July 1.

Parkajaur, the first lake I reached after leaving the place where I slept, is a short mile in length. At its opposite shore rises the lofty peaked mountain of Achiekoivi, or Tornberget, upon whose summit the Laplanders used, in ancient times, to offer sacrifice, for the success of their herds of reindeer. The mountain still shows traces of fire. At the western end of this lake a Laplander resided, and from thence it was scarcely a quarter of a mile by land to the next lake, called Skalk, where as I passed near a waterfall, I found the Barbarea and Pedicularis, both already mentioned, also the Asphodel (Tofieldia palustris, Fl. Brit.) and the little Astragalus, see p. 159.

When I came to the lake Skalk in the way towards Kiomitis, about a mile short of the last-mentioned place, I was much struck with an opening between the hills to the north-west, through which appeared a range of mountains, from ten to twenty miles distant, as white as the clouds, and seeming not above a mile from the spot where I stood. Their summits reached the clouds, and indeed they resembled a range of white clouds rising from the horizon. They recalled to my mind the frontispiece of Rudbeck's Lapponia Illustrata. Mountains upon mountains rose before me in every direction. In a word, I now beheld the Lapland alps.

Arriving in the evening at Kiomitis, I saw the sun set apparently on the summit of a high mountain called Harrevarto, situated over against the house of the parish clerk. This spectacle I considered as not one of the least of Nature's miracles, for what inhabitant of other countries would not wish to behold it? O Lord, how wonderful are thy works!

July 2.

At Kiomitis I rested during the whole of this day, Sunday.

Here the beautiful corn was growing in great perfection in valleys between the snowy mountains. It had shot up so high as to be laid in some places by the rain. It had been sown on the 25th or 26th of May, as at Umoea.

I found in abundance Tripolium pratense, coronâ calyce breviori, or Aster folio non acri, flore purpureo; (Erigeron uniflorum, Fl. Lapp. n. 307. t. 9. f. 3.) The same occurred with a white flower. Also Euphrasia (officinalis) about its usual size, but with very small flowers; (a variety mentioned in the Flora Lapponica, n. 247, found likewise in Switzerland.) In the same neighbourhood grew the Tetrahit, both with small and large flowers, (Galeopsis Tetrahit, and G. versicolor, Fl. Brit.)

July 3.

Early this morning I went with Mr. Joachim Koch, quarter-master of the regiment stationed here, and Mr. Segar Swanberg, master of the mines, to the Kiuriwari, a high mountain half a mile from Kiomitis, where a silver mine had just been opened. The ore showed itself only in one cleft, whose sides it seemed to cement together.

All over this mountain I observed a kind of Uva Ursi with black fruit, which I do not know that any author has described. The flower was exactly like that of the Mealy-berry (Arbutus Uva-ursi); each stood on a simple stalk, and had five teeth at its orifice. The fruit was of five cells, globose, enclosed in the petal. (Arbutus alpina.)

I likewise found here a Catch-fly with ten stamens and five styles (Lychnis alpina), exactly similar to the common Catch-fly (Lychnis Viscaria), except that the flowers were smaller and not so much scattered, neither was the stem at all viscid.

Birch trees were to be found even on the highest part of this hill, but of a very diminutive stature. Their trunks were thick but low, and their highest shoots seemed to have been killed by frost, so that the young leaves looked as if they were growing out of branches that had been burnt. I was told that these trees afford every year but a very small portion of sap, and that the wood is much harder than the common kind. Such diminutive trees grow to a great age. The further I proceeded up the country, the smaller I still found them.

Some of the people hereabouts clean their half-boots and harness with the fat of fish; others purchase blacking from Norway.

July 4.

I met with an Andromeda with leaves like Empetrum (A. cærulea). The stem and foliage were exactly like that plant, but somewhat larger. The calyx rough, short, with five teeth. Corolla of one petal, blue, ovate, with five spreading notched segments at its orifice. Stamens ten, very short, with horned anthers. Pistil one, the length of the corolla, with a blunt pentagonal stigma.

The following food is prepared by the Laplanders from milk.

The messen or whey, after the cheese is made, is boiled to a thick consistence, and a small quantity of cream from the milk of the reindeer is added. The whole is afterwards dried in the maw or rennet-bag of the reindeer, and tastes very well.

Kappa is the scum which rises while the whey is boiling. This being skimmed off, is also kept in rennet-bags for use.

The milk is not turned, in order to make cheese, with rennet, but with the maws of pike (Esox Lucius), of charr (Salmo alpinus), or of the grayling (Salmo Thymallus). These are previously dried, and preserved for use in a little keg of milk. When any of this is taken out for use, they are careful to fill up the vessel with fresh milk, that they may always have a supply at hand.

Jumomjölk is prepared by boiling half a pint of syra (see p. 243) in a small quantity of water, which must be kept stirring till the whole is perfectly dissolved. It is then mixed with milk of the reindeer, and poured either into rennet-bags of that animal, or some kind of pot or tub, in which it is preserved for future use, if not immediately eaten.

Rennet is also made by taking the maws of such reindeer fawns as die in the spring, putting milk into them, and hanging it up to dry for use.

I here made the following observations relative to the remedies used by the Laplanders.

Their Moxa, as the Japanese call it, but which they term Toule, is made of a fine fungus found on the birch, and always chosen from the south side of the tree. Of this they apply a piece as large as a pea, upon the afflicted part, setting fire to it with a twig of birch, and letting it burn gradually away. This is repeated two or three times. It produces a sore that will often keep open for six months afterwards, nor must it be closed till it heals spontaneously. This remedy is used for all aches and pains; as the headache, toothache, pleurisy, pain in the stomach, lumbago, &c. It is the universal medicine of the Laplanders, and may be called their little physician.

Kattie is a kind of drawing or ripening plaister made in the following manner. The fine loose scaly bark of birch is set on fire, and immediately quenched in water. It is then chewed, in the same manner as when wanted for cementing earthen-ware together, and afterwards mixed with fresh turpentine from the spruce fir, both being kneaded together by the hands, till the mass becomes a black uniform plaister. This has a very emollient quality, and is successfully applied to hard imposthumes, &c., which it brings to maturity without pain in a short time, and promotes their discharge.

The common method of the Laplanders for joining broken earthen-ware, is to tie the fragments together with a thread, and boil the whole in fresh milk, by which they are cemented to each other.

The grass used for lining shoes is a Carex pseudo-cyperus, with many slender pendulous spikes. (Carex sylvatica, Fl. Brit.)

An ointment for burns is made of fresh cream boiled to a thick consistence, with which the sore is anointed. It removes the pain, and admirably promotes the healing of the ulcer.

For chilblains, the oil or fat which exudes from toasted reindeer cheese, rubbed upon the part affected, is a sovereign cure. Some persons use dog's fat for the same purpose. The latter is also used for pains in the back, being rubbed in before a fire.

The Laplanders make use of no razor, but cut their beards with scissars. They never cut the hair of the head, and only occasionally employ a comb or any similar instrument. They have no laundress or washerwoman.

The drug called castor is one of their great remedies for every disease, and the gall of the bear is another.

When a wedding is to be celebrated, the lover takes all his relations along with him, each carrying meat and brandy. Being arrived at—(this sentence is left unfinished in the manuscript.)

July 5.

I continued my journey to Hyttan, and in my way passed a marshy place, such as the Laplanders call murki. Close to the borders of it grew the least Thalictrum (T. alpinum), with four pale petals, and twelve stamens with long anthers, their filaments purple. In another part grew an Androsace with two drooping flowers. It had five stamens; one capitate pistil; an ovate fruit of one cell; a five-cleft calyx, and a swelling (corolla of one) petal. It is therefore not a good Androsace. (This was unquestionably Primula integrifolia, see Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 52, which Linnæus, in that work, seems to have confounded with P. farinosa. Speaking of the latter he says, "This Primula, the splendid crimson of whose flowers attracts the eyes of all who traverse the fields of Scania and the meadows of Upland in the early spring, did not occur during my whole journey till after I had ascended the Lapland Alps, where it grew very sparingly, furnished with only two or three flowers, and those of a very pale hue, so that in the mountains of Lapland it deserves neither the name of Cæsar nor of Regulus[56]. The stem of the plant, however, in these regions was a span or more in height, which is hardly the case in any other part of Sweden." Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 51. Hence it appears that the real P. farinosa ought to be struck out of the Lapland Flora, provided no botanist has found it there since Linnæus made the above remarks.)

Sceptrum Carolinum was in blossom near the water, as well as the gloomy Aconitum (lycoctonum), "whose flowers with us are not yellow, as the synonyms of authors assert, but every where of a blueish ash-colour[57]."

Here also grew Juncus palustris, calamo trifido (J. trifidus); the Violet with a yellow flower (Viola biflora); and the Wood Stitchwort with heart-shaped leaves (Stellaria nemorum, which Linnæus, in Flora Lapp. n. 186, confounds with his Alsine media, or Stellaria media, Fl. Brit. a mistake he corrected in his Species Plantarum).

