_June 13._
A very bright and calm day. The great Myrgiolingen[43] was flying in the
marshes.
[43] What this word expresses I am unable to determine.
The country here is rather flat, yet now and then considerable hills
present themselves, not very high indeed, but abounding in steep
declivities. The stones about these hills were variegated, and as if
inlaid, glittering with talc; many of them rusty, and spontaneously
corroded. On one spot, in the road itself, is produced a brown
pale-purplish earth, which is very likely to be useful for painting. The
hill where this earth or ochre is found is called H['o]gmarkb[oe]rget.
At the post-houses of Gremers-mark and Sela, I was told of a mountain
about two miles distant, reported to contain copper. Three years
previous to my travelling this way, a man had been sent by the Board for
Mining Affairs to investigate this mountain; but the peasants of the
neighbourhood, in consequence of the threats of the burghers of Umoea,
were deterred from giving him proper directions, and put him on a wrong
scent. They kept this stranger from the knowledge of Hans Person, a
peasant at Webomark, who would have conducted him right. The father of
this Hans was the first discoverer of the mountain in question, and
undertook a journey to Stockholm with a small barrel of the ore; but
before he set off, his neighbours made him drunk, and took out the
proper ore, replacing it in his barrel with lumps of granite. His son is
now at all times ready to show the mountain to any one who inquires for
it, and I had some thoughts of going to find out this man, though his
residence was far out of my road. Learning however that he was not now
at home, but employed somewhere at a distance in building or repairing a
bridge, I thought it useless to inquire any further.
At some few places at which I stopped for refreshment in the course of
this day's journey, I procured some of that preparation of milk called
_S[:a]tmiolk_, by some people _T[:a]tmiolk_. In the neighbourhood grows the
plant called _T[:a]tgrass_, or _Pinguicula_, with its most curiously
constructed flower. When the inhabitants of these parts once procure
this plant, they avail themselves of it during the whole year; for they
preserve it dried through the winter, and use it as a kind of rennet
till the return of spring.
Here also I learned another preparation of milk. After cheese is made,
the whey is boiled and skimmed, which operation is repeated till a
sediment forms as thick as flummery. This is afterwards dried, and kept
in casks for use. It makes an ingredient in bread, and is called
_Mesosm[:o]r_.
The fire-places here were furnished with a regular apparatus for boiling
the kettle. The Laplanders in general content themselves for this
purpose with a large stick, which they place obliquely in the ground, so
as to lean over the fire, and on which they suspend either a kettle or a
fish; but here they have adopted quite another mode.
[Illustration]
A square beam (a) is placed perpendicularly, so as to be turned upon a
pivot at its base. To this a transverse beam (b) is fixed by a peg or
joint, so that its extremity may be moved up or down, and teeth are cut
in this beam, to hang the kettle upon, at a greater or less distance
from the upright support. Underneath is another shorter piece of wood
(c), forked at the extremity to catch the lower teeth of the
last-mentioned beam, and fixed likewise by a joint at its base, in order
to be elevated more or less at pleasure. The advantages of this
contrivance are many.
1, the materials cost nothing, whereas any iron machinery is
expensive.
2, here is no waste, for iron may be employed to more important
purposes.
3, this is capable of being raised higher or lower according as the
height of the fire may require, which an iron trivet cannot.
4, the iron trivet is troublesome to move about, which this machine
does not require.
5, when the trivet happens to lose one of its feet, it is no longer of
any use.
6, the circular part of the iron trivet must be proportioned to the
size of the kettle it is to support, but this machine will hold any
sized kettle.
The fields in this part of the country are excellent, being extensive
and level, the soil consisting of sandy and argillaceous earth. The
crops are abundant, provided the corn be not injured by frost, as it
had been the preceding year. Owing to this misfortune, I found bread
made of spruce fir bark at present in general use. The Buckbean
(_Menyanthes trifoliata_) is very seldom used, on account of its
bitterness[44].
[44] Linnaeus in the _Flora Lapponica, ed. 2. 53_, tells us that "in
times of extreme scarcity the roots of this plant, dried and
powdered, are mixed with a small quantity of meal, and serve to make
the miserable bread of the poorer settlers in Lapland, which is
extremely bitter and detestable." In the same work, _p. 259_, he
describes an excellent kind of bread made of the roots of _Calla
palustris_, which though acrid when fresh, become wholesome if
dried, and boiled afterwards in water, as is the case with its near
relation our common _Arum_, and the _Jatropha Manihot_, or Casava,
of the West Indies.
