Carl von LinnE

Near Storbacken, at the confluence of the great and small rivers of Lulea, is the boundary mark between Lapmark and Westbothnia.

As soon as I entered Lapmark, the hill which forms a promontory betwixt the two rivers afforded me the following plants.

The Sorrel lately mentioned (Rumex digynus) was here in blossom. The calyx is of two leaves; the petals two, perfectly like the calyx. Stamens six. Pistils two, in the same flower with the stamens, reflexed. Fruit compressed, with two, not three, angles. Some of its flowers were infected with smut, as in barley.

The Small Liquorice (Astragalus alpinus, see p. 159). Some plants had white flowers, tipped with a blueish hue; the others bore entirely purple blossoms.

On the hill named Wollerim I met with a very rare little species of Asphodel, with white flowers in a roundish spike (Anthericum calyculatum, Sp. Pl. Tofieldia palustris, Engl. Bot. t. 536). The leaves are ranged on each other's back (equitant) as in the Marsh Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum, t. 535). At a small distance in the marshes I found the small flowering rush of Bauhin, Juncoidi affinis of Scheuchzer, (Scheuchzeria palustris). The calyx is of six oblong sharpish leaves, reflexed and permanent. Petals none. Stamens six, capillary, very short, pendulous, with upright, very long, obtuse, compressed apices (anthers). Embryos (germens) three, often four, rarely five, ovate, compressed. Pistils (styles) none. Stigmas attached to the outer part of the embryos, not elevated. Capsules of two valves, with one seed in each capsule. Leaves concave, sheathing the lower part of the stem.

In the evening I observed Red Currants (Ribes rubrum), and a kind of panicled grass with blue leaves, (perhaps an Aira, but it cannot now be determined).

Here was the black biting spider (Aranea palustris), but not the littoralis (A. riparia).

June 29.

The Pine trees are observed to be more barren of branches on their north sides; hence the common people know by these trees which way the north lies. The timber lay here in abundance, entirely useless. Brandy is made from the fir, as well as from the berries of mountain ash.

About a mile from Pajarim I came to the mountain of Koskesvari, which is very lofty, insomuch that the snowy summits of the Lapland alps are visible from it, though at a very great distance. In this elevated situation the Red Whortle-berry (Vaccinium Vitis idÆa) assumes a quite different appearance from what is usual, its stems being twice as long, perfectly erect, and not branched. The extremities of the branches of the Spruce-fir bear small yellow cones, which however are nothing else than the leaves deformed, being thicker and shorter than when in their proper state, and of a pale yellow, marked on their inside with two prominent orange-coloured lines. When arrived at maturity, they burst asunder, and discharge an orange-coloured powder, which stains the clothes of those who approach the tree. I conceive these excrescences to be caused by some minute insects. The common people eat them raw as a dainty, like berries. Here also I met with a narrow-leaved Cirsium (Serratula alpina), which I had previously noticed in Umoean Lapmark, but it was not then in bloom. Likewise (Rhamnus) Frangula, Pinguicula, Unbranched Quaking-grass (this must have been Melica nutans), Corallorrhiza, the Narrow-leaved Spotted Orchis (maculata), Geranium (sylvaticum) with a white flower veined with purple, a purple pistil and blue anthers. The leaves of this last plant were variously divided, the lower in seven lobes, the middle ones in five, the uppermost opposite and sessile, with only three lobes. Two flowers grow on each stalk.

Here also I gathered a Pinguicula, the fore-part of whose petal was white, the hind-part blue, which is certainly a beautiful as well as singular variety. (See Fl. Lapp. n. 11. P. vulgaris.)

The trees here produce Usnea arborea (Lichen plicatus), which the Laplanders apply to excoriations of the feet caused by excessive walking. They line their shoes with this moss, a practice which might with advantage be adopted by soldiers on a march. The Laplanders also line their shoes with grass, consisting of various species of Carex, (especially C. sylvatica, Fl. Brit.). This grass they comb with iron or horn combs, bruising it between their hands till it becomes soft and pliable. When dried they cram it into their shoes, and it answers instead of stockings for defending the feet from cold. (See Fl. Lapp. n. 328.)

