The forests became more and more hilly and stony, and abounded with the
different species of Winter-green (_Pyrolae_).
All along the road the stones were in general of a white and
dark-coloured granite.
I noticed great abundance of the Rose Willow (_Salix Helix_), which had
lost all its leaves of the preceding season, except such as composed
rosaceous excrescences at the summits of its branches, and which looked
like the calyx of the _Carthamus_ (_Safflower_), only their colour was
gone.
Near Gefle stands a Runic monumental stone, rather more legible than
usual, and on that account more taken care of.
I noticed a kind of stage to dry corn and pease on, formed of
perpendicular posts with transverse beams. It was eight ells in height.
Such are used throughout the northern provinces, as Helsingland,
Medelpad, Angermanland, and Westbothland.
_May 14._
I left Gefle after divine service, having previously obtained a proper
passport from the governor of the province and his secretary. I was well
received and entertained by the Comptroller of the Customs, L[:o]nbom.
At this town is the last apothecary's shop and the last physician in the
province, neither the one nor the other being to be met with in any
place further north. The river is navigable through the town. The
surrounding country abounds with large red stones.
At the distance of three quarters of a mile stands Hille church. Here
begins a chain or ridge of hills extending to the next post-house, three
quarters of a mile further, and separating two lakes. On its summit, a
quarter of a mile from Gefle, a number of different sepulchral mounds
are observable, composed of stones.
The Fir trees here all appeared tall and slender, and were laden with
cones of three different stages of growth; some a year old, not larger
than large peas, and of a globular figure; others two years old, ovate
and pointed; and the remainder ripe, with their scales open and
reflexed, having been four years on the tree.
In the marshes on the left the note of the Snipe (_Scolopax Gallinago_)
was heard continually.
At the distance of a quarter of a mile before we come to Troye, on the
right, are the mineral springs of Hille.
Troye post-house, which Professor Rudbeck the elder used to call Troy,
is surrounded by a smooth hill.
The road from hence lay across a marsh called by the people the walls of
Troy, a quarter of a mile in extent, destitute of large trees. The Sweet
Gale (_Myrica Gale_), laden with catkins about its upper branches, was
abundant every where, as well as the Dwarf Birch (_Betula nana_). These
form a sort of low alley through which the road leads. This _Betula_
had also catkins upon it, which are sessile and erect, not pendulous as
in the Common Birch, about half an inch long and as thick as a
goose-quill, situated about the lower part of the branches. The female
catkins are more slender than the male, erect, and sessile upon the
upper branches. Their scales ovate and almost leafy, green, pointed,
three-cleft, with three pair of purplish pistils. Here and there grew
the Marsh Violet (_Viola palustris_), with its pale grey flowers, marked
with five or seven black forked lines on the lower lip.
In the forest on the other side of this marsh were many kinds of
Club-moss (_Lycopodium clavatum_, _Selago_, _alpinum_, and
_complanatum_).
A quantity of large stones lay by the road side, which the governor of
the province had caused to be dug up in order to mend the high-way. They
looked like a mass of ruins, and were clothed with _Campanula
serpyllifolia_ (the plant afterwards called _Linnaea borealis_), whose
trailing shoots and verdant leaves were interwoven with those of the Ivy
(_Hedera Helix_).
On the right is the lake Hamr[:a]nge Fj[:a]rden, which adds greatly to the
beauty of the road.
The morning of this day was bright, but the afternoon was diversified
with sunshine and rain, like the preceding. The wind however changed
from north to south.
On the mountainous ridge at Hille, above described, I remarked on the
ends of the Juniper-branches a kind of bud or excrescence, consisting of
three leaves, longer than when in their natural state, and three or four
times as broad, which cohered together except at their tips. They
enveloped three smaller leaves, of a yellow hue, in the centre of which
lodged either a maggot or a whitish chrysalis. (This produces the
_Tipula Juniperi_. See _Fauna Suecica_ 438, and _Fl. Suec._ 360).