[Illustration]
1. A large black Capricorn Beetle, variegated with a lighter hue.
(_Cerambyx Sutor_, the female.) The horns were longer than the body,
black, consisting of ten joints, each joint ash-coloured at its
base. Body black, rugged, its wing-cases besprinkled here and there
with clustered dirty spots. Abdomen cylindrical, covered towards the
thorax with beautiful red lice, (_Acarus coleoptratorum_).
2. A minute black fly, with a roundish body and white wings, (_Culex
equinus_). This infested the horses in infinite multitudes, running
under their mane, and attacking them with great fierceness, being
not easily driven off. (See its figure subjoined to the former.)
3. A grey Gnat, with striated wings, a blackish body, and black legs
surrounded with white rings. (Mentioned, in the _Fauna Suecica_, as
a large variety of _Culex pipiens_, the Common Gnat.) This cruelly
tormented me and my most miserable horse. Its wings are whitish,
appearing striated near the veins by the refraction of the sun's
rays. The thorax was hairy, especially underneath. Abdomen oblong,
dotted with black at the sides. All the other parts were grey. While
the insect feeds, it raises up its hind feet into a horizontal
posture. If I stooped ever so little whilst walking in the meadows,
my nostrils and eyes were filled with these gnats.
_June 22._
I gathered a shrubby Willow, with lanceolate downy leaves like those of
_Elaeagnus_. (This was _Salix arenaria_.) It is rather a large shrub, but
rarely rises to the size of a tree. The leaves are furrowed along the
course of the veins, and convex between them, slightly downy and of a
greyish green on the upper side; clothed with snowy woolliness beneath.
The lower scales of the bud nearly smooth above, and very green. Stem
smooth, almost flesh-coloured, or pale brown; the young branches
reddish, clothed with white down. (See _Engl. Bot. v. 26. t. 1809_.)
Near the new town of Pithoea, close to the shore, grew the round-leaved
Water Violet (_Viola palustris_) with perfectly snow-white flowers.
The Dwarf-cypress moss (_Lycopodium complanatum_) is rather plentiful
hereabouts, and is used for dyeing yarn. For this purpose it is boiled
with birch leaves, gathered at midsummer. It gives a yellow colour to
woollen cloths. On the shore near old Lulea grew _Ranunculus minimus
parisiensis_ (_R. reptans_).
The new town of Lulea is very small, situated on a peninsula,
encompassed by a kind of bay. The soil is extremely barren. Indeed the
town stands on a little eminence, which is a mere heap of stones, with
sea-sand in their interstices. It seems as if the sea had carried away
all the earth, and, like a beast of prey, had left nothing but the
bones, throwing sand over them to conceal its ravages.
I quitted this new town at one o'clock, there being nothing to be got;
and as no horse was to be procured in the whole place, I proceeded by
sea to old Lulea, half a mile distant. Here I met with a curious kind of
grass, which in Smoland is called Kaffa skiaegg, or Old-man's beard: at
Pithoea its name is Svinborst, Hog's bristles: and at this place it is
known by the denomination of Lapp-h[:a]r, Lapland hair. (_Nardus stricta_,
_Engl. Bot. t. 290_.) It was now in blossom. The root seems half
bulbous, or as it were an aggregation of numerous bulbs. The leaves are
bristly like a beard, and rough to the touch. The spike is unilateral,
and scarcely thicker than the stem, composed of equally narrow alternate
oblong scales.
The presence of this grass, as well as the whole aspect of the forests,
marshes, cornfields, meadows, waters and herbage, evinced a great
conformity betwixt this country and Smoland. Many herbaceous plants grow
here which are not to be found in Upland, Sudermannia, Ostro-gothia,
nor Scania, though natives of Smoland.
In passing over a meadow towards the water-side I heard something snap
and crackle in the marshes, as if the water had been boiling. In several
places the latter was dried up, so that mud only remained, and these
spots were almost entirely covered with a kind of shell-fish which made
the above-mentioned noise. I observed the same in several similar
places, but in others none were to be seen till I had stirred up the
mud, when it proved full of these animals, which seemed to have made
their way deeper and deeper into the soil as the water had withdrawn.
The same sound may be observed in a thousand places, originally dry,
when the water has access to them, but I had never ascertained the cause
till now. (These shells seem to have been the _Mya arenaria_, _Faun.