After much trouble and fatigue, I at length reached Jockmock, where stands the principal church of this northern district, and where its pastor resides.

June 30.

The clergyman of Jockmock, Mr. Malming, who is the schoolmaster, and Mr. HÖgling the curate, tormented me with their consummate and most pertinacious ignorance. I could not but wonder how so much pride and ambition, such scandalous want of information, with such incorrigible stupidity, could exist in persons of their profession, who are commonly expected to be men of knowledge; yet any school-boy twelve years of age might be better informed. No man will deny the propriety of such people as these, at least, being placed as far as possible from civilized society.

The learned curate began his conversation with remarks on the clouds in this country, setting forth how they strike the mountains as they pass, carrying away stones, trees and cattle. I ventured to suggest that such accidents were rather to be attributed to the force of the wind, for that the clouds could not of themselves lift, or carry away, any thing. He laughed at me, saying surely I had never seen any clouds. For my part, it seemed to me that he could have never been any where but in the clouds. I replied, that whenever the weather is foggy I walk in clouds, and when the fog is condensed, and no longer supported in the air, it immediately rains beneath my feet. At all such reasoning, being above his comprehension, he only laughed with a sardonic smile. Still less was he satisfied with my explanation how watery bubbles may be lifted up into the air, as he told me the clouds were solid bodies. On my denying this, he reinforced his assertion with a text of scripture, silencing me by authority, and then laughing at my ignorance. He next condescended to inform me that after rain a phlegm is always to be found on the mountains, where the clouds have touched them. Upon my replying that this phlegm is a vegetable called Nostoc, I was, like St. Paul, judged to be mad, and that too much learning had turned my brain. This philosopher, who was as fully persuaded of his own complete knowledge of nature, as Sturmius was of being able to fly by means of hollow globes, was pleased to be very facetious at my expense. At length he graciously advised me to pay some regard to the opinions of people skilled in these abstruse matters, and not, at my return home, to expose myself by publishing such absurd and preposterous opinions as I had now advanced.

The other, the pedagogue, lamented that people should bestow so much attention upon temporal vanities, and consequently, alas! neglect their spiritual good[55]; and he remarked that many a man had been ruined by too great application to study.

Both these wise men concurred in one thing. They could not conceal their wonder that the Royal Academy should expressly have appointed a mere student for the purposes for which I was sent, without considering that there were already as competent men resident in the country, who would have undertaken the business. They declared they would either of them have been ready to accept of the charge. In my opinion, however, they would but have exhibited a fresh illustration of the proverb of the ass and the lyre.

The number of pupils under the care of the gentleman above mentioned at this time amounted to four only. The church is but a small one.

It is a practice here with some persons who have the headache, from excessive drinking or any other cause, to hold their foreheads before the fire till they smart violently. Others apply to the temples young shoots of spruce fir bruised.

Half a mile from the church I gathered the Cirsium minus (Serratula alpina), the Cacalia (Tussilago frigida), the latter not in flower, and one kind of Botsko of the Laplanders, called Bioernstut in Westbothnia (Angelica sylvestris), which is the narrow-leaved species of Angelica, and resembles the larger kind. Its general umbel is destitute of an involucrum. My Lapland companion seized it immediately, and peeling the stalk, which had not yet flowered, ate it like a turnip, as a great delicacy. Indeed it tasted not unpleasantly, especially the upper part, which is the most tender. This dainty is in great request amongst the Laplanders.

We arrived at length at Purkijau, a small island, the northern side of which is planted with forests of spruce fir, and the others with woods of birch, by way of protection to the corn. The colonist who resides here informed me that the corn never suffered from cold, as, besides the shelter afforded by these plantations, the circumjacent water moderated the degree of frost. The situation of this island is pleasant. I found in some bushy parts of it the Sceptrum Carolinum, and another species of Pedicularis, with narrow leaves and a tuft of purple flowers (this seems to have been P. sylvatica only).

The river Karax, where is a pearl fishery, runs not far from hence. On its banks I remarked the Sceptrum Carolinum, which became very common as I advanced further on my journey.