Flax is scarcely ever cultivated here.
In the evening I strolled out from the post-house at Bumoen towards the
sea side in search of natural productions. The brooks close to the shore
swarmed with innumerable little oval _Notonectae_ (Boat-flies), no bigger
than nits (_N. minutissima_); as well as with the lesser ovate
_Dytiscus_, shaded with grey, and known by its blunt cloven _sternum_.
(_D. cinereus._) On the beach multitudes of black insects without wings,
and half covered with shelly cases, were running about. (Probably _Cimex
littoralis_.) There were also abundance of _Ephemerae_ (May-flies), all
which had two prominent fore feet, and three bristles at the tail. I
caught several, thus rendering their transient existence still shorter.
They were of two species, one larger, of a blackish hue, with dark
clouded wings (_E. vulgata_); the other about half as large, with a
blackish thorax, and white wings. (This does not agree with any species
in the _Fauna Suecica_.)
Not far from the shore, on a small elevation, where the trees and
underwood had lately been burnt down, grew the Strawberry-leaved Bramble
(_Rubus arcticus_) with jagged petals, a remarkable and elegant variety.
(See _Fl. Lapp. t. 5. f. 2_.)
_June 14._
It rained very hard in the course of this day, as well as in the
preceding night.
The cornfields hereabouts vary in soil, being sometimes clay or sand,
sometimes a good mould, and often a mixture of all three. In general
they yield some kind of a crop, whatever the weather may be, except it
should prove severely cold, which is the ruin of the country.
The forests are beautiful, consisting of Spruce Fir, Common Fir, and
plenty of Birch, so that no part of Sweden is more pleasant to travel
through while the summer lasts.
The principal subsistence of the inhabitants is derived from selling
deals. The price is sixteen silver styvers (about three English
farthings each) for a dozen of deals. Tar is sold at six dollars, copper
money, a barrel.
I wish those who deny that certain plants are peculiar to certain
countries could see how abundantly the Birch, the Lapland Willow, the
Strawberry-leaved Bramble, the Cloud-berry (_Rubus Chamaemorus_), and the
Thyme-leaved Bell-flower (_Linnaea borealis_) flourish in this district,
and how the _Ranunculus acris_ entirely covers the pasture lands with
its brilliant yellow flowers.
On arriving at the post-house of Sunnanaen, I was gratified with the
view of a fine river, and the very neat little town of Skelleftea,
consisting of two principal streets and several cross ones, with a
church. The houses are about three hundred and fifty or four hundred,
and their white chimneys give them a cheerful aspect. I was informed
that every peasant in the parish had a house of his own in the town, for
the use of his family during festivals[45].
[45] In T[:o]rner's work on the Geography of Sweden is the following
curious account: "Skelleftea, a parish consisting of about one
hundred and fifty whole farms (in Swedish _hemman_), and containing
four thousand souls, is situated near a cove or arm of the sea, in
which is an island, formerly of considerable extent but now very
small. St. Stephen is said to have prophesied that the day of
judgment will come as soon as this island is entirely washed away.
The island certainly diminishes yearly, but every one must judge for
himself as to the probability of the prophecy."
Proceeding a little further, I remarked a steep hill near the road
carefully covered over with boughs of spruce fir. On removing some of
these, the ground evidently appeared to have been broken up, and
apparently blasted with gunpowder. This should seem to have been done by
some one in search of ore, of which however I could not perceive the
least indication. I carried away a few specimens of the rock.
After passing the next post-house, I was ferried over a river about half
way towards the third, when an Owl appeared, flitting every now and
then, at short distances, before me. Laying hold of my gun, I ventured
to take aim, though my horse kept going on at a good rate. It was a
quarter past twelve at night, yet not at all dark. I was lucky enough to
hit the bird, but in such a manner that one side of it was too much
damaged to allow of stuffing and preserving the specimen. (This was the
_Strix Ulula_, the Latin description of which, made on the spot, is
given, somewhat, corrected, in the _Fauna Suecica_; but the annexed
sketch is too great a curiosity to be suppressed).
