The Prefecture of Luleå [2]

29th. Lapp tanning. First the birch-bark is stripped from the tree and scraped. While it is still fresh, boil it in water for the same length of time as fish. Let it cool to hand-heat and then lay the hide in it. The hide should first have been rendered hairless by dipping it in tepid water and burying it in the earth at the back of a pit, taking it up once a day and softening it in warm water until the hair loosens. Then the hair is scraped off with a scraper and the hide is placed in the tanning solution without being dried first. The following day it (namely, the tanning solution and water) is heated up again and, when it has cooled, the hide is put in it. On the 3rd day it is hung up in the shade to dry in the wind. They often cut it up for shoe-leather when it is half-dry. NB. They make their shoes without using a last and the work is done by the womenfolk, who always use sinews for the stitching.

Some people do not let the hide ferment first but shave the hair off with a knife, soften the hide a little with water and then tan it.

There was a mineral spring at Svartlår but, whatever it may have been like, it has not been properly cared for.

The Lule river splits into 2 equally large branches a little above the boundary between Lappmark and Västerbotten: one branch is called the Little Lule river and it reaches the mountains in the direction of Kvikkjokk, the other is called the Great Lule river and it reaches the mountains in Norrbotten.

30th. On the banks of the Lule river grew great quantities of ‘Caseola’ [Awlwort], ‘Sedum aquaticum’ [Water Tillaea] and ‘Plantaginella’ [Mudwort]. In the water ‘Gr.aqv.geniculat.spicat.’ [Marsh Foxtail] spread its leaves over the other plants just as ‘Convolvulus [Field Bindweed] does.

‘Sedum aquaticum’ [Water Tillaea] grew abundantly along the roads.

I found a plant in the river and could not tell whether it was ‘Potamog.’ [pondweed], ‘Stellaria’ [Water Starwort] or ‘Aponogeton’ [waterwort].

I arrived in the town of Old Luleå in the evening.

31st. There was dreadful rain and thunder the whole night.

Aug. 1. I had intended to travel to Torneå but heavy rain and a terrible thunderstorm with its crashing and rumbling, fire and lightning kept me shut indoors the whole time.

The dean’s wife (of whose reliability I am certain) told me how she had seen people collect and boil the large ‘Aconitum’ [Northern Wolfsbane] and eat it like cabbage in the Björsjö inn in the parish of Torps in Medelpad. This had terrified her since they use the root for killing flies in Jämtland, but the woman who was cooking it scoffed at the dean’s wife and claimed that this was a plant that really should not be avoided.

They always hunt hare here with the dog working in silence rather than barking as it drives. It is beaten if it barks.

Between HEDEN and Svartlå there were ‘Tubera’ [truffles].

‘Glaux’ [Sea Milkwort], ‘Plantago angust.marit.’ [Sea Plantain] grew by the road; ‘Gr.tritic.marit.’ [Lyme-grass] on a hillock and ‘Angelica tenuifolia’ [Angelica] by the road.

What had been in flower at Umeå was now bearing fruit: in particular, ‘Mesomora’ [Dwarf Cornel], ‘Vaccinium’ [blaeberry etc.], ‘Chamaemorus’ [Cloudberry] and ‘Chamaerubus’ [Stone Bramble] were competing in profusion of fruit. Not much heather.

There were no very prominent hills, and the river banks -which had earlier been rather burnt – were here covered in rowans and pines and were white with reindeer moss.