This location is mentioned in the following paragraphs:
(§232) I set off on my way about noon and I must admit that, all the elements being against me, I have never met anything to equal it for difficulty. The road consisted of nothing but stone upon stone with great tree-roots tangled among them. There were deep holes between them, which both the rain and the frost that was thawing out of the ground were doing their best to fill. The twigs on the trees were laden with raindrops and hung in my eyes whichever way I turned. Wherever there were slender birch trees, they were bent so low that progress became utterly laborious. Long-lived pines that had towered over the other trees for any number of years had been cast hither and thither across the road by the fury of Juno.6 The bums that sometimes crossed my path were very deep and the bridges over them so rotten that crossing them on a stumbling horse put me in mortal peril. The road seemed beyond repair unless Bielke in Gävle was put in charge.7 Many people had earlier sought to persuade me that the journey to Lycksele was impossible in summer but I had comforted myself with Solomon's words that nothing under the sun is impossible; now if ever, however, I found that my patience was in short supply. To add to these difficulties, I was sitting on a horse without a padded saddle and with a rope tied around its lower jawbone in place of a bridle.
(§249) 28th. I journeyed from Tegsnäset to GRANÖN but, as I was to go by boat from there to Lycksele and it was very windy, I had to wait until the following day. I did not get here, in any case, until 9 o'clock and then had to wait until 11 o'clock as the people had gathered for prayers and homilies. I could not set off as it was a good 35 miles to Lycksele and there was no farm to rest at on the way.
(§253) 29th. I left Granön very early in a "håp", that is, a small boat, which I shall describe below, on the western branch of the Ume river, for the Ume river is composed of two branches which join up at GRESILE 13 miles from Umeå. One branch comes from Lycksele and the other from Sorsele (NB. so they claim). We travelled on the western branch to Lycksele.
(§269) 30th. At 8 o'clock in the evening I arrived at the home of Ola Gran the parson in Lycksele who, with his wife, received me kindly and was solicitous about my well-being. They also persuaded me to remain with them until the next day of obligation, since the Lapps were not to be relied on and are likely enough to resort to the gun if anyone comes to them without prior warning. But, fearing the arrival of the spring spate (and perhaps the expense), they changed their minds in the morning.
(§270) There were numerous small fish close to the river bank in Lycksele. The river is divided into "selar", i.e. navigable sections between "forsar", i.e. rapids or narrows. Starting from Granön and counting the length of them in miles, these are:
(§277) 31st. After the church service was over, I departed from Lycksele with Sorsele as my destination.
(§280) Wild reindeer are seldom to be found in Lappmark though there are a few on the common-land between Granön and Lycksele. It often happens that people who have a large number of reindeer lose some and do not find them again until the following year. If the animals still refuse to follow when they are being driven towards the herd, they are shot.
(§287) Birds: 'Colymbus minimus' [Slavonian Grebe]. Black with white patches under the wing. Various ducks, of which there were considerable numbers on this side of Lycksele as well as on the other.
(§328) Eventually we had to leave the main course of the Ume river and follow a different one called the Jukta that branched off on the right about 27 miles from Lycksele church. It is impossible to determine measurements with certainty as the Lapps know nothing of them.
(§338) There was a bog (called Lycksmire since a stream flows from there to Lycksele - why not call it Bad Lycksmire?) which was full of ochre and had a film on the water. There should, therefore, be bog-ore present there for iron.
(§369) The parson here had caught powan that were 5 hands in length, which is remarkable. The powan is interesting in that it spawns at Michaelmas at Lycksele church, at Christmas up in the mountains, and step by step at intervals up the river between. Up there the little powan spawns under the ice at Christmas whereas in Småland it spawns at Michaelmas.
(§374) The fishermen I saw had been fishing 40 or 50 miles or more above Lycksele since Easter. I went with one of them to where they were staying and their catch was, on average, 370 pounds of dried fish per man. Since they live 35 miles below Lycksele church in a place where there is not even the smallest stream flowing to the sea, it is strange that they are allowed to drive away the Lapp and to enjoy the freedom of fishing up here without paying the smallest tax to the crown or tithe to the priest of the parish in which they are fishing (as other fishermen have to). Nor do they pay rent to the Lapps, who do pay tax for their land and complain that they have been badly treated in every way but dare not even open their mouths about it. I asked why they do not put in a complaint and they replied: "We cannot, alas, turn to the authorities. These people are allowed to treat us as they like and encroach upon our rights in whatever way they wish. We cannot bear witness against them because we're so scattered in the wilderness here - hence these tears.15 We can never believe that this is the will of our gracious sovereign but, if we knew that it was, we would at least have that satisfaction".
Practical data about this location:
- Written: Lycksele
- GPS (lat,lon): [64.59537, 18.67351]
- Geoname: 2693347