[Illustration]
Just as I was about to draw up a description of this Owl, a little
Beetle crept out of its plumage. It was evidently a _Scarabaeus_ by its
antennae. The whole body was oblong, shaded with blue and black; the
belly white. When touched or alarmed, it lay perfectly still. (Probably
_Dermestes murinus_.)
Near the road lay a trap to catch Salmon, made of long slender laths,
bound together with six flexible twigs of osier into a cylindrical form,
open at the base, and furnished with twigs in that part placed like the
wires of a mousetrap, but in a double row, that they might be so much
the stronger. The open space between them was enough to admit a man's
head. On one side further on was a door to take out the fish when
caught.
_Oniscus aquaticus_ was in the water.
The Dean of Skelleftea told me an anecdote of a Laplander who, at the
last court of justice held there, summoned his neighbour for having
twice as much land, without paying any greater share of taxes than
himself. The man summoned was of course sentenced to pay double what he
paid before. This provoked him so much, that he immediately gave
information of a vein of silver on his own estate, in consequence of
which he was, by the fundamental laws of the realm, exempt from all
taxes whatsoever. He then went to his adversary in triumph, exclaiming,
"See how matters go now! I am exempt from taxes, but how is it with
you?"
_June 15._
This day afforded me nothing much worthy of notice. The sea in many
places came very near the road, lashing the stony crags with its
formidable waves. In some parts it gradually separated small islands
here and there from the main land, and in others manured the sandy beach
with mud. The weather was fine.
In one marshy spot grew what is probably a variety of the Cranberry
(_Vaccinium Oxycoccus_), differing only in having extremely narrow
leaves, with smaller flowers and fruit than usual. The common kind was
intermixed with it, but the difference of size was constant. The
_Pinguicula_ grew among them, sometimes with round, sometimes with more
oblong leaves.
The Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_) presented itself most commonly with
red flowers, more rarely with flesh-coloured ones. _Myrica Gale_, which
I had not before met with in Westbothnia, grew sparingly in the marshes.
In the evening, a little before the sun went down, I was assailed by
such multitudes of gnats as surpass all imagination. They seemed to
occupy the whole atmosphere, especially when I travelled through low or
damp meadows. They filled my mouth, nose and eyes, for they took no
pains to get out of my way. Luckily they did not attack me with their
bites or stings, though they almost choked me. When I grasped at the
cloud before me, my hands were filled with myriads of these insects, all
crushed to pieces with a touch, and by far too minute for description.
The inhabitants call them Knort, or Knott, (_Culex reptans_, by mistake
called _C. pulicaris_ in _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 382_.)
Just at sunset I reached the town of Old Pithoea, having previously
crossed a broad river in a ferry boat. Near this spot stood a gibbet,
with a couple of wheels, on which lay the bodies of two Finlanders
without heads. These men had been executed for highway robbery and
murder. They were accompanied by the quartered body of a Laplander, who
had murdered one of his relations.
Immediately on entering the town I procured a lodging, but had not been
long in bed before I perceived a glare of light on the wall of my
chamber. I was alarmed with the idea of fire; but, on looking out of the
window, saw the sun rising, perfectly red, which I did not expect would
take place so soon. The cock crowed, the birds began to sing, and sleep
was banished from my eyelids.
_June 16._
This morning I made an excursion to the northward, in order to examine a
well, reported to be of a mineral nature. It is situated about half a
quarter of a mile from Old Pithoea, and seemed to me only a common cold
spring, having no taste, nor could I perceive any ochre about it, nor
any silvery film on its surface. In the road to this spring stands a
steep hill called _Brevikberget_, which I climbed with great difficulty.
