Torneå

It is usually colder in the mountains than in the country in general, eg. the Jämtland mountains are colder than Torneå even though they are 670 miles farther south. The reason for cold is, thus, not solely proximity to the pole but also the height of the land, and careful note of this should be taken. This is why the flora of northern Lapland survives the cold and why there is snow on the Alps in Italy.

So many Finns came to see me here, all of them bleary-eyed and almost blind, that it was quite frightening. It was common to see a blind man here, or someone who was partially blind leading someone who actually was blind. It was futile for me to prescribe them any remedy as long as the cause of the damage remained present everywhere, ie. their smoky cabins. If I were in charge, they would have been strung up on a wall and given 30 lashes each to make them build chimneys for their cottages, especially as there is no shortage of timber. The authorities ought to compel them to do this. I have never seen anything more stupid and with so little reason. These were men of 30 to 40 years old, so what must it be like with the 70 year olds?

On the other side of an inlet south-west of the town there lay a mineral well that tasted quite good and was among the best I have seen up here in the north. It lies in a very waterlogged situation, however, and its source probably derives from a rill that runs above it. The water possibly seeps down into the ground where it forms a small projecting ridge between rill and well.

5th. There was a good deal of talk here about a cattle disease that causes some deaths during the winter but a great many more in spring – as many as 50 to 100 in most years – as soon as the cattle are let out to graze. I went to the meadow onto which the beasts are first let out and saw that it was a mead or bog-meadow, and I also saw that there was an abundance of ‘Cicuta aquatica’ [Cowbane] that had been grazed off and eaten. So my reasoning runs like this: in spring the cattle eat pretty well all the herbage and thus die quickly, but in summer they take a little here and a little there and therefore do not take so much of the poison. This plant grows in meadows or in damp places and can get into the hay where it may also be a cause of death. How severe its symptoms are may be seen from the work of Wepfer, who gave it to various animals.2 Today, then, nothing could have been more urgent than to investigate this matter, particularly as it could be prevented by employing a farm girl for a month to weed it all out. Even a small town like this would save over 1200 copper daler as a result. I was told that the animals had been so badly poisoned that people’s hands had swollen up when they flayed the beasts – and some people had even died. It is similar in every way to ‘Oenanthe’ [Fineleaved Water Dropwort] with regard to its habitat, its strength and its external appearance – particularly its pinnate leaves.

6th. The holy Sabbath day is used for the recreation of the body and of the spirit. In the church I read King Charles XI’s own observations of the sun on the 14th June 1694. The sun was seen until towards 12 o’clock midnight, when a small patch of cloud covered it though it still remained above the horizon. In winter, however, the sun does not go completely below the horizon and is still visible at the solstice. I wonder if it is visible at the pole?

Finnish girls have big breasts, Lapp girls small ones of the sort a girl keeps unspoilt for her future husband.

7th. The town of TORNEÅ lies on a small island, on which the settlement itself is situated by the south-west shore. I call it an island since there is a shallow lake on the north side, the great Torne river to the south-east, and an inlet of the sea running in on the south-western and western sides. This latter is like a large river but so shallow that no vessels can approach closer than about 6 miles from the town. This inlet used to be the main course of the river but that has now cut its way to the western side and the area between the inlet and the lake dries out almost completely in summer.

At the church I went up the bell-tower from which His Late Majesty Charles XI saw the midnight sun on the 14th