Having been appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences to travel through
Lapland, for the purpose of investigating the three kingdoms of Nature
in that country, I prepared my wearing apparel and other necessaries for
the journey as follows.
My clothes consisted of a light coat of Westgothland linsey-woolsey
cloth without folds, lined with red shalloon, having small cuffs and
collar of shag; leather breeches; a round wig; a green leather cap, and
a pair of half boots. I carried a small leather bag, half an ell in
length, but somewhat less in breadth, furnished on one side with hooks
and eyes, so that it could be opened and shut at pleasure. This bag
contained one shirt; two pair of false sleeves; two half shirts; an
inkstand, pencase, microscope, and spying-glass; a gauze cap to protect
me occasionally from the gnats, a comb; my journal, and a parcel of
paper stitched together for drying plants, both in folio; my manuscript
Ornithology, _Flora Uplandica_, and _Characteres generici_. I wore a
hanger at my side, and carried a small fowling-piece, as well as an
octangular stick, graduated for the purpose of measuring. My pocket-book
contained a passport from the Governor of Upsal, and a recommendation
from the Academy.
_May_ 12, 1732, old style.
I set out alone from the city of Upsal on Friday May 12, 1732, at eleven
o'clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of
age.
At this season Nature wore her most cheerful and delightful aspect, and
Flora celebrated her nuptials with Ph[oe]bus.
_Omnia vere vigent et veris tempore florent,
Et totus fervet Veneris dulcedine mundus._
Spring clothes the fields and decks the flowery grove,
And all creation glows with life and love.
Now the winter corn was half a foot in height, and the barley had just
shot out its blade. The birch, the elm, and the aspen-tree began to put
forth their leaves.
Upsal is the ancient seat of government. Its palace was destroyed by
fire in 1702. With respect to situation, and variety of prospects,
scarcely any city can be compared with this. For the distance of a
quarter of a Swedish mile it is surrounded with fertile corn-fields,
which are bounded by hills, and the view is terminated by spacious
forests.
I had no sooner passed the northern gate of the city than I perceived
signs of a clay soil, except in the hills, which consist of sand and
stones. The road here is level, and for a quarter of a mile destitute
of trees. In ditches by the way side the Water Byssus was observable
(_Byssus Flos aquae_), particularly in places sheltered from the wind. It
greatly resembles the cream of milk, and is called by the peasants
_Watnet blommar_, or Water Flower.
A number of mares with their colts were grazing every where near the
road. I remarked the great length of the young animals' legs, which
according to common opinion are as long at their birth as they ever will
be; therefore if a measure be taken from the hoof up to the knee of a
young colt, and so on from the knee to the extremity, it will give the
height of the horse when full grown. A similar observation has been made
on the size of the bones in the ear of an infant.
I observed the same kind of moss, or rather _Lichenoides terrestre_,
_daedaleis sinubus_, (_Lichen nivalis_,) which is found on the hill near
the palace at Upsal.
Geese were now accompanied by their goslings, which are all uniformly
of the same yellow hue when hatched, whatever colour they may acquire
afterwards.
I left old Upsal on the right, with its three large sepulchral mounds or
_tumuli_.
The few plants now in flower were _Taraxacum_ (_Leontodon Taraxacum_),
which Tournefort erroneously combines with _Pilosella_ (_Hieracium
Pilosella_), notwithstanding the reflexed leaves of its calyx; _Draba
caule nudo_ (_D. verna_), which in Smoland is called Rye Flower, because
as soon as the husbandman sees it in bloom he is accustomed to sow his
Lent corn; _Myosotis scorpioides_; _Viola tricolor_ and _odorata_;
_Thlaspi arvense_; _Lithospermum arvense_; _Cyperoides_ (probably some
species of _Carex_); _Juncoides_ (_Juncus campestris_); _Salix_ (_S.
caprea?_); _Primula veris_, as it is called, though neither here nor in
other places the first flower of the spring; _Caltha palustris_, known
by the name of Swedish Caper, as many people are said to eat it instead
of the true Caper; the report of its giving a colour to butter is
certainly false.
The lark was my companion all the way, flying before me quivering in the
air.
_Ecce suum tirile, tirile, suum tirile tractat[1]._
[1] "The lark that tirra-lirra chaunts."
_Shakspear's Winter's Tale._
The weather was warm and serene. Now and then a refreshing breeze sprang
up from the west, and a rising cloud was observable in that quarter.
Okstad (more properly H[:o]gsta) is a mile and a quarter from Upsal. Here
the forests began to thicken. The charming lark, which had till now
attended my steps, here left me; but another bird welcomed my approach
to the forest, the Red-wing, or _Turdus iliacus_, whose amorous
warblings from the tops of the Spruce Fir were no less delightful. Its
lofty and varied notes rival those of the Nightingale herself.
In the forest innumerable dwarf Firs are to be seen, whose diminutive
height bears no proportion to their thick trunks, their lowermost
branches being on a level with the uppermost, and the leading shoot
entirely wanting. It seems as if all the branches came from one centre,
like those of a palm, and that the top had been cut off. I attribute
this to the soil, and could not but admire it as the pruning of Nature.
This form of the Fir has been called _Pinus plicata_.
L[:a]by is a mile and a quarter further. Here the forest abounds with the
Red Spanish Whortle-berry (_Arbutus Uva Ursi_), which was now in
blossom, and of which, as it had not been scientifically described, I
made a description; (see _Flora Lapponica_; and _Engl. Bot. t. 714_.)
A large and dreary pine-forest next presented itself, in which the
herbaceous plants seemed almost starved, and in their place the soil,
which was hardly two inches deep, all below that depth being pure barren
sand (_Arena Glarea_), bore Heath (_Erica_), _Hypnum parietinum_, and
some Lichens of the tribe called _coralloides_.
Above a quarter of a mile beyond the post-house, near the road, is a
Runic monument; but I did not allow myself time to copy the inscription,
finding it had lately been deciphered by somebody else.
A quarter of a mile further stands a land-mark of a curious
construction, consisting of four flattish upright stones placed in a
square, with a fifth in their centre.
I discovered a large stone of the kind called _Ludus Helmontii_[2], and,
wishing to break it, I took a smaller stone, which proved to be of the
same kind. My endeavours were vain as to the former; but the small one
broke into many fragments, and proved to contain minute prismatic
crystals, which were quite transparent; some white, others of a deep
yellow.
[2] So I understand the original, which is _Lapis marmoreus
polyzonos_.
Before the next post-house, I noticed on the right a little farm, and on
the other side of the way a small ditch used to wash in. Here stood a
plain sloping stone of white granite, in which were three large
dark-grey squares, seeming to have been inlaid by a skilful
stone-cutter. It was evident, however, on examining one end, that they
were continued through the whole substance of the stone.
Opposite to Yfre is a little river, the water of which would at this
time have hardly covered the tops of my shoes, though the banks are at
least five ells in height. This has been occasioned either by the water
continually carrying away the loose sand, or, as I am more inclined to
believe, the quantity of water is less than it has been.
_Chrysosplenium_ (_alternifolium_) was now in blossom. Tournefort
defines it _foliis auriculatis_, but erroneously, as the leaves are all
separate and distinct[3]. It has eight stamens, placed in a
quadrangular position, and two pistils. Thus it evidently approaches
nearer to the _Saxifragae_, as former botanists have justly thought, than
to the _campaniformes_, or flowers with a monopetalous corolla.
[3] Tournefort by this definition probably meant to compare the
shape of the leaves, with the ears of some animal. In the criticism
of Linnaeus respecting the natural affinity of this plant, we may
observe how his own system, professedly artificial, and yet so
affectedly despised by some botanists for not being natural, led him
to the real truth. In fact, some truth is to be learnt from every
system and every theory, but perfection is not to be expected from
any one.
At Yfre, two miles further, I noticed young kids, under whose chins, at
the commencement of the throat, were a pair of tubercles, like those
sometimes seen in pigs, about an inch long, of the thickness of their
mother's nipples, and clothed with a few scattered hairs. Of their use I
am ignorant.
Near the church of Tierp runs a stream, whose bank on the side where it
makes a curvature is very high and steep, owing to timber placed close
to the water. The great power of a current, and the way in which it
undermines the ground, is exceedingly visible at this place. Hence the
strongest earthen ramparts, made with the greatest expense and labour,
are often found insufficient to secure the foundations of large palaces
or churches in some situations. But where timber has been used, the
attacks of water are little to be dreaded. On both sides of the church
were several small sepulchral mounds. It now grew late, and I hastened
to Mehede, two miles and a half further, where I slept.
_May 13._
Here the Yew (_Taxus baccata_) grows wild. The inhabitants call it Id or
Idegran.
The forest abounded with the Yellow Anemone (_Anemone ranunculoides_),
which many people consider as differing from that genus. One would
suppose they had never seen an Anemone at all. Here also grew Hepatica
(_Anemone Hepatica_) and Wood Sorrel (_Oxalis Acetosella_). Their
blossoms were all closed. Who has endowed plants with intelligence, to
shut themselves up at the approach of rain? Even when the weather
changes in a moment from sunshine to rain, though before expanded, they
immediately close. Here for the first time this season I heard the
Cuckoo, a welcome harbinger of summer.
Having often been told of the cataract of Elf-Carleby, I thought it
worth while to go a little out of my way to see it; especially as I
could hear it from the road, and saw the vapour of its foam, rising like
the smoke of a chimney. On arriving at the spot, I perceived the river
to be divided into three channels by a huge rock, placed by the hand of
Nature in the middle of its course. The water, in the nearest of these
channels, falls from a height of twelve or fifteen ells, so that its
white foam and spray are thrown as high as two ells into the air, and
the whole at a distance appears like a continual smoke. On this branch
of the cascade stands a saw-mill. The man employed in it had a pallid
countenance, but he did not complain of his situation so much as I
should have expected.
It is impossible to examine the nature of the inaccessible black rock
over which the water precipitates itself.
Below this cataract is a salmon fishery. A square net, made of wicker
work, placed at the height of an ell above the water, is so constructed
that the salmon when once caught cannot afterwards escape.
Oak trees grow on the summits of the surrounding rocks. At first it
seems inconceivable how they should obtain nourishment; but the vapours
are collected by the hills above, and trickle down in streams to their
roots.
In the valleys among these hills I picked up shells remarkable for the
acuteness of their spiral points. Here also grew a rare Moss of a
sulphur-green colour[4].
[4] This appears to have been _Bartramia pomiformis_, _Bryum
pomiforme_ of Linnaeus. See _Fl. Lapp. n. 400_.
From hence I hastened to the town of Elf-Carleby, which is divided into
two parts by the large river, whose source is at Lexan in Dalecarlia.
The largest portion of the town stands on the southern side, and
contains numerous shops, occupied only during the fairs occasionally
kept at this place.
I crossed the river by a ferry, where it is about two gun-shots wide.
The ferryman never fails to ask every traveller for his passport, or
license to travel. At first sight this man reminded me of Rudbeck's
Charon, whom he very much resembled, except that he was not so aged. We
passed the small island described by that author as having been
separated from the main land in the reign of king John III. It is now at
a considerable distance from the shore, the force of the current
rendering the intermediate channel, as Rudbeck observes, every year
wider. The base of the island is a rock. Only one tree was now to be
seen upon it.
The northern bank of the river is nearly perpendicular. I wondered to
see it so neat and even, which may probably be owing to a mixture of
clay in the sand; or perhaps it may have been smoothed by art.
Horizontal lines marked the yearly progress of the water. The sun shone
upon us this morning, but was soon followed by rain.
Elf-Carleby is two miles and a half further. On its north side are
several sepulchral mounds.
Here for the first time I beheld, what at least I had never before met
with in our northern regions, the _Pulsatilla apii folio_ (_Anemone
vernalis_), the leaves of which, furnished with long footstalks, had two
pair of leaflets besides the terminal one, every one of them cut half
way into four, six or eight segments. The calyx, if I may be allowed so
to call it, was placed about the middle of the stalk, and was cut into
numerous very narrow divisions, smooth within, very hairy without.
Petals six, oblong; the outermost excessively hairy and purplish; the
innermost more purple and less hairy; all of them white on the inside,
with purple veins. Stamens numerous and very short. Pistils cohering in
a cylindrical form, longer than the stamens, and about half as long as
the petals.
We had variable weather, with alternate rain and sunshine.
A mile from Elf-Carleby are iron works called H[:a]rn[:a]s. The ore is
partly brought from Danemora in Roslagen, partly from Engsi[:o] in
Sudermannia. These works were burnt down by the Russians, but have since
been repaired.
Here runs the river which divides the provinces of Upland and
Gestrickland. The soil hereabouts is for the most part clayey. In the
forests it is composed of sand (_Arena mobilis_ and _A. Glarea_). The
post-houses or inns are dreadfully bad. Very few hills or lakes are to
be met with in Upland. When I had passed the limits of these provinces,
I observed a few oak trees only in the district of Medelpad.