In the clefts of the rock lay several wings of young ravens and crows,
with feet of hares, &c. "See," said I to my companion, "here has been
the nest of an Eagle Owl!" On arriving at the next crag, a little higher
up, we discovered a pair of birds of this species (_Strix Bubo_) sitting
in a hollow of the rock. Their eyes sparkled like fire, for the iris in
each of them was luminous in itself, like touchwood, glow-worms, or
rotten fish. These birds were as large as young geese. I durst not
venture to attack them with my hands; but approaching them with a stake,
I then first perceived they were almost full grown, though not yet able
to fly. The extent of their wings when spread was four feet; their
colour blackish, with red-brown spots; their plumage very soft down, of
a blackish hue tipped with white, mixed with sprouting quills. The
smaller feathers were underneath of a reddish brown, marked with very
narrow curved lines. The hue of the larger feathers, especially of the
breast, where they were most apparent, was a brick colour, each being
marked with a black indented longitudinal stripe. The feathers over the
eyelids were small and black; upper part of the cheeks dark coloured,
lower whitish. The wings and tail were not yet come to their full
growth, but their quill feathers were blackish, with roundish red-brown
spots. Feet like those of a hare, red-brown and downy, with naked
claws. Bill black, the cere or membrane at its base black, accompanied
by whitish whiskers. Nostrils at the fore part of the cere, roundish,
separated by an oblique partition. Throat white. Iris of the eye round,
large, saffron-coloured, with a very large blueish-black pupil. The ears
were large, and I could have wished they had fallen under the inspection
of an able anatomist, as they would certainly have afforded him matter
for curious observation. The bones called the _stapes_, _incus_, &c., as
well as the _cochlea_, were of large proportions. The eyes also were
large and prominent, dilated at their base like an onion. When the white
outer coat was removed, which was easily accomplished, the cornea
appeared of considerable thickness, in which, when in a room, external
objects were very accurately delineated, but not so abroad. The
crystalline lens was remarkably soft, and scarcely of more consistency
than the vitreous humour. The _tunica arachnoidea_ was very
conspicuous, filled with innumerable vessels, and of such firmness as to
be very easily separable from the cornea. In the middle, near the optic
nerve, it looked red from the number of blood-vessels, but the sides
were of a blueish black. There were two orifices at the larger corner of
the eye.
On this same mountain grew in abundance a kind of _Muscus lichenoides_
of a greyish black colour, as if scorched or burnt, different from what
authors have described, being more coriaceous and greenish, while that
is black and brittle, almost like burnt paper, and smooth underneath;
whereas the plant I here observed has the under side entirely covered
with fibres like little roots. (This was the true _Lichen velleus_ of
Linnaeus, preserved in his herbarium, and figured in Dillenius, _tab. 82.
f. 5_. See _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 360_.)
The branches of Spruce Fir here began to show that appearance to which
Clusius, if my memory does not deceive me, has given the name of _Pinus
nodosa_. These knots consist of innumerable little plates, looking as if
all the buds had been cut short, and platted together. In the inside is
lodged a great mass of very small oblong insects, or rather eggs.
_June 17._
Although I walked about a good deal, and was not inattentive to what
came in my way, I met with nothing peculiarly worthy of notice. On the
grass I frequently observed that substance like saliva, which the common
people call Frog-spittle, and which envelops a little pale
flesh-coloured insect like a small Grasshopper. This insect, though not
arrived at maturity, moved in some degree, and showed sufficient signs
of the family to which it belonged, though it was not yet old enough to
cut capers. I removed the frothy moisture from some of these insects,
and on returning to them in the course of an hour, I found them covered
as before; a proof of the origin of the froth, which is produced by the
animal for the purpose of protecting its tender skin against the violent
heat of the sun.
Whilst I was busied in these observations, a number of cattle came
running over the fields with the greatest velocity. Even the most
miserably lean cows, which one would think scarcely able to drag one leg
after another, went skipping along like does. _Hic pauper cornua
sumit_[46]. They twisted their tails round and round, and went bounding
and frisking about, till they at length reached a puddle, where they
stopped all at once, as having found a sure asylum against the enemy
that had put them to flight. Anxious to investigate what it could be
that excited such extraordinary agitation, and prompted such exertions
as neither the whip nor the fear of immediate death could occasion, I
discovered it to be an insect which I had already met with lower down
in the country, and which is no other than an _Oestrus_ or Gad-fly,
(_Asilus crabroniformis_). Our Natural Historians confound the _Oestrus_
with the _Tabanus_, which are as distinct from each other as a hare from
a bear[47]. Cattle indeed are as much incommoded by the _Broms_
(_Tabanus bovinus_) as by the very worst of the Fly or _Musca_ tribe, to
which the _Tabanus_ certainly belongs; but by the _Oestrus_ (_Asilus_)
they are frightened out of their wits. This insect does not fix itself
on the body of the animal, but on the feet, between the larger and
smaller hoofs. As it scarcely ever flies higher above the earth than two
or three spans, and in general not more than four or five inches, the
cattle, when aware of it, run as fast as they can till they get their
feet into water or marshy ground, in which situations they are free from
danger. The habit of the insect is that of an _Ichneumon_, and it much
resembles a Hornet, being of a yellowish colour, with a small sharp
point at its tail curved forwards. See the figure and description of
Frisch, and my own specimen.
