It was fairly hot today and a few drops of rain fell after midday.
13th. As the weather had become calmer, we went out to sea to see what nature had to offer. We immediately took some coalfish on the hooks we cast out from the boat.
There were high mountains with snow on them all around Törrfjord and grey-black clouds were rising from the earth here and there between their tops. But both the tops and the bottoms of the hills could be seen. Eventually the clouds subsided.
The “missne” that people eat is ‘Dracunculus aquaticus’ [Bog Arum]. “Missne” for cattle is ‘Menyanthes’ [Bogbean].
They chop spruce brushwood extremely fine for their horses, mix it half and half with barley and give it to the horses in hard times. It is excellent.
No sooner had we cast out the hook and let it drift behind the boat than we caught coalfish; they took so quickly that we hardly had time to pull them in. But the following day, when the weather was clear, things were different. The hook, which was attached to a cither string, was unbaited. We took 60 or so that way.
A fair number of isolated homesteads lay scattered among the hills out in the skerries. I noticed that each of them occupied no more than a small valley and thus had only one or two arable fields and possibly a little meadow-land by the farm (and, perhaps, a little more further away). They could not subsist on it if they did not have such a good supply of fish to exploit and sell, for the sea up here contains both many species and great numbers of them. I heard much talk of whales.
I saw how they catch salmon.
The church here was very small.
14th. In the evening we arrived at the manse of Mr. Joh. Rasch, assistant pastor at Rorstad.2 He has been in the West Indies and Africa. He has also written a fine description of his journey as well as of various fish and plants. Gave me an honest welcome. I left him in the morning and travelled back to Törrfjord with the skipper. I now saw the full expanse of the Western Ocean and was told that if one were to travel due west one would come to Greenland.
He had a beautiful daughter called Sara Rasch, 18 years old, extraordinarily pretty; must eventually write to her for she said that she would never have believed that any honest Swede would come her way.
Wished that Mr. Ingvald would visit us so that I could express my indebtedness and repay him, which will be impossible unless he comes.
Everywhere I went there was talk of a Västergötlander who had gone about the district lying and deceiving.
Västerbotten flat-bread is made from barley and husks in the following manner.
When the threshing has been done, they take a large sieve and riddle the barley, husks and ears – very often a little straw as well – through it. This is dried and ground. Wealthier people use pure barley, others 1 part barley to 2 parts husk, and others again 2 parts barley to 1 of husks. Once ground, this flour is made into a dough with cold water without yeast and with no fermentation. (Warm water makes it more brittle.) The flour and water is kneaded long and thoroughly into dough, which must, however, be a pliant dough, for if it is hard it becomes unmanageable. It is then kneaded on the table, a good handful of the dough being used for each loaf. No one would imagine that so much bread would come from so little dough. Next it is moulded by hand, patted without being lifted, a good deal of flour being added, and pressed with a spatula rather than rolled until it is as thin as parchment. Then it is turned with a fairly large baker’s spade and pricked first on one side with a pricker specially made from a good handful of wing quills from ptarmigan or partridge, then turned again and pricked on the other side before being put into the oven. No more than one loaf goes into the oven at a time and someone has to stand by and constantly move or lift the loaf a little so that it does not burn or catch fire. It does not need to stay in long before it is baked through. It is then laid over the bedposts or something of that sort so that it hangs down on both sides; and the others are put there with it because otherwise there would never be enough room to dry them. They are then stacked one on top of the other in a big pile and saved for future use.
Some people bake bread from the bark of pine trees. They take the bark from large trees and avoid twiggy ones for twiggy, young trees are more resinous and bitter. The lower bark close to the root is best but the hard outer layer must be thoroughly scraped off, and this is often stored for winter. Before being ground into flour it is put over a low fire of embers and toasted or heated a little so that it becomes quite porous and thick. Only then is it ground and baked. It holds together better than dough made from barley – almost as well as rye dough – but the bread is bitter.