1st July. PARKIJAUR, the first lake beyond our night quarters, was about 6 miles long. Over on the opposite shore rises a high pointed hill called ATJEKKOIVI or TOWER HILL. In times past the Lapps used to make sacrifices up there for good luck with their reindeer. The hill has now been burnt bare by lightning.
There is a Lapp living at the western end of the lake and when I walked on beyond there for about 1 1/2 a miles to a second lake – called Skalka – I found ‘Barbarea’ [Small-flowered Wintercress], both ‘Pediculares’ [louseworts] already mentioned, the ‘Asphodelum’ [Scottish Asphodel] described earlier as well as ‘Astragalus parvus’ [Alpine Milk-vetch].
While we were at Skalka and about 7 miles from Tjåmotis, a gap between the mountains showed up to the north-west and through it the mountains between 70 and 150 miles away shone white with snow as if they were no more than 7 miles away. Just as when white wisps of cloud rise above the horizon, their peaks rose towards the sky exactly as depicted in form and colour on the frontispiece of Rudbeck’s ‘Lapponia Illustrata’. There was nothing but hill upon hill. In short, I beheld the mountains.
I reached TJÅMOTIS in the evening. Here, above a high mountain called Harrevarto which lay right opposite the parish clerk’s house, I saw the midnight sun and, to my mind, it is far from being the least of nature’s miracles. What traveller from afar would not want to see it? O Lord, how unfathomable are thy works!
2nd. Tjåmotis. I spent Sunday resting here. I saw how splendid the beautiful shoots of barley looked among the snowy mountains. The stalks were so tall that they were leaning over. This barley was sown on the 25th or 26th May, just as in Umeå.
I found here an abundance of ‘Tripolium pratense, corona calyci breviori’ or ‘Aster folio non acri; fl. purpureo’ [Blue Heabane]. NB. also the same with white flowers.
Also ‘Euphrasia’ [eyebright]5 about the same size as the common sort but with quite different flowers in that they were rather small like ‘Tetrahit flore majori et minori’ [Common Hemp-nettle].
The barley was sown here on the 26th May.
3rd. Quite early in the morning I went with the Regimental Quartermaster Mr. Joachim Kock and the Inspector of Mines Mr. Seger Svanberg the 3 1/2 miles to KIURIVAW, a high hill where they have begun to work a seam of silver whose ore as yet only showed up in one narrow fissure.
There were birch trees on the top of the hill but they were very small. Their trunks were quite thick but lacking in height and it could be seen that the topmost branches had been frozen off. The leaves looked like those that sprout from branches that have been burnt in forest fires. I was told that they produce very little sap each year and that consequently their wood is harder than is usual – also, that the trees were fairly old. The farther north I went, the shorter they became.
The people here grease boots and driving harness with fish fat that they have saved. Others buy grease from Norway, where it is produced from coalfish.
4th. I found ‘Andromeda foliis Empetri’ [Mountain Heath].
Foods that the Lapps produce from milk:
“Mes”, that is the whey left over after making cheese, is boiled until it goes thick. Then a little cream from reindeer milk is mixed into it and after that it is dried in reindeer stomachs. It tastes excellent.
“Kappa”, ie. what comes to the surface when “mes” is being boiled, is skimmed off and collected in stomachs. They do not use rennet to curdle their cheese but use the dried stomachs of pike, char or grayling instead. They put these in advance in a small cask and add some milk to it. Whenever some is taken out, they add the same amount of milk so that they do not run short of it.
“Jumo”-milk; a pint of sorrel is boiled in a little water and stirred until it has boiled to pieces. Then it is mixed with reindeer milk, put into a stomach or some other container and served as needed or eaten at once.