There were 8 pupils in the school.
I got a round Lappish snuffbox made of turned reindeer horn here.
The church, which was built of wood, was pretty wretched and everyone got thoroughly wet when it rained. It resembled a bam and the benches were so low that one might well end up a cripple.
There was a woman here who was dreadfully plagued by frogs she had drunk as spawn in water this past spring. She knew that there were 3 of them and both she and anyone who sat beside her could hear them croak. Salt did not kill them and she dulled her pain a little with schnaps. Someone else who had the same ailment some years before happened to take 3 ‘Nux vomica’ and recovered, but this woman will not take the risk. I recommended tar but she has used it before and vomits it up immediately.
31st. After the church service was over, I departed from Lycksele with Sorsele as my destination.
Property for the Lapps consists of great numbers of reindeer – someone has great reindeer-power, as they say. The worst-off have 50 to 100, well-off Lapps have 300 to 700, and the rich have a thousand.
Their lands are from 20 to 35 miles in diameter.
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.
Lappland is inhabited in many places by settlers, that is, Finns, who have settled here by command and permission of the crown.1 They occupy arable and pasture land and pay certain taxes to the crown but beyond that they, like the Lapps, are exempt from all extraordinary dues, having to provide neither soldiers nor boatsmen and being equally happy whether there is peace or war, since not even the smallest tax is levied on them.
They are allowed to settle where they will in Lappmark as long as they can bring the land into cultivation, so there can be no doubt that, given time, the whole of Lappmark will become a farming district.
The Lapps and the settlers attend church at Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and all 4 days of obligation. When they come, they remain for the whole weekend, which is why they have built their Lapp huts beside the church. The settlers also attend church at Midsummer, Michaelmas, Matthewmas and Lady Day.2 Those that live close-by come on alternate Sundays since there is a sermon then; on the other Sunday they simply hold their own household prayers.
There were no Lapps in church now even though it was Whitsuntide, for the pike fishing was at its best and that provides them with a harvest. They were thus mostly up in the mountains, each on his own land.
The forests were mainly composed of pine and birch. Where the pine forest was burnt off, birch grew up and, where it did so, the pasturage was much improved.
On the left bank of the river immediately below GRANSELEFORS there was brown sand at the top of the bank, then came a 2 yard strip of white sand, then 2 yards of purple, then small pebbles, then larger pebbles and finally the water of the river.
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.
It was a great pleasure to be in calm water and to view the mixed woods of birch and pine on the hills and in the valleys on both sides.