* * * * *
The collar of the shirts, worn by the inhabitants of Finland and East
Bothland in this neighbourhood, resembles ours, their sleeves being more
like those of a woman's shift.
Young women here commonly wear the bosom open, and have nothing over
their shift, which is gathered round the waist like a petticoat.
The country of East Bothland is chiefly inhabited about the sea-coast,
and on the banks of rivers.
An Aurora borealis was seen in the night of the 18th of August, and had
been visible for a week past, so early does it begin here.
The rowers of the boat in which I pursued my progress had blisters on
their hands caused by pulling at the oars. Their specific was the ladle
with which they had just been stirring the pot where fish was boiling.
This they applied, hot as it was, to the part affected, and the blisters
disappeared.
What is here called _Taim_ is a sort of salmon, two spans in length at
most, the tail scarcely cloven, the mouth not hooked, but otherwise like
the common kind. (This is probably the _Salmo salar_ in a young state;
and may perhaps be the _Laxunge_, or _Salmo minor_, _vulgari similis_,
Artedi Spec. 50, not 80, mentioned in _Fauna Suecica_, ed. 2. 122,
though Linnæus has no allusion there to the _Taim_.)
As soon as the corn is carried from the field, it is usual to thrash it
slightly, that whatever is loose may come away, and not be lost in the
barn, as also that the coarser part may be separated from the finer.
The flail is about a yard long, and rather thick.
The roofs in this part of the country are made of the bark of
birch-trees, not covered over with any turf, but held fast by round
poles, as thick as one's arm, whose upper extremities, alternately
longer and shorter, reach to the ridge, and being bored through, are
fastened to it, in such a manner that their ends project about a span
each way beyond the ridge, crossing each other. Being thicker at their
lower ends, they lie almost close together. Within this there is often a
false roof, like a cieling, covered over with birch-bark and earth; but
this is only when the house is wished to be very warm.
At the residence of the Governor of the Province at Calix, I saw three
swans, which, having been taken when young, were as tame as domestic
geese, to which these birds are so much alike in every respect, that I
can have no doubt of their belonging to one genus. Their bill is flat,
and black at the extremity, as well as the margins, convex and somewhat
angular in the middle, so far at least that the swelling part terminates
in an angle. The middle is fleshy, where the oblong nostrils are
situated; the base flat or quadrangular, with two sinuses pointing
upwards, and pale-coloured. The margin is toothed just like the _Concha
Veneris_ (_Cypræa_).
A carriage called _Stotting_ is used here, for bringing home wood for
fuel in winter, over the ice and snow. It is made of birch-wood, and
resembles a sledge.
The length of this machine from a to b is three feet and a half, the
breadth of each beam four inches and a half; their thickness two inches,
except in the middle, at d, where it is three inches and a half, though
in all the other parts of equal dimensions. The transverse bar, c, is
one foot and a half long, three inches and a half broad, and is elevated
four inches above the longitudinal pieces. e, e, are two slender
triangular pieces, two feet in length, and two inches in thickness. f,
f, are about one palm and a half each in length and breadth. h is curved
upwards about two palms and a half out of the straight line. g is two
feet long between the main beams, three inches and a half broad, but
scarcely one in thickness.
[Illustration]
The sledges, or beams, a, b, differ from the common ones in being
broader, and in the elevation or thickness of each at d. The transverse
beam c, on which the load is laid, is bored through at each end, to
receive the supporting pieces. The slender bars e, e, which may be
termed clavicles, are broadest in the fore part, where they also are
bored through, and fastened with pegs, serving to give stability to the
cross beam c. Two of these carriages are tied together, one behind the
other, through the hole in the cross beam, at k. The loop, i, is made of
birchen twigs.
At Calix I found the _Hippuris_ (_vulgaris_) with forked branches;
_Pentaphylloides facie fragariæ_, (_Potentilla rupestris_?); and _Eruca
foliis sinapeos_. (What this was does not appear.)