Suec. n. 2127_.)
The _Swammerdamia_ flies of Swammerdam and Lister were flying about
here, as numerous as atoms. I observed an insect unknown to me, with a
yellowish globular body the size of a lentil. Amongst the grass were
thousands of the most minute species of Gnat, (_Culex pulicaris_,) the
males being distinguished by their hairy foretops (_antennae_).
The water swarmed with innumerable small fishes, just spawned, so
pellucid that they were rendered conspicuous chiefly by their large
eyes. The observer of nature sees, with admiration, that "the whole
world is full of the glory of God."
This neighbourhood abounds with the _Stellaria minima_ of botanists,
(_Callitriche_,) generally supposed to be very rare. It is evidently no
naturally distinct species, but a variety caused by circumstances. Every
one knows that the common kind always floats in the water; whereas this
_minima_ never grows where water is actually present, but where it has
been dried up in consequence of hot weather. Not being, therefore, able
to sustain itself upright, it must creep, and becomes at the same time
diminutive from a deficiency of its usual aliment. If any one doubts
this, let him place this dwarf plant in a rivulet, or the larger one in
a situation from which the water is retiring, and the result will remove
every doubt.
The inhabitants here are frequently afflicted with the scurvy, whence
arise ulcers of the mouth and _uvula_, ulcerous sores and swelling of
the feet, as well as aching pains in the legs and feet, and dropsical
swellings of the latter. It may be expected that the peasants will be
most liable to these latter diseases on festival days[51].
[51] Linnaeus perhaps means, that they may have a pretence to avoid
the drudgery of going to church, through some of the hardships he
has already described; yet here the church seems to have been near
at hand, and in itself not unentertaining.
_June 23._
I went to see the old church of Lulea. Close by the door I was shown a
hole which the monks had formerly caused to be made in the stone wall.
It was perfectly circular, sixteen lines in diameter, and terminated in
an obtuse oval cavity. It was intended as a measure to decide in some
cases occasionally brought before the ecclesiastical court. Within the
church is a magnificent altar-piece, adorned with old statues of
martyrs, in the heads of which are cavities to hold water, with outlets
at the eyes, so that these figures could, at the pleasure of the
priests, be made to weep. There are two pedestals, with an image upon
each, whose hands are so contrived that, by means of a cord, they could
be lifted up in adoration, as the people passed by them in entering the
church[52].
[52] In Tuneld's Geography, I am told, is the following account of
this church: "The parish church of Lulea is regarded as the oldest
in Westbothnia, having been built in the very earliest ages of
Christianity, and was very famous while the catholic religion
prevailed in Sweden. It contains a remarkable old altar-piece, the
gilding of which cost 2408 ducats. In the vestry a copy of the
canonical law, in seven volumes folio, is still preserved."
A quarter of a mile to the north of the town is a mineral well, the
water of which the dean and some other persons had used medicinally. The
dean, who was gouty, had, in consequence of drinking this water, formed
some chalk-stones. The well is situated in a steep mossy and marshy
bank. Its water throws up sand as it rises, looks clear, ferments in a
glass, with an iridescent appearance in the sunshine. It has a slight
taste of vitriol, but is smooth in drinking. When shaken, it emitted a
smell like that of gun-powder. A solution of galls turned it reddish,
but the mixture did not stain white paper. Blue paper is not affected by
this water. It deposits a great quantity of ochre, and the surface bears
a silvery film.
This day and the two preceding, indeed every day since the 18th, had
been bright, warm, and for the most part calm. The meadows were still
fine and beautiful in their aspect, and every thing conspired to favour
the health and pleasure of the beholder. If the summer be indeed
shorter here than in any other part of the world, it must be allowed, at
the same time, to be no where more delightful. I was never in my life in
better health than at present.
The meadows in this neighbourhood abound with an arborescent willow,
whose leaves are like those of an _Alaternus_, or a laurel. (_Salix
phylicifolia_, _Engl. Bot. t. 1958_. _Fl. Lapp. n. 351. t. 8. f. d_). It
is remarkable for the undulations, or flexures, between the serratures
of the leaf.
The use of milk among the inhabitants of Westbothnia is very great; and
the following are the various forms in which it serves them for food: