Northern Husbandry

Apart from that, the ordinary rocks were very fine-grained, split easily and looked as if they contained a little iron.

There was also another type: rough, rusty.

3 Frenchmen have written in the church at JUKKASJӒRVI:

France bore us, we have penetrated the whole of Africa,

and we have drunk from the Ganges;

here we came to the end of our world.

The boats used on the rapids are 25 to 30 feet long and 6 feet wide in the middle.

The powan nets are 3 foot 6 inches in height, long and fine-meshed: the holes are big enough to put 2 fingers in. They are set out on sandy shores.

They have 2 floats made of birch-bark sewn together at the edges; 2 fingers’ breadth wide, 3 long; also quite small stone-weights wrapped in birch-bark.

A different contraption for catching powan is set up in the full force of the rapids; it is like a hoop-net but not so deep. 6 feet high, 2 wide, 1 deep. It is fixed firmly to stakes and placed facing the current. When the fish turns side-on to the rapids in the middle of the current, it is pushed backwards and finds it impossible to make progress; so, in the strongest part of the current, it falls back into this net and cannot struggle out of it, thus being caught.

At Uleå there is a mineral spring that is not yet properly exploited. Judging by the taste it would seem to be good. It is situated right by the town, on a little island where there is a sawmill.

There is a life-size portrait of Messenius in the church and he is also buried there.

The church is among the longest wooden churches I have seen but its height is not in proportion to its length. The town is almost as big as Lund. The coat-of-arms of the town of Uleå was on the pulpit.

19th. After church I set off on my way.

Sledges have a cross-board for resting the feet against; the floor at the front is covered with sticks.

The LIMINGO grasslands began here and they cover a much bigger area than those at either Övertorne or Rödbäck. The land was very marshy to start with, full of horse-tail and with such an abundance of ‘Arundo’ [Reed] in particular that it resembled a forest. ‘Circutaria aquatica’ [Cowbane] was growing by the road in great quantities. I asked whether there were any deaths among the cattle and they answered: “Yes. Do you know anything that would help?. So-and-so has lost so many etc”.

‘Ribes fr.rubro’ [Red Currants] had been growing the whole way, also ‘Lenticula’ [Common Duckweed]; and there was ‘Lichenoides’ [Oak Moss] on the trees, from which powder is made.5

The grassland at LIMINGO extends for 13 miles. The ground is a little higher round the village of Limingo. The best part of it, that which is a little drier and higher though considerably damaged by tussocks, has been taken into use for grazing. If it was cultivated in triple rotation in the Skåne manner, it would produce excellent oats. They said they would be able to ditch and drain the large marshland by the coast but are afraid of white moss which would prevent them getting a crop.