Shortly afterwards I came within sight of an oblong and very lofty mountain, situated on the right-hand, called Carsavari, composed of a coarse kind of fissile stone, upon which pure native alum is found; see Bromell (in the Acta Suecica from the year 1726 to 1730).

Very near the last-mentioned mountain is situated another, called Tavevari, remarkable for two rivulets running down from its summit, and falling over a rock in the middle of their course.

Concerning the spots or imperfections in the skins of reindeer, it is certain that they originate in the perforations made by insects, probably a species of Tabanus, through which those insects introduce their eggs. When the young ones arrive at maturity, they come forth by the same passage, and the wound is closed by a scar. On this subject, lest any person should be misled by authority, or by the writings or reports of others, I shall quote the learned work of Linder on Syphilis, p. 11. "Reindeer in Lapland are subject to the small-pox, which in Norland is termed Kormsiuka, as I was informed at Wicksbergensbrun by Zachary Plantin, master of arts." In this the able writer has been totally misled, by a person usually esteemed no less honest than profoundly learned. I cannot however conceive how a man, who values himself upon such a character, should willingly and deliberately propagate a falsehood. He ought, on the contrary, rather to aim at correcting it. If the reindeer should even have the small-pox every year, this supposed disease will prove on examination nothing else than the sting of the Gad-fly (Oestrus Tarandi). Did any man ever advance such an absurdity! Even the Laplanders themselves call the disease Kurbma (which is the name of the fly that actually causes it).

One of the Laplanders' dishes, called Kappi, or Kappa-tialmas, is prepared in the following manner. While the milk of the reindeer, intended for making cheese, is warm, before the rennet is added to it, a film rises to the top, which is taken off carefully with a spoon, and put into the bladder of a reindeer. This is hung up against the side of the hut to dry; after which it is eaten, being esteemed a great delicacy. They frequently mix some kind of berries with it when used. The fruit called Hjortron, (Cloud-berry, or Rubus Chamæmorus,) bruised and eaten with milk of the reindeer, is also a very palatable Lapland dish. The milk of this animal affords at least twice as much cheese in proportion as any other milk. Butter is very seldom made by these people, nor is cream ever used for that purpose, as it scarcely rises in sufficient quantity. Milk only is used, being agitated in a wooden vessel with a whisk. The butter is of a white colour.

Candles are not in use among the Laplanders, though the tallow of the reindeer is very fit for that purpose, notwithstanding its consistence being less firm than that of ordinary tallow. These people preserve it in bladders, and boil it for food. Each reindeer yields but a small quantity of tallow in proportion to its size, not more than a sheep; having none between the muscles, like oxen and other cattle, but only round them.

Viviparous Bistort (Polygonum viviparum) grew hereabouts two spans in height. The Trientalis in moist situations had obtuse petals (see Fl. Lapp. n. 139, ε). The Water Epilobium in this place had very broad leaves. (E. palustre β. Sp. Pl. 495. Fl. Lapp. n. 148.) Geranium (sylvaticum) had sometimes a white flower with purple veins, and blue anthers; sometimes the petals, as well as anthers, were white.

THE LAPLAND ALPS.

In the afternoon I took leave of Hyttan, and, at the distance of a mile from thence, arrived at the mountain of Wallavari (or Hwallawari), a quarter of a mile in height. When I reached this mountain, I seemed entering on a new world; and when I had ascended it, I scarcely knew whether I was in Asia or Africa, the soil, situation, and every one of the plants, being equally strange to me. Indeed I was now, for the first time, upon the Alps! Snowy mountains encompassed me on every side. I walked in snow, as if it had been the severest winter. All the rare plants that I had previously met with, and which had from time to time afforded me so much pleasure, were here as in miniature, and new ones in such profusion, that I was overcome with astonishment, thinking I had now found more than I should know what to do with.

1. Alchemilla with fingered leaves, silky underneath, but without flowers. (A. alpina.)

2. Jussiea[58], with ternate leaves, abrupt and three-toothed at their extremities. (Sibbaldia procumbens.) The calyx is of one leaf, very large, in ten segments, the five alternate ones of which are smallest, as in the strawberry tribe. Petals five, ovate, yellow, shorter than the calyx, and inserted betwixt its segments. The five stamens also proceed from the calyx. Pistils from five to ten, capitate at their summits, affixed laterally to the middle of the seeds, as in Alchemilla. (See the remarks of Linnæus, respecting the natural order of this plant, in Fl. Lapp. n. 111).

3. Dillenia. Stem woody. Flower purple. (Azalea procumbens.) Calyx coloured, small, five-cleft, acute, purple, permanent. Petal one, erect, bell-shaped, five-cleft half way down, acute, purple. Stamens five, shorter than the petal. Pistil one, seated on the embryo, the length of the calyx. Stigma capitate. Seeds numerous, roundish. Pericarp globose, of five cells and five valves. Leaves ovate, evergreen, opposite, resembling those of the Cranberry. (Vaccinium Oxycoccus.)

4. Bannistera. (Diapensia lapponica.) Calyx of large, ovate, imbricated leaves, first two, then two more, then five, so that they are nine in all. Petal one, with a short wide tube, its disk (or border) in five obtuse spreading segments. Stamens five, from the segments of the calyx (corolla), erect, broad, looking like intermediate prominent segments; the anthers situated on their inner side, at the top. Pistil one, upright, awlshaped. Stigma obtuse. Pericarp round with a point, invested with the calyx, of three cells. Seeds several, round. Leaves oblong, narrow, obtuse, reflexed, lying imbricated over each other.

(Slight sketches only of these plants are annexed to their descriptions in the manuscript, but perfect figures of the two last may be seen in Fl. Lapp.)

5. Saxifraga with oblong serrated leaves, and lanceolate petals. (S. stellaris.) The leaves are about the root, oblong inclining to lanceolate, serrated with a few teeth. Stem naked, with several flowers at its summit. Calyx permanent, five-cleft, acute, reflexed. Petals five, somewhat spreading, oblong, sharp at each end, white, marked with two yellow dots upon the claw. Stamens ten, awlshaped, the length of the calyx. Anthers purple. Embryo (germen) with two horns. Style none. Stigmas obtuse.

6. Saxifraga with palmate five-cleft obtuse leaves. (S. rivularis.) Lower leaves cut half way down into five roundish segments; upper one in three segments. Stem short, flowering at the top. Calyx five-cleft, erect. Petals five, ovate. Stamens ten. Embryos two (rather two-horned).

7. Saxifraga with a creeping stem, the leaves placed in a quadrangular form. (S. oppositifolia). Stems like those of a Sedum, creeping. Leaves oblong, obtuse, hairy at the edge, small; the points sometimes bony (or cartilaginous). Flower large. Calyx of five blunt leaves. Petals five, erect, purple, large, oblong, obtuse. Stamens ten, purple, erect, shorter than the petals, with scarlet anthers. Embryo divided. Styles none. Stigmas obtuse.

8. Female Rose-root, Rhodia. (Rhodiola rosea.)

9. Rhodia montana abortiens. (Male plant of the same.) Differs from the female in having five lanceolate petals, and five leaves to the calyx; though often but four.

10. Purple Water Lychnis, (L. dioica,) a variety with four-cleft petals. (See Fl. Lapp. n. 182.)

11. Pinguicula with the spur shorter than the petal. (P. alpina.) The petal is white with a yellow beard, like a Melampyrum. Leaves narrower than in the common kind; spur shorter and funnel-shaped, not cylindrical.

12. Ranunculus minimus, leaves three-cleft, their side-lobes divided. (R. nivalis, var. γ. Fl. Lapp. t. 3. f. 3.)

13. Ranunculus with bluntly-triangular plaited petals. (R. glacialis.) The lower leaves are in many deep segments; the upper three-lobed, their lobes three-cleft. Calyx purplish, hispid. Petals five, very large, white, dilated upwards, obtuse, plaited at the upper edge. Stamens and anthers erect, numerous, very short, yellow. Pistils many, in a convex head, with slender points.

14. Ranunculus resembling Winter Aconite. (R. nivalis.)

15. Draba with lanceolate leaves and twisted seed-vessels. (D. incana.)

16. A small Hesperis with a white flower, and oblong flat pods. Leucojum of Rudbeck? (Arabis alpina.)

17. Cochlearia with leaves like Plantaginella, (Limosella aquatica,) and umbellate pods. (Cardamine bellidifolia.)

18. Andromeda with leaves like Empetrum, and a blue flower. (A. cærulea.)

19. Andromeda with leaves like a Lycopodium, and a white, half-ovate, half-five-cleft flower. (A. hypnoides.)

20. Alisma, rather Arnica, with lanceolate three-ribbed leaves, the radius with three teeth. (Arnica montana β.)

21. Caryophyllata (Geum) with a solitary upright flower. Must it not be a distinct genus? The petals are eight. (Dryas octopetala.)

22. An abortive variety of Saxifraga nº. 5 (stellaris), with small, obtuse, white petals, purple anthers, and a white embryo; but very rarely flowering, as the blossoms are all transformed into clusters of minute leaves. (See Fl. Lapp. t. 2. f. 3.)

23. Pedicularis with bluntly serrated leaves, and a pale flesh-coloured flower, with a deeper-coloured spot on the lip. The upper lip is narrow; the lower in three equal segments. Calyx large, hairy. Fruit hoary. (Pedicularis hirsuta.)

24. Dwarf Catchfly. (Silene acaulis.)

25. The same with stamens, but an abortive fruit. Pistils three. Petals obtuse, emarginate. Capsule of one cell. Stamens ten.

26. Sagina with emarginate petals and an oblong capsule. Pistils three. Is it an Alsine? (Stellaria biflora; see Fl. Lapp. n. 158.)

27. Salix villosa, with sessile ovate leaves. It is a humble plant. (S. lanata.)

28. Subterraneous willow, with orbicular concave leaves, male. (Salix herbacea.)

29. Female of the same, with red fruit.

30. Veronica serpyllifolia, upright, with a blue flower. (V. alpina.)

The lofty mountains, piled one upon another, showed no signs of volcanic fire, but were covered with stones, all of a fissile kind, and by that means easily distinguishable. From the snow, which lay so plentifully on these mountains as to cover half the ground, water was continually running down in streams like so many springs, or like rivers cut through the deep snow, for the refreshment of travellers. We found it very good.

The little alpine variety of the Ptarmigan (Tetrao Lagopus) was now accompanied by its young. I caught one of these, upon which the hen ran so close to me, that I could easily have taken her also. She kept continually jumping round and round me; but I thought it a pity to deprive the tender brood of their mother, neither would my compassion for the mother allow me long to detain her offspring, which I restored to her in safety.

After having walked four or five miles in the course of the night, I went to sleep in the morning in one of the cottages of the country.

July 7.

The inhabitants, sixteen in number, lay there all naked. They washed themselves by rubbing the body downwards, not upwards. They washed their dishes with their fingers, squirting water out of their mouths upon the spoon, and then poured into them boiled reindeer's milk, which was as thick as common milk mixed with eggs, and had a strong flavour. Some thousands of reindeer came home in the morning, which were milked by the men as well as the women, who kneeled down on one knee.

From the top of the head of some of these reindeer I took out the maggots which trouble them so much. I observed here in plenty the large fly with a yellow neck, and yellow segments of the body, (Oestrus Tarandi,) which probably is the same insect (in a perfect state), as I judge by the length of the legs.

My hosts gave me missen to eat; that is, whey, after the curd is separated from it, coagulated by boiling, which renders it very firm. Its flavour was good, but the washing of the spoon took away my appetite, as the master of the house wiped it dry with his fingers, whilst his wife cleaned the bowl, in which milk had been, in a similar manner, licking her finger after every stroke.

I also tasted some jumo, which they mixed with reindeer's milk, but it did not please me.

This day I gathered the following plants. (The numbers are continued from p. 291.)

31. Saxifraga with a tuberous root, a simple stem flowering at the summit, and bulbs in the bosoms of the leaves. (S. cernua.) This has much resemblance to the common Saxifrage, (S. granulata.) but bears only one flower at the top of the stem, which is pendulous before it opens. The petals and stamens are white. In the bosom of each leaf are about ten naked anther-like little heads (or buds), which grow out into embryos of future plants. It inhabits watery places.

32. A very small Juncus, with a spatha of two leaves, enclosing two seeds; (rather capsules, but Linnæus wrote seeds, because it appears by the manuscript that he took the plant at first for a Carex.) This is one of the smallest of grasses, bearing a solitary spike, one floret of which has an upright glume, (or leaf of the spatha,) the other a reflexed one. The petals are whitish. Pistil snow-white. Stamens six. (This can be no other than Juncus biglumis, see Engl. Bot. t. 898, omitted in Linnæus's own edition of Fl. Lapp. and supposed to have been first found by the celebrated Dr. Montin in 1749.)

33. Carex with several black loose pendulous spikes, one of which is male, two or three female. (C. saxatilis.)

34. Draba with a yellow flower. (D. alpina.) Pod like the rye-flower. (D. verna, see p. 5.)

35. Salix creeping under ground, with elegant roundish-oval, rugged, rigid leaves. (S. reticulata.) Male and female.

36. Salix with oblong, obtuse, slightly serrated leaves. (S. n. 367, Fl. Lapp.?) In marshy places.

The Willows often grow to the height of a man in moist places, or on islands in the rivers, but in elevated situations no tree is more than a foot high; nor is there any plant, except the dwarf birch (Betula nana) and the Willows, that affords the inhabitants any wood.

37. A very small Pedicularis, with the aspect of the Sceptrum Carolinum. The fruit is curved. (P. flammea.) This very elegant little plant so exactly represents the Sceptrum Carolinum, plentiful here in moist places, one might take it for a representation of that in miniature. The leaves are brownish, pinnate; their segments imbricated. Flowers four, five, or more, at the top of the stem. Calyx like that of Sceptrum Carolinum. Petal with an erect upper lip, which is narrow, compressed, and brownish; the lower lip horizontal, three-cleft, saffron-coloured, like all the rest of the flower. Root like skirrets.

38. Saxifraga with oblong, acute, thickish leaves, rough with rigid hairs at the edges. (S. aizoides.) It had not yet flowered, but I afterwards found the blossoms, which were yellow, with a large, flat calyx, in five ovate segments. Petals five, small, ovate, yellow besprinkled with orange. Embryo yellow, two-horned. Stigmas orbicular, flat, whitish. Stamens awlshaped, five of them very short.

39. Juncoides capitulis psyllii, with loose heads of flowers. (Juncus campestris.) Also another with conglomerated heads. (J. campestris β. Fl. Lapp. t. 10. f. 2. Certainly a distinct species.)

The birds I saw were Snow-buntings (Emberiza nivalis); Green Plovers in great plenty, (Charadrius pluvialis,) called by the Laplanders Hutti; and Wheat-ears. (Motacilla Oenanthe.)

The Laplanders of this neighbourhood do not often take the diversion of shooting. They are seldom masters of a fowling-piece; and when not occupied in following or attending the reindeer, they remain in idleness for whole days together, feeding on nothing but milk, and the dishes prepared from it.

I satisfied myself here that the crackling noise made by the reindeer does not originate in the hoof, nor in the lowermost joint of the foot.

The women of this neighbourhood smoke tobacco as well as the men. Every body learns to smoke about the age of twelve or fifteen.

Whenever I gave my host about an ell of twisted tobacco, I was sure to obtain in return a cheese of double its value.

The large-flowered Cerastium (C. alpinum) was here every where in abundance, and the prickly Lycopodium. (L. Selaginoides?).

The neighbouring mountain abounded with a very black fissile aluminous stone.

The surface of the snow appeared to have a vibratory motion, like water slightly agitated, or like a large white sail swelled by the wind.

All the inhabitants of this neighbourhood wore garments made of reindeer skins.

July 8.

The plants I found this day were the following.

40. Michelia. (Azalea lapponica.)

Its calyx is inconspicuous, green, in five obtuse segments. Petal one, erect, gradually dilated upwards, divided almost down to the base into five ovate segments, purple, deciduous. Stamens five, proceeding from the receptacle, erect, shorter than the petal, purplish, thread-shaped, with roundish anthers. Pistil one, thread-shaped, inclining to one side, longer than the petal, with a globose embryo, and thick stigma. Pericarp membranous, globose, of five cells and five compressed valves, the cells fixed to the column, as in Ledum, bursting at the top. Leaves thick, ovate, evergreen, clustered at the tops of the branches, as in Ledum. Flowers about three, at the extremity of each branch, each on a simple uncoloured stalk. Is this the same genus with Dillenia (Azalea procumbens, nº. 3.)? I think not. In that the calyx and flower-stalks are coloured; two flowers proceed from each bud; the petal is firm, and cut but half way down; the calyx is half as long as the petal; the pistil is erect, shorter than the petal; the stamens are directed inwards, and not attached to the receptacle. (Notwithstanding these reasons, Linnæus united the two plants together in his Flora Lapponica, as one genus, under the name of Azalea, quoting two synonyms of Tournefort and Bauhin for this nº. 40, which belong to Rhododendrum ferrugineum, his own plant being entirely new, if not a pentandrous variety of that Rhododendrum, which is much to be suspected. The above description, of the fruit especially, is sufficient to show it cannot belong to the same genus with Azalea procumbens, though perhaps it may accord better with the American Azaleæ.)

41. Campanula with a contracted flower. (C. uniflora.) Differs from the common blue kind, (rotundifolia,) in having the leaves as well as the flower much contracted at the base, so that the latter is funnel-shaped. The embryo is oblong, with six sides, rough, with three orifices near the base of the calyx.

42. Lychnis with a concealed flower. (L. apetala.) Leaves pink-like. Flower solitary at the top of the stalk. Calyx ovate, inflated, closed, with ten black hispid ribs, which branch near the top. Petals five, oblong, brownish, shaped exactly like the usual claws of a Lychnis, but without any border. Stamens ten. Embryo oblong, inclining to cylindrical, contracted in the middle, obtuse, blackish. Pistils five, whitish. The petals, stamens and pistils are all concealed within the calyx.

