Gästrikland

The forests held all sorts of ‘Lycopodia’ [clubmosses]: ‘sabinae’, ‘cupressi’, ‘abietis’, ‘bifurcati’.

Large stones lay on both sides of the road, having been dug out by the local people on the orders of the Provincial Governor in order to improve the highway. They formed walls, as it were, and on them ‘Campanula sepyllifolia’ [Twinflower] spreads its shoots and green leaves as if they were ‘Hedera’ [Ivy]. The lake called Hamrångefjärden lies on the right-hand side and makes the road pleasant for the traveller.

There was sunshine in the morning today, sunshine and rain alternated in the afternoon as it did yesterday, but the wind today was southerly, yesterday northerly.

While I was on the ridge at Hille, I observed the junipers and saw that, at the ends of the branches, there were buds consisting of three leaves longer and 3 to 4 times bigger than the other leaves. These larger and thicker leaves were closed like sheaths but with the ends open, and inside them there were 3 other smaller leaves the same size as the ordinary ones and yellowish in colour. These were also closed up and contained either a little dark-yellow worm or a small whitish pupa.3

Arrived that night at the inn at HAMRÅNGE. All the people here were talking a great deal about a rare tree that grew near the road and which many had seen but no one could identify.

Some said that it was an apple tree cursed by a mendicant witch who had once taken an apple from it and been reprimanded by its owner for doing so. She is then supposed to have said that it would never bear fruit again. In the morning I hurried to be up with the sun and, when I reached the spot, they pointed out the said tree, since I had expressed my great desire to see it. I found that it was nothing more than an ‘Ulmus vulgaris’ [Wych Elm] – sure proof that ‘Ulmus’ does not normally grow in these parts.

In the forest I noticed that plants of the heath family had gained the upper hand over all the other residents to the extent that ‘Erica’ [Heather] had taken full command in the forests and ‘Daphne’ [Bog Rosemary) in the marshes. Indeed, plants other than these and ‘Myrtillus’ [Blaeberry], ‘Vitis idaea’ [Cowberry], ‘Uva ursi’ [Bearberry] and ‘Ledum’ [Labrador Tea] etc. were scarcely to be seen. This was also the case in the more northerly provinces and in Lappmark.

The spiders had set up their fishing-nets on the fences and they were all white and easily visible because of the mist.

The song thrush, the cuckoo, ‘Erithacus’ [Redstart], ‘Tetrao’ [Black Grouse] and ‘Fringillaria angermannica’ [Brambling] etc. were singing in the forest, while ‘Picus’ [spotted woodpecker] creaked out the bass notes on the big dry trees. The weather was pleasant and everything was agreeable.

An abundance of ‘Muscus esculentus’ [Iceland Moss] was growing in the forest here.

After travelling about 10 miles from Hamrånge I arrived at a river that separates Gästrikland from Hälsingland. It is called the Tonnaå and it flows into the Tonna Lake not very far away.

The lake I had passed outside Hamrånge had stretched towards the sea without, however, joining it. The inhabitants said that it was called Hamrångefjärden and that it is, in fact, linked to the sea by a gap through the solid rock though whether this is formed by nature or by artificial means is unknown. This is called the North Sound and is only just wide enough to be passable by boat. When the weather is dry in summer, this channel is dammed by a lock-gate to prevent too much water flowing out of the lake and thus hindering navigation through the shallow gap, for the iron from a number of hammer-nails and ironworks is sent out this way.