.
So many Finlanders crowded about me, that I scarcely knew what to do. They were all blear-eyed to such a degree as to be nearly blind. Many of them were perfectly deprived of sight, and ninety-nine out of a hundred that were so had their eyes shut. It seems in vain to prescribe any remedy for this evil, so long as its cause is everywhere so prevalent. This consists in their smoky dwellings. If I had the management of these Finlanders, I would tie them up to the wall and give them fifteen pair of lashes apiece till they made chimneys to their huts, especially as they have such plenty of fire-wood. This improvement in the comfort of their dwellings might surely be accomplished by the authority of the chief magistrate, for I have not been able to learn any sufficient reason for their adherence to their old way of building. If people thirty or forty years of age are thus afflicted, what must become of them by the time they are seventy?
The Finlander's scythe is represented in the annexed figure. The handle is rather above two feet in length, straight for about the space of a foot from the part where the blade is bound on. Afterwards it is slightly curved outwards, and then again, towards the apex, in some degree inwards, so as to make a straight line with the base. The top is thicker than any other part. The blade of the scythe is, like that used in our country, about a foot and a half long, and an inch and half broad, very slightly curved. Its back is, like that of our scythes, thickened on one side. The mower takes hold of the top with his left hand, so that the back of the scythe is uppermost, but grasps with his right the part where the above-described curvature ends, so as to be able to give the edge a turn upwards. As he moves forward, he mows first on the right, and then on the left, only turning his hands, and not lifting the scythe, but merely presenting each side of its blade alternately to the ground.
On the south-west side of the town, across a small bay, lies a mineral spring. The water is not ill-tasted. Indeed this is one of the best mineral waters I have met with in the north; but it lies very low, appearing to derive its origin from a stream that runs above, so that its water comes out soiled, as it were, from the earth, and is covered with scum.
August 5
Everybody at Tornio was continually talking to me of a distemper to which their horned cattle are subject, and which kills many of them in the course of the winter, but especially in the spring, when they lose from fifty to a hundred head of cattle almost every year. On walking to examine the meadow into which they are first turned out to grass, I found it a bog or marsh, where the Water Hemlock, Cicuta aquatica, (C. virosa, Sp. Pl, 366. Fl. Lapp. n.103. Engl. Bot. t.479.) grew in abundance, and had evidently been cropped plentifully by the animals in feeding. It seemed probable therefore that they eat it most in the spring, when first turned into this pasture; whence it proves so much more extensively fatal than in summer, when perhaps they only pick up a plant here and there. It grows in all the moist meadows which are mown for hay; consequently the cattle take it likewise in their winter food, and therefore perish, more or less, during that time of the year. We learn from Wepfer's experiments, who gave it to various kinds of animals, what violent symptoms it occasions. See his book. Nothing appeared to me so interesting, during my visit to Tornio, as to examine into the cause and remedy of this evil. If my ideas be right, the whole might be prevented by employing a woman for a month to eradicate all the Cicuta; by which this town, small as it is, might save above two hundred silver dollars. I was informed that the cattle dying from this cause become so infectious, that they cannot be flayed without great danger. The persons employed in that business have their hands greatly swelled by touching the carcase, and several have lost their lives in consequence. The plant in question, therefore, agrees in qualities with the nanthe, as it does likewise in place of growth and outward appearance, especially in the pinnæ of its leaves.<85>
The meadows, hereabouts, among the thickets towards the shore of the bay, afforded me the following plants.
1. Veronica (maritima), with an erect stem, branched in the upper part, and bearing numerous spikes. Lower leaves acute, cordate-oblong, sharply serrated, the upper ones lanceolate, serrated, two, three, or four together, opposite on the stalk. Corolla tubular, divided two thirds of its length into two lips, of which the upper is the broadest, ovate, obtuse, and nearly erect; the lower three-cleft, the middle segment narrowest, but all of equal length. Stamens two, very long, awl-shaped, situated at the separation of the two lips. Hence the flower is of the personate kind. Pistil reflexed. Capsule heartshaped, narrow at the upper edge. The flowers are numerous in each spike.
2. Celery, (Apium graveolens<86>,) unless I am much mistaken. The petals are white, spreading, and acute. The partial umbels are broad. The general one has very rarely one or two (leaves of an involucrum?).