43. A small Aster, with one solitary white flower. (Erigeron uniflorum.) It has the calyx of the Amellus, the flower of a daisy, white with a yellow disk.

44. A viviparous grass, Poa. (Rather Festuca vivipara.)

45. Juncus with a sharp rigid point. (Juncus, n. 116. Fl. Lapp.)

46. A Catchfly which is not viscid, with the flowers collected into a tuft. (Lychnis alpina.)

47. A smooth Cerastium, agreeing in every respect with the large-flowered one, except the hairiness and hoary aspect of the leaves. (C. alpinum, a smooth variety.)

I observed every where about the sides of the hills holes dug by the Lemming Rat. (Mus Lemmus.) Hares are grey in summer upon the alps.

No herb or tree on the highest parts of these alps attains more than a quarter of an ell in height, though in the valleys the same species may perhaps be two or three feet high. Birch trees, which however are very scarce, creep in a manner under the earth, throwing up the tips of their branches here and there to the height of a quarter of an ell. Tender shoots of this kind sometimes conceal a very knotty depressed stem.

In the evening, and indeed till the night was far advanced, we sought for one of the Laplanders' huts, but to no purpose. Tracts made by the reindeer were plentiful enough in the marshy grounds, which we followed sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, without their leading us to what we were in search of. I had walked so much that I could hardly stand on my legs, and was near fainting with fatigue, so that I lay down, resolving rather to endure the cold and boisterous wind, than proceed any further this night. At length the Laplander and his servant, who were my guides, found some dung of the reindeer. One of them took it up, and after squeezing it in his hand and smelling at it, gave it to his companion to smell also. He was even desirous that I should take a snuff at it. By its freshness they were rejoiced to discover that a Laplander with his herd had but recently left this spot, and they accordingly pursued a track which was here and there discernible in the snow. After we had proceeded half a mile, we met with the object of our search, who had removed but the day before, so that I had now an opportunity of taking some repose.

July 9.

Fatigued with my late journey, I remained here all the following day and night, not only because it was Sunday, but because I was too much tired to undertake to cross the ice that day. Near the icy mountains the water of the neighbouring lakes was frozen to the depth of a fathom. I employed myself in making the following memorandums.

I was told that Fungi are very plentiful in the alps in autumn.

Scarcely any other fish is found in the lakes of this neighbourhood than the Röding, which the Laplanders call Raud (Salmo alpinus, or Charr), and this is extremely abundant. It is a Salmon, or rather Trout, with a scarlet belly. Its length is about a foot. The scales are extremely minute. Head smooth, ovate, obtuse. Jaws furnished with teeth, and the tongue also bears two rows of teeth, six in each row. The palate moreover is toothed at each side. Nostrils small, with two holes to each, one above the other, the lowermost largest, and capable of being closed. Iris of the eyes grey, with a black pupil. Below each eye, in the cartilage of the cheek, are seven little hollow points ranged longitudinally, and in its hinder part are three others placed perpendicularly. The rays which cover the gills are ten on each side, connected together. Fin of the back with twelve rays, of which the two foremost are gradually longer, the third and fourth longest of all and subdivided. The whole fish is black in the upper part; its sides of a sky blue; head and throat white underneath; belly reddish-yellow. The ventral fins are red, with a white exterior edge. Many yellowish spots are scattered longitudinally along each side of the fish near the lateral line. The tail is of a brick-colour, and forked. The flesh is red, and very palatable. The people here caught fifty of these fishes with two hauls of the net, of which they made a dinner for me and themselves. One dish consisted of the fresh fish boiled, which was not agreeable to my palate for want of salt. Others were roasted on a wooden spit before the fire, but for the same reason I could hardly taste them. The third mode of preparation was the most acceptable to me, and had a very good flavour. This was made of the dried and salted Röding, roasted on a spit. The Laplanders drink the water in which the fish has been boiled, which I was unable to do,—though I could not but commend the practice, as favourable to digestion.

The reindeer are innumerable, like the forests they inhabit. The herds are driven home, night and morning, to be milked. It was amusing to observe the manner of driving them, performed by a maid-servant with a dog. If the reindeer proved refractory, the dog easily made them obey the word of command, particularly when seconded by the hissing of the woman, at which they were extremely terrified.