Another mile brought us to the lake of Randiau; on approaching which we saw nothing before us but lofty mountains of an oblong obtuse form, lifting their summits one above another, and on the most distant of these snow was to be seen, though half melted away like snow in the spring.

[55] I have known one instance of such bigotry, or rather hypocrisy, out of Lapland.

July 1.

Parkajaur, the first lake I reached after leaving the place where I slept, is a short mile in length. At its opposite shore rises the lofty peaked mountain of Achiekoivi, or Tornberget, upon whose summit the Laplanders used, in ancient times, to offer sacrifice, for the success of their herds of reindeer. The mountain still shows traces of fire. At the western end of this lake a Laplander resided, and from thence it was scarcely a quarter of a mile by land to the next lake, called Skalk, where as I passed near a waterfall, I found the Barbarea and Pedicularis, both already mentioned, also the Asphodel (Tofieldia palustris, Fl. Brit.) and the little Astragalus, see p. 159.

When I came to the lake Skalk in the way towards Kiomitis, about a mile short of the last-mentioned place, I was much struck with an opening between the hills to the north-west, through which appeared a range of mountains, from ten to twenty miles distant, as white as the clouds, and seeming not above a mile from the spot where I stood. Their summits reached the clouds, and indeed they resembled a range of white clouds rising from the horizon. They recalled to my mind the frontispiece of Rudbeck's Lapponia Illustrata. Mountains upon mountains rose before me in every direction. In a word, I now beheld the Lapland alps.

Arriving in the evening at Kiomitis, I saw the sun set apparently on the summit of a high mountain called Harrevarto, situated over against the house of the parish clerk. This spectacle I considered as not one of the least of Nature's miracles, for what inhabitant of other countries would not wish to behold it? O Lord, how wonderful are thy works!

July 2.

At Kiomitis I rested during the whole of this day, Sunday.

Here the beautiful corn was growing in great perfection in valleys between the snowy mountains. It had shot up so high as to be laid in some places by the rain. It had been sown on the 25th or 26th of May, as at Umoea.

I found in abundance Tripolium pratense, coron calyce breviori, or Aster folio non acri, flore purpureo; (Erigeron uniflorum, Fl. Lapp. n. 307. t. 9. f. 3.) The same occurred with a white flower. Also Euphrasia (officinalis) about its usual size, but with very small flowers; (a variety mentioned in the Flora Lapponica, n. 247, found likewise in Switzerland.) In the same neighbourhood grew the Tetrahit, both with small and large flowers, (Galeopsis Tetrahit, and G. versicolor, Fl. Brit.)

July 3.

Early this morning I went with Mr. Joachim Koch, quarter-master of the regiment stationed here, and Mr. Segar Swanberg, master of the mines, to the Kiuriwari, a high mountain half a mile from Kiomitis, where a silver mine had just been opened. The ore showed itself only in one cleft, whose sides it seemed to cement together.

All over this mountain I observed a kind of Uva Ursi with black fruit, which I do not know that any author has described. The flower was exactly like that of the Mealy-berry (Arbutus Uva-ursi); each stood on a simple stalk, and had five teeth at its orifice. The fruit was of five cells, globose, enclosed in the petal. (Arbutus alpina.)

I likewise found here a Catch-fly with ten stamens and five styles (Lychnis alpina), exactly similar to the common Catch-fly (Lychnis Viscaria), except that the flowers were smaller and not so much scattered, neither was the stem at all viscid.

Birch trees were to be found even on the highest part of this hill, but of a very diminutive stature. Their trunks were thick but low, and their highest shoots seemed to have been killed by frost, so that the young leaves looked as if they were growing out of branches that had been burnt. I was told that these trees afford every year but a very small portion of sap, and that the wood is much harder than the common kind. Such diminutive trees grow to a great age. The further I proceeded up the country, the smaller I still found them.

Some of the people hereabouts clean their half-boots and harness with the fat of fish; others purchase blacking from Norway.

July 4.

I met with an Andromeda with leaves like Empetrum (A. cÆrulea). The stem and foliage were exactly like that plant, but somewhat larger. The calyx rough, short, with five teeth. Corolla of one petal, blue, ovate, with five spreading notched segments at its orifice. Stamens ten, very short, with horned anthers. Pistil one, the length of the corolla, with a blunt pentagonal stigma.