[46] "Here the poor takes up horns." Alluding to Horace's "_addis
cornua pauperi_."
[47] By this comparison, and the subsequent allusion to an
_Ichneumon_ and a Hornet, Linnaeus at the present period appears to
have taken this _Asilus_ for one of the hymenopterous order, and he
even calls it an _Ichneumon_ in _Act. Upsal. ann. 1736, p. 29, n.
8_. The history of its attacking the feet of cattle is given in the
first edition of _Fauna Suecica_, 308, on the authority of the
country people, but is omitted in the second, probably because
Linnaeus found he had been misinformed. My learned entomological
friend the Rev. Mr. Kirby observes that the real _Oestrus Bovis_ is,
as has from all antiquity been believed, the cause of the
above-described agitation in cattle, who escape it by running into
cool damp places, which it dislikes to frequent.
_June 18._ Sunday.
The people brought me a peasant's daughter, a year and half old, who was
deprived of sight, requesting me to say whether her complaint was a
cataract. Finding the eyes well formed, without any unusual appearance,
and quite free from specks or clouds, I was rather inclined to say the
child had a _gutta serena_, but was soon convinced that this could not
be the case, as she evidently enjoyed being in the light near the
window. But at the same time I remarked curious convulsive motions in
the eyes, and that when the child was spoken to, and tried to look
towards the speaker, they were turned upside down, so that only the
white part became visible. She was born in this state. I inquired of the
mother whether, when she was with child, she had seen any body turn
their eyes in this manner. She replied that she was then in constant
attendance on her mother, or mother-in-law, who was supposed to be
dying, but afterwards recovered, and whose eyes were affected with
similar convulsions. _Hinc illae lachrymae_; this was the cause of the
infant's misfortune. I believe it was not originally blind, but that the
focus was situated too much on one side of the eye-ball, so that vision
was impossible unless the eyes were placed in a particular position
with respect to the rays of light, as is observable in persons that
squint. The natural situation of the eyes in the subject before me was
partly under the upper lid, so that only half the pupil was exposed, and
this was sufficient for vision in one particular direction only. I know
no remedy for such a misfortune, except perhaps glasses, cut in a
peculiar manner for this express purpose, might help it. I recommended
however that the child's cradle should be placed with the feet towards
the window, so that she might, though not at first without
inconvenience, gradually acquire a habit of turning her eyes downward in
pursuit of the light; for by repeated efforts any thing becomes possible
and easy. Bartholin's management of squint-eyed people is founded on the
same principles.
After a violent storm of thunder with much rain, I went, about four in
the afternoon, to the new town of Pithoea, and examined several
gardens, in order to learn what plants are able to stand the severe
winters of this inhospitable climate. Among them were the Burnet
(_Poterium Sanguisorba_) and the Costmary (_Tanacetum Balsamita_). Some
young oaks had been raised from acorns the preceding year, the greater
part of which were killed by the winter frosts. A few of them only had
put forth a fresh shoot just above the ground. The apple-trees were
almost entirely destroyed.
_June 19._
I set out very early in the morning on a sea voyage to explore the
natural productions of the tract called Skargarden and the islands
belonging to it. The water a mile out at sea was scarcely salt, on
account of the numerous rivers which here discharge themselves into the
bay. No plants worth notice were to be found, though I searched
carefully every place likely to afford any. Near the beach, where the
tide often rises in winter ten or twelve fathoms, I observed an Alder
thicket now white with little patches of _Trientalis_ and _Mesomora_
(_Trientalis europaea_ and _Cornus suecica_), whose snowy blossoms were a
great ornament to the shore. Ray therefore justly mentions[48] the
latter plant as growing in maritime places in Sweden. Here likewise grew
the Male and Female Lychnis (_L. dioica_), for the most part with red
flowers, very rarely with white; as well as the _Gramen miliaceum_
(_Milium effusum?_), and a Rush two feet high, with its sharp stem
reaching a span above the panicle, which is lateral, and divided into
three principal branches. Of this there was also a smaller variety.
(This Rush must have been the _Juncus effusus_. See _Fl. Lapp. n. 117_.)
[48] See his _Historia Plantarum, v. 1. 655_, which Linnaeus here
correctly quotes from memory.
The people hereabouts talked much of mountains haunted by hobgoblins,
particularly the hill called Svenberget, situated between new and old
Pithoea; also of seas and fishing-places, where nothing is to be
caught, unless by those who come unexpectedly. Their discourse moreover
ran on that useful sort of witchcraft by which a thief is put to his
wit's end and detected. The origin of these fables may partly be traced
in history, and the rest is to be attributed to invention.
The fishes of this neighbourhood are the Crusian (_Cyprinus Carassius_),
the Miller's Thumb (_Cottus Gobio_), the Bream (_Cyprinus Brama_), the
Asp (_Cyprinus Aspius_) called in this part of Lapland _Kuroupek_, the
St[:a]m (_Cyprinus Grislagine_), the Three-spined Stickleback
(_Gasterosteus aculeatus_), the Lax[:a]kel, a species of Trout (can this be
the small or young Salmon, mentioned in _Fauna Suecica n. 345_?), the
Rud (_Cyprinus erythrophthalmus_), and the Holken (what this last is I
know not).
In the island of Longoen, three miles from Old Pithoea, I was lucky
enough to find, growing under a Spruce Fir, the Coral-rooted Orchis
(_Ophrys corallorrhiza, Engl. Bot. t. 1547._) in full bloom, which had
never fallen in my way before. It is a very rare plant, and grows so
sparingly, that, after finding one specimen, there is little hope of
soon meeting with another[49].
[49] In the _Flora Lapponica_ this plant is said to be very frequent
in Lapland. In other countries it is usually reckoned extremely
rare; but I was favoured by Mr. Edward John Maughan, a young
botanist of Edinburgh, in the summer of 1807, with a copious supply
of specimens and living roots, gathered amongst willows in a peat
bog, a little to the south of Dalmahoy hill, about nine miles from
Edinburgh. Some of the roots blossomed in my garden.
[Illustration]
The root is throughout of the thickness of a very small quill, white,
smooth, fleshy, almost horizontal, branched and subdivided like a
coral; the branches obtuse, and very slightly compressed, destitute of
capillary fibres. Stem erect, simple, smooth, six inches high. Leaves
none, except three sheaths, each longer and narrower than that below it,
which reaches above its base, and all cylindrical, of a pale
flesh-colour. Flowers generally about eight or ten, spreading in three
rows, occupying an inch and half of the upper part of the stem; all
equidistant, sessile, each with an acute scale at its base, cloven with
an obtuse sinus. Germen oblong, striated, curved slightly outwards, but
at length becoming erect and rugged. Calyx of three oblong, narrow,
acute, purple-tipped, concave, equal leaves, longer than the petals, one
of them being superior, the others inferior. Petals three: two of them
ovate, adhering by their edges, constituting an upper lip; their summits
reddish: the lowermost a flat, reflexed, obtuse, white lip, sprinkled
with purplish dots near its base.
_June 20._
This day I examined two nondescript species of fish, belonging to the
genus _Cyprinus_. The first is called Stemma (_Cyprinus Grislagine_).
Its head is oblong and obtuse, black on the top, silvery at the sides,
and white beneath. The back of the fish is also blackish; its sides of a
shining silvery hue; the belly white. Eyes round and white, their
_irides_ dotted, especially the upper part, which is moreover marked
with a large verdigrise-green spot just above the black pupil. Nostrils
round, accompanied with a pair of smaller roundish orifices. Mouth
without teeth. Tongue blunt. Lower jaw a little the shortest; that part
which covers the gills consisting of five connected, obtuse, not
spinous, rays on each side. Dorsal fin solitary, of ten rays, the first
of which is very short and undivided; the second twice as long, but
likewise simple; each of the rest twice forked, except the tenth, which
is only obscurely cloven. Tail forked, acute, of eighteen rays, one of
which on each side is very long and simple, the others gradually
shorter, twice forked, some of them still more subdivided. Anal fin of
eleven rays, like those of the dorsal one, the external ones longest, as
in that, both fins appearing forked when unexpanded. Ventral fins of
nine rays each, one of them long and simple, the rest, as in the
foregoing, gradually shorter, the last being cloven. These fins are not
forked when unexpanded. Brachial (or pectoral) fins of seventeen rays
like those of the foregoing, except that each is much shorter than its
preceding neighbour, the ultimate one being scarcely discernible. Scales
in seventeen rows on each side, including the dorsal and ventral rows in
each reckoning, otherwise only fifteen. In the tenth row the lateral
line is marked by a minute ovate-oblong dot on each scale of a silvery
white, so that there are about fifty such dots on each side. The dorsal
fin is blackish, the rest pale, the ventral ones very slightly
yellowish.
The whole length is two palms and five lines.
From the nose to the dorsal fin three inches.
Base of the dorsal fin eight lines; its length thirteen lines.
From that fin to the tail three inches and five lines.
Length of the tail one inch and four lines; its diameter at the base
seven lines.
From each point to the fork ten lines.
From the tail fin to the anal one, one inch, two lines.
Base of the latter eight lines; its length eleven.
From the anal to the ventral fins one inch, five lines.
Base of the latter eight lines; their length eleven.
From the ventral to the pectoral fin one inch, eight lines.
Base of the latter four lines, length eleven.
Length of the head one inch, five lines.
Greatest diameter of the body one inch, five lines.
The other fish was a smaller _Cyprinus_, of a yellowish silvery hue,
called at Pithoea _Wimba_. (_C. Wimba._ _Syst. Nat. ed. 12. v. 1. 531_).
I could not perceive it to differ in any character from the preceding,
except that it had sixty dots on each side, so that though a smaller
fish it had more numerous dots and scales. The colour of the back was
paler, and less black; the sides of a pale silvery hue. Ventral fins
reddish at the outer and anterior edges, as is the lower edge of the
tail.
Both these fishes differ from the Roach (_Cyprinus Rutilus_) in the
colours of their eyes and fins, as well as in being thinner at the back.
_June 21._
I took my leave of the old town of Pithoea, and arrived at the more
modern one of Lulea. All along by the road side I remarked the curious
manner in which the Fir blossoms. Its branches produce a fresh shoot
every year from their extremity; by observing the series of which shoots
the age of the tree can be accurately computed. They retain their
original leaves, which are needle-shaped, for three years; but when
these fall the same branch never acquires any more. The male flowers,
each of which is a _corymbus_ of stamens, grow from the side of the
present year's shoot, near its base; but the female ones proceed from
the extreme point, and are round and red. Both kinds of flowers are
however but seldom found on the same shoot.
In the Money-wort (_Linnaea borealis_), though its flower is, not without
reason, reckoned by every body of the regular kind, its stamens indicate
the contrary. They are four as in labiate flowers, two small, and two
longer ones near the other side. Betwixt these the pistil is situated,
being bent towards one side as in labiate plants. The upper lip
therefore is to be understood as consisting of two lobes, the lower of
three, though all the lobes are alike[50].
[50] In this instance the Linnaean system led to a true knowledge of
the natural affinity of the plant, which one founded on the corolla
would scarcely have done.
The bogs were now white with the tufts of both kinds of Cotton-grass,
the upright and the pendulous (_Eriophorum vaginatum_ and
_polystachion_). The marshes were clothed with the white blossoms of
_Ledum_ (_palustre_). The Dwarf Bramble (_Rubus arcticus_) became
gradually less abundant. The forests also were white with the
_Trientalis_ and _Mesomora_ (_Cornus suecica_), which began to fade, and
the Bilberry (_Vaccinium Myrtillus_) was taking their place, along with
the _Melampyrum_ (_sylvaticum_) and _Geranium_ (_sylvaticum_). The
meadows were perfectly yellow with the upright _Ranunculus_ (_acris_),
and some of the cornfields were no less so with _Brassica campestris_;
but where the _Behen_ (_Silene inflata, Fl. Brit._) was beginning to
shoot forth, the former withered away. The rivulets were white with
_Menyanthes_ (_trifoliata_). The Cotton-grass and Willows now began to
scatter their winged seeds.