I observed also the manner of driving them out to pasture. The wind blowing hard from the east, their conductress preferred a circuitous path, rather than face the storm. The reindeer, on the contrary, delighting to run against the wind, turned homeward when diverted from their inclination, while the dog ran after the woman. When these animals are permitted to face the wind, they run very fast and without intermission, in hopes of finding a place to cool themselves. Indeed I observed one of the herds crowding close together under the shadow of a hill, on a spot covered with snow, to avoid the heat caused by the reflection of the sun from the snow in other places. These animals will eat nothing in hot weather, especially as the gnats are then very troublesome. The males much resemble stags, but none in any of the herds had now more than one branch to their horns.

The head of the reindeer is grey, blackish about the eyes. Mouth whitish. Nostrils oblique. Tail short, not above six inches long, obtuse, white, concealed between the haunches. Feet encompassed with white above the hoofs. The whole body is grey, blacker when the new coat first comes on, whiter before it falls. The hair is not readily plucked off, but easily broken. The horns of the female are upright, or slightly bent backward, furnished with one or two branches in front near the base, the summit sometimes undivided, sometimes cloven. Those of the male are often two feet and a half long, and their points are as far distant from each other. They are variously branched, with more or less numerous subdivisions. These animals cast their horns every year; the males immediately after the rutting season, about the end of November; the females in May, after they have brought forth their young. If the females are barren, it is known by their casting the horns in winter[59]. Those of the males scarcely differ from the females in general structure. Both are hairy, but the hairiness falls off before Michaelmas. In some which I have seen broken, the inside, under the skin, of the young growing horns, appears like a cartilage. Hence they are flexible, and so very sensible, that the animal can scarcely bear to have them handled. Under a narrow layer of cartilage, the whole cavity is full of blood-vessels. When arrived at their full growth, the horns are bulbous at their base, like those of a stag.

The length of the leg of the reindeer, from the joint of the foot to that next the body, is two feet. From this latter joint to the top of the back is also two feet. From the shoulders to the tail two feet. From the shoulders to the horns one foot, and the same from the horns to the mouth. From the belly to the back, that is, the perpendicular measure of the trunk, is a foot and half.

As the reindeer walks along, a crackling noise proceeds from its feet. This excited my curiosity; and inquiring what was supposed to be the cause, the only answer I could get from any one was, that "our Lord had made it so." I inquired further in what manner our Lord had formed the reindeer so as to produce such an effect; but to this the respondent answered nothing[60]. When I laid hold of the animal's foot, pulled it, twisted and stretched it, or pushed it backward and forward in every possible way, no crackling was produced. At length I discovered the cause in the hoofs themselves, which are hollowed at their inner side. When the animal stands on its feet, the hoofs are, of course, widely expanded, and their points most remote from each other; but every time the foot is lifted from the ground, they strike together, and cause the noise above mentioned. This I was afterwards able to imitate at pleasure, by moving the foot with my hand.

When the reindeer are driven to the place where they are accustomed to be milked, they all lie down, breathing hard and panting violently, chewing the cud all the while. The report of Scheffer therefore, that they do not ruminate, is false, and Ray guessed more correctly than Scheffer observed.

When the fawn is missed by its mother, she runs in search of it with the most violent anxiety, stooping with her nose to the ground like a sow, till she finds it. She even quits the herd to which she belongs, and seeks her young at the Laplander's hut.

After the herd has lain down in the manner above described, each of the people takes a small rope, and, making a noose, throws it over the head of one of the females intended to be milked. The cord is afterwards twisted round the horns, and the other end tied to a small pole fixed in the ground. One pole is sufficient to secure four of the animals, which all hands are afterwards employed in milking, both master and mistress, men and maids. If the milk does not come with facility, they beat the udder very hard with their hands; which causes a greater flow. The dugs are four, very rarely six, all yielding milk, and none of them dry. The young are not separated from their mothers. After the herd was milked and gone to pasture, I observed the maid-servant taking up some of the soft black dung, which, after kneading it with her hands, she put into a vessel. On my inquiring what could be the use of this, she answered that the dugs were besmeared with it, to prevent the fawn's sucking too much. She added that it would dry upon the nipple by the morning after it was applied, and might then be easily rubbed off. The female reindeer bring forth their young early in May, and their owners begin milking them on Midsummer day, and continue to do so till the beginning of November in the forests, but in this neighbourhood they leave off milking about Michaelmas. The fawns acquire horns the first year, which are perfectly simple, like fingers. I could not help wondering how the Laplanders knew such of the herd as they had already milked, from the rest, as they turned each loose as soon as they had done with it. I was answered that every one of them had an appropriate name, which the owners knew perfectly. This seemed to me truly astonishing, as the form and colour are so much alike in all, and the latter varies in each individual every month. The size also varies according to the age of the animal. To be able to distinguish one from another among such multitudes, for they are like ants on an anthill, was beyond my comprehension.