Northern Husbandry

There is limestone in the skerries at Kalix and Torneå.

3rd Sept. I stood godfather to the small son of Mr Seger Svanberg, the inspector of mines. The boy was also called Seger and had been born the day before – or, rather, the night between the 1st and 2nd.

4th. I came to BJÖRKNӒS to learn assaying.

Svanberg told me that ‘Umbelicus veneris’ [saxifrage] grew on a mountain called Karvick north of, but not far from, Vallivari.1

Lampreys, Västerbotten.

Are caught in autumn now that the nights are getting dark. Caught in eel-traps, hollowed-out logs – sort of fish-traps – made of one log split and hollowed out. Entrance at the bottom. Put in the current, downstream, 4 feet deep, with stones on top.

Fish-traps are made of tightly woven withies, each no thicker than a goose-quill and 4 feet long.

The Lapps keep reindeer blood in stomachs until the spring, when they boil it up with water and drink it.

14th. Departed from Björknäs in chilly and rainy weather.

The deciduous trees in the forest had already turned pale because of the cold nights; the evergreens, still dark-green, stood among them and defied the cold. The violent storm strewed pale leaves all over the road; every autumn brings a good storm to disperse and sow the ripe seed. The slopes were sandy and, wherever they had been burnt off, they were white with white reindeer moss that was growing so thickly that it suppressed the heather. This white moss that decorated the sides of the roads was like ‘Muscus island.escul.’ [Iceland Moss].

The road was reddish-brown from the red soil that lay both on and in it; it is the sort they use for painting with in Umeå Lappmark. It is said to produce a better colour than red dye. I arrived at Sangis at last.

In the evening I arrived in Torneå wet-through.

15th. I looked at their arrangements for corn. There were no barns to put the corn in but they have poles between which they put the corn with its ears pointing inwards. They are 4 to 6 feet long and fairly high. If the corn is not dry, they lay it all facing one way, that is, all the ears pointing to one side.

Corn is dried in kilns and threshed on the floor.

But, alas, how easily fire breaks out and how much is thus destroyed!

I received 100 copper daler in Caroline coin from the dean.