The following food is prepared by the Laplanders from milk.

The messen or whey, after the cheese is made, is boiled to a thick consistence, and a small quantity of cream from the milk of the reindeer is added. The whole is afterwards dried in the maw or rennet-bag of the reindeer, and tastes very well.

Kappa is the scum which rises while the whey is boiling. This being skimmed off, is also kept in rennet-bags for use.

The milk is not turned, in order to make cheese, with rennet, but with the maws of pike (Esox Lucius), of charr (Salmo alpinus), or of the grayling (Salmo Thymallus). These are previously dried, and preserved for use in a little keg of milk. When any of this is taken out for use, they are careful to fill up the vessel with fresh milk, that they may always have a supply at hand.

JumomjÖlk is prepared by boiling half a pint of syra (see p. 243) in a small quantity of water, which must be kept stirring till the whole is perfectly dissolved. It is then mixed with milk of the reindeer, and poured either into rennet-bags of that animal, or some kind of pot or tub, in which it is preserved for future use, if not immediately eaten.

Rennet is also made by taking the maws of such reindeer fawns as die in the spring, putting milk into them, and hanging it up to dry for use.

I here made the following observations relative to the remedies used by the Laplanders.

Their Moxa, as the Japanese call it, but which they term Toule, is made of a fine fungus found on the birch, and always chosen from the south side of the tree. Of this they apply a piece as large as a pea, upon the afflicted part, setting fire to it with a twig of birch, and letting it burn gradually away. This is repeated two or three times. It produces a sore that will often keep open for six months afterwards, nor must it be closed till it heals spontaneously. This remedy is used for all aches and pains; as the headache, toothache, pleurisy, pain in the stomach, lumbago, &c. It is the universal medicine of the Laplanders, and may be called their little physician.

Kattie is a kind of drawing or ripening plaister made in the following manner. The fine loose scaly bark of birch is set on fire, and immediately quenched in water. It is then chewed, in the same manner as when wanted for cementing earthen-ware together, and afterwards mixed with fresh turpentine from the spruce fir, both being kneaded together by the hands, till the mass becomes a black uniform plaister. This has a very emollient quality, and is successfully applied to hard imposthumes, &c., which it brings to maturity without pain in a short time, and promotes their discharge.

The common method of the Laplanders for joining broken earthen-ware, is to tie the fragments together with a thread, and boil the whole in fresh milk, by which they are cemented to each other.

The grass used for lining shoes is a Carex pseudo-cyperus, with many slender pendulous spikes. (Carex sylvatica, Fl. Brit.)

An ointment for burns is made of fresh cream boiled to a thick consistence, with which the sore is anointed. It removes the pain, and admirably promotes the healing of the ulcer.

For chilblains, the oil or fat which exudes from toasted reindeer cheese, rubbed upon the part affected, is a sovereign cure. Some persons use dog's fat for the same purpose. The latter is also used for pains in the back, being rubbed in before a fire.

The Laplanders make use of no razor, but cut their beards with scissars. They never cut the hair of the head, and only occasionally employ a comb or any similar instrument. They have no laundress or washerwoman.

The drug called castor is one of their great remedies for every disease, and the gall of the bear is another.

When a wedding is to be celebrated, the lover takes all his relations along with him, each carrying meat and brandy. Being arrived at—(this sentence is left unfinished in the manuscript.)

July 5.

I continued my journey to Hyttan, and in my way passed a marshy place, such as the Laplanders call murki. Close to the borders of it grew the least Thalictrum (T. alpinum), with four pale petals, and twelve stamens with long anthers, their filaments purple. In another part grew an Androsace with two drooping flowers. It had five stamens; one capitate pistil; an ovate fruit of one cell; a five-cleft calyx, and a swelling (corolla of one) petal. It is therefore not a good Androsace. (This was unquestionably Primula integrifolia, see Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 52, which LinnÆus, in that work, seems to have confounded with P. farinosa. Speaking of the latter he says, "This Primula, the splendid crimson of whose flowers attracts the eyes of all who traverse the fields of Scania and the meadows of Upland in the early spring, did not occur during my whole journey till after I had ascended the Lapland Alps, where it grew very sparingly, furnished with only two or three flowers, and those of a very pale hue, so that in the mountains of Lapland it deserves neither the name of CÆsar nor of Regulus[56]. The stem of the plant, however, in these regions was a span or more in height, which is hardly the case in any other part of Sweden." Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 51. Hence it appears that the real P. farinosa ought to be struck out of the Lapland Flora, provided no botanist has found it there since LinnÆus made the above remarks.)

Sceptrum Carolinum was in blossom near the water, as well as the gloomy Aconitum (lycoctonum), "whose flowers with us are not yellow, as the synonyms of authors assert, but every where of a blueish ash-colour[57]."

Here also grew Juncus palustris, calamo trifido (J. trifidus); the Violet with a yellow flower (Viola biflora); and the Wood Stitchwort with heart-shaped leaves (Stellaria nemorum, which LinnÆus, in Flora Lapp. n. 186, confounds with his Alsine media, or Stellaria media, Fl. Brit. a mistake he corrected in his Species Plantarum).

Shortly afterwards I came within sight of an oblong and very lofty mountain, situated on the right-hand, called Carsavari, composed of a coarse kind of fissile stone, upon which pure native alum is found; see Bromell (in the Acta Suecica from the year 1726 to 1730).

Very near the last-mentioned mountain is situated another, called Tavevari, remarkable for two rivulets running down from its summit, and falling over a rock in the middle of their course.

Concerning the spots or imperfections in the skins of reindeer, it is certain that they originate in the perforations made by insects, probably a species of Tabanus, through which those insects introduce their eggs. When the young ones arrive at maturity, they come forth by the same passage, and the wound is closed by a scar. On this subject, lest any person should be misled by authority, or by the writings or reports of others, I shall quote the learned work of Linder on Syphilis, p. 11. "Reindeer in Lapland are subject to the small-pox, which in Norland is termed Kormsiuka, as I was informed at Wicksbergensbrun by Zachary Plantin, master of arts." In this the able writer has been totally misled, by a person usually esteemed no less honest than profoundly learned. I cannot however conceive how a man, who values himself upon such a character, should willingly and deliberately propagate a falsehood. He ought, on the contrary, rather to aim at correcting it. If the reindeer should even have the small-pox every year, this supposed disease will prove on examination nothing else than the sting of the Gad-fly (Oestrus Tarandi). Did any man ever advance such an absurdity! Even the Laplanders themselves call the disease Kurbma (which is the name of the fly that actually causes it).

One of the Laplanders' dishes, called Kappi, or Kappa-tialmas, is prepared in the following manner. While the milk of the reindeer, intended for making cheese, is warm, before the rennet is added to it, a film rises to the top, which is taken off carefully with a spoon, and put into the bladder of a reindeer. This is hung up against the side of the hut to dry; after which it is eaten, being esteemed a great delicacy. They frequently mix some kind of berries with it when used. The fruit called Hjortron, (Cloud-berry, or Rubus ChamÆmorus,) bruised and eaten with milk of the reindeer, is also a very palatable Lapland dish. The milk of this animal affords at least twice as much cheese in proportion as any other milk. Butter is very seldom made by these people, nor is cream ever used for that purpose, as it scarcely rises in sufficient quantity. Milk only is used, being agitated in a wooden vessel with a whisk. The butter is of a white colour.

Candles are not in use among the Laplanders, though the tallow of the reindeer is very fit for that purpose, notwithstanding its consistence being less firm than that of ordinary tallow. These people preserve it in bladders, and boil it for food. Each reindeer yields but a small quantity of tallow in proportion to its size, not more than a sheep; having none between the muscles, like oxen and other cattle, but only round them.

Viviparous Bistort (Polygonum viviparum) grew hereabouts two spans in height. The Trientalis in moist situations had obtuse petals (see Fl. Lapp. n. 139, e). The Water Epilobium in this place had very broad leaves. (E. palustre . Sp. Pl. 495. Fl. Lapp. n. 148.) Geranium (sylvaticum) had sometimes a white flower with purple veins, and blue anthers; sometimes the petals, as well as anthers, were white.