15 sheaves are put on each frame without any further support in Västerbotten, whereas in Småland they make stacks of no more than 12, with 10 on the frame and 2 at the sides. Because of this the frames in Småland are no bigger than can be filled by hand while the Västerbotten people have to use an implement. This is called a stooking hook and is a round pole with a crosspiece fixed on one side. The point is stuck into the sheaf, which is then lifted up.
There was red loam on the heath near Sangis, and reindeer moss completely covered the ground in the dry, burnt-off forest.
I arrived at SANGIS in the evening and that is where Swedish ceased to be spoken. The weather was beautiful.
3rd. At sunrise in the morning the ground was all white with frost, for winter was already forcing an entry and spending his first night with sweet Hora. I did not see her suffering greatly other than that Dracontium [Bog Arum] turned a little paler.
The last plants to flower here are ‘Erka’ [Heather], ‘Persicaria fl. rubro mitis’ [Redshank] and ‘Hierac. preamorsum’ [Autumn Hawkbit].
On leaving Sangis I also left my mother tongue, for in SAIVIS there were only Finns and I could not understand them.
Here I found milk-parsley, ‘Umbella prolifera’.
The mousetraps here are like squirrel traps.
I crossed 3 ferries between Torneå and Saivis.
At 3 o’clock I arrived in Torneå.
4th. A reindeer can be driven 80 or even up to 100 miles in a day, but then it is usually slaughtered and eaten immediately since it would normally die anyway.
Lapps – the name derives from patched clothes, because their clothes are usually patched.
It is usually colder in the mountains than in the country in general, eg. the Jämtland mountains are colder than Torneå even though they are 670 miles farther south. The reason for cold is, thus, not solely proximity to the pole but also the height of the land, and careful note of this should be taken. This is why the flora of northern Lapland survives the cold and why there is snow on the Alps in Italy.
So many Finns came to see me here, all of them bleary-eyed and almost blind, that it was quite frightening. It was common to see a blind man here, or someone who was partially blind leading someone who actually was blind. It was futile for me to prescribe them any remedy as long as the cause of the damage remained present everywhere, ie. their smoky cabins. If I were in charge, they would have been strung up on a wall and given 30 lashes each to make them build chimneys for their cottages, especially as there is no shortage of timber. The authorities ought to compel them to do this. I have never seen anything more stupid and with so little reason. These were men of 30 to 40 years old, so what must it be like with the 70 year olds?
On the other side of an inlet south-west of the town there lay a mineral well that tasted quite good and was among the best I have seen up here in the north. It lies in a very waterlogged situation, however, and its source probably derives from a rill that runs above it. The water possibly seeps down into the ground where it forms a small projecting ridge between rill and well.
5th. There was a good deal of talk here about a cattle disease that causes some deaths during the winter but a great many more in spring – as many as 50 to 100 in most years – as soon as the cattle are let out to graze. I went to the meadow onto which the beasts are first let out and saw that it was a mead or bog-meadow, and I also saw that there was an abundance of ‘Cicuta aquatica’ [Cowbane] that had been grazed off and eaten. So my reasoning runs like this: in spring the cattle eat pretty well all the herbage and thus die quickly, but in summer they take a little here and a little there and therefore do not take so much of the poison. This plant grows in meadows or in damp places and can get into the hay where it may also be a cause of death. How severe its symptoms are may be seen from the work of Wepfer, who gave it to various animals.2 Today, then, nothing could have been more urgent than to investigate this matter, particularly as it could be prevented by employing a farm girl for a month to weed it all out. Even a small town like this would save over 1200 copper daler as a result. I was told that the animals had been so badly poisoned that people’s hands had swollen up when they flayed the beasts – and some people had even died. It is similar in every way to ‘Oenanthe’ [Fineleaved Water Dropwort] with regard to its habitat, its strength and its external appearance – particularly its pinnate leaves.