3. Galium parisiense (uliginosum), with a square, furrowed, procumbent stem. The leaves are lanceolate, broader towards the extremity, acute, armed with little prickles as well as the stem. The flower is not tubular, nor the seeds prickly. The latter are white, as is also the flower. Four leaves grow together in the lower part of the stem, but in the upper part six. Under the little umbels of flowers are either four or two. 4. Galium album (boreale). Stem square, erect, branched, especially in the upper part. Leaves four together, sessile, rather broader towards their base, three-nerved, slightly reflexed at the margin. There are two leaves to each of the lesser umbels. Seeds two, roundish, joined into a didymous shape, downy. Flower not tubular.
5. Cruciata, if I am not mistaken. (Ga1lium palustre, that is, Cruciata palustris alba of Tournefort.) Leaves four, ovate-oblong, bluntish, narrower towards their base. Flower, I believe, not tubular. See what I gathered in the woody parts of Lulean Lapland. (This was the same species, as appears by the Fl. Lapp.)
6. Clymenum parisiense (Lathyrus palustris). Stem triangular, two of its angles ending in wings, or having a dilated cornpressed border. There are two little oblong pointed angular leaflets at the insertion of the leaves, which latter are pinnated, ending in a tendril, and composed of two or three pair of nearly lanceolate pinnæ. The flowers are violet-coloured, three or four on each common stalk.
7. Angelica tenuifolia (sylvestris), which I would define A. umbellulis globosis. The general umbel, though often naked, is commonly furnished with one, two, or as far as five, very slender leaves; each partial one has often as many as eight. It is curious that when the plant blooms vigorously, none of the stalks of the umbel can be seen, but the flowers form a complete ball, like the Double Guelder-rose (Sambucus opulus, fore pleno,) or the Globe Thistle (Echinops sphærocephalus). The petals are lanceolate and spreading. Stem striated, or slightly furrowed.
8. Cicuta aquatica of Wepfer (C. virosa above mentioned). I am disposed to refer this plant to nanthe, on account of its external aspect, which is wonderfully like the last-mentioned genus. I must examine whether their flowers agree. The footstalks are hollow, inflated, and erect. Pinnæ three, rarely four, pair, of a narrow lanceolate shape. Those on the stem have from three to seven serratures each, but the radical ones have more, all distinct; and sometimes the lowermost serrature, at the lower edge, grows out into a sort of spurious pinnula. The top of the stem bears from one to three umbels; the general umbel being naked, or rarely furnished with a solitary leaflet.<87> The partial ones have seven short, narrow, acute leaflets. The tips of the petals are inflexed.
9. (Pedicularis) Sceptrum carolinum. Its capsules are rose-coloured, its flowers yellowish white tipped with flesh-colour, and obtuse. The capsules are about equal to the interstices of the spike, which all together is about four inches long.
August 6.
The day of the holy sabbath, and therefore a day of recreation for both mind and body. I saw in the church (of Tornio) a memorial of King Charles the XIth's own observation of the sun on the 14th of June, 1694. The sun was visible on that night till very near twelve, when a small cloud hid it from the sight. It was however above the horizon.<88> In winter the sun does not rise above the horizon, but at the solstice it becomes visible. Could it be seen from the pole?
The young women in Finland have much more swelling bosoms than those of Lapland; the latter accord best with the description of the poet,
"Quales cruda viro puella servat."
(Mart. lib. 8. ep. 63.)<89>
August 7.
The town of Tornio stands on a small island, inhabited close to the shore on the south-west side. I call it an island, because it is bounded on the north by a swamp; on the south-east by the great river of Tornio; on the west and south-west by an arm of the sea, like a large river in appearance, but so shallow that no vessel can approach within a mile of the town on that side. This arm of the sea was formerly the king's road, (a channel obliged to be kept open,) but now it is almost dry in summer time, on the north side, towards the swamp.
I ascended the steeple from whence his majesty king Charles the Eleventh saw the sun at midnight on the 14th of June, 1694.
August 8.
Nothing worth notice occurred.
August 9.
Leaving Tornio, I proceeded to Kemi, where is a large salmon fishery, for which this place is remarkable, as Liminge is for its meadows, and Storlionis for its cornfields, but the last yield the greatest profit.
