Medelpad

The boundary between Hälsingland and Medelpad lies between RÖDE in Gnarp and the DINGERSJÖ inn. It is marked by 2 posts, one standing on each side of the road. I noticed immediately that ‘Erica’ [Heather] became rather less common and was supplemented by ‘Myrtillus baccis nigris’ [Blaeberry]. Birch trees also became more abundant, and to my left there lay big grey hills. Throughout the whole district, stones the size of 2 fists lay in a jumble below the cliffs along the road. Not having been disturbed, they were all greyish-green from a thin covering of moss.

I had scarcely gone beyond the boundary posts when I saw 2 ‘Lagopodes’ [Willow Grouse] walking on the highway but, since the road sloped so much, I could not get as near them with my gun as I needed to, so I inspected them through my spyglass. They were predominantly reddish, the wings, however, were white.

As I approached the inn at Dingersjö I saw the large ‘Aconitum hirsutum gales angusta’ [Northern Wolfsbane]. The farmers call it “giske” or “gisk” and it was as common as heather for the rest of the day. Cattle do not eat it and it therefore grows in great profusion where other plants are grazed off; it also has a better chance of spreading. We can see from this that the dumb animals have learnt from nature what is useful or injurious to them without anyone teaching them; man, on the other hand, has not.

There is a fairly high hill called NYÅKERSBERG, very steep on its southern side, lying immediately north of Dingersjö. The local people have made a hop garden there. Since hops will not flourish in other locations, they thought that this hill would provide them with a high enough wall to force the plants against. They were right, too, for the hops grow well since the north wind cannot touch them and the warm rays of the sun are concentrated here as if through a lens. The hill lay on the right-hand side.

The highest hill in Medelpad (according to the inhabitants) lies on the left-hand side 1 3/4 miles from the inn and is called NOLBYKNYLEN or NOLBYKULLEN. It really is a high hill, so I rode on to NOLBY where I tethered my horse to a runestone and took a companion with me for the ascent. We went up the left-hand side where we saw all kinds of rare plants such as ‘Fumaria bulbosa minima’ [corydalis], ‘Moschatel’ and ‘Campanula serpyllifolia’ [Twinflower] in better condition than I have ever seen them. Here I found a small rare moss.

With much effort and fatigue we managed at last to reach the top of the hill. In times of war with the Russians, the inhabitants used this as a look-out point and every day a couple of them would stay up here since the sea could be seen in the far distance. A great pile of tall timbers stood there, surmounted by a pole with a barrel of tar on top of it. Since the hill was visible throughout the whole wide district and for many a mile around, the beacon could be lighted by the look-out as soon as the enemy arrived and came ashore.

I took a rock of a mixed variety from this hill.

Every kind of moss that exists in the district was growing up there. The trees were small on the top of the hill but fairly large on the sides.

From the top we viewed the countryside, the villages with their fields and pastures, the lakes and the sea etc. lying below us. But there was a smoky haze between us and the hill itself, though when we descended we could no longer see it so it must have been the exhalations of the earth.

On the top of the hill we saw hare droppings – a sure sign that the animal is resident even up there.

We put ourselves to the test by descending the southern side where it was steepest of all and where outcrop after outcrop jutted out so that we often had to slither on our haunches down whole sections. Life would have been brought to an abrupt close if even a single stone had been loose or if we had taken the slightest tumble.

When we had got halfway down the mountainside, a ‘Bubo’ [Eagle Owl] flew up. It was the size of a hen, woodcock-coloured and with black ears that met in a black line above the beak. I wished I had had my gun but it had been impossible to lug it along with me. Immediately after that we saw 3 chicks and an addled egg on a little flat grassy patch that faced due south and had walls of rock on its eastern and western sides so that the only wind that might cause any harm was one that came from the south. One of these chicks was twice the size of the others ie. the size of 2 fists and lively, covered all over in long, very soft, whitish down which looked like wool. We took it with us to the farm. The addled egg broke when I placed it between my hands to test it in the way country people test eggs. I found only a small amount of liquid in the bottom of it and it had such a vile stench that I dare not describe it for fear of inducing nausea both in myself and in others. I believe that the 2 eggs from which the smaller chicks had come had been hatched later. Alongside the nest there lay some small bones, of what I do not know. The chicks had eaten their fill. Beside them lay a large dead rat which was beginning to rot and fill up with maggots on the underside. I do not believe it to be at all possible for chicks so young to tear up food of such toughness, so they have to wait until the corpse rots enough for them to eat both maggots and foul flesh. Their beaks were black, as was the cere. The egg was almost spherical and as big as that of a turkey.

Between the rocks there were odd small patches covered with various kinds of plants. Some of them contained ‘Viola tricolor’ [Wild Pansy], of which I saw some that were white in colour, some white and blue, some blue and yellow on the upper petal and blue on the side and bottom petals, others blue and yellow on the side as well as on the upper petal whereas the lower was blue. All of these were growing in a small area no bigger than a plate, and in some cases there was even variation on the same stem – a sure sign that these are not distinct species but that it is the forcing power of the sun which makes for diverse colouration, particularly when there is sufficient water. As there was here, for a small quantity of water was permanently trickling down the hill and keeping it moist. And where would you find a warmer forcing-bed than this?

I left this place and journeyed onward. On the road I found a large stone, reddish in colour and showing rough, sparkling yellow mica or ‘scales’.

The road lay more or less beside the sea the whole way. I noted with compassion the beached fragments of unfortunate vessels that had been unable to propitiate Neptune with either promises or sacrifices, prayers or complaints, tears or sighs; and I recalled the student who had been so put to the test by Neptune that he preferred to travel the whole way to Stockholm on foot via Österbotten, Torneå, Västerbotten etc. rather than entrust himself to a malicious and inconstant Neptune for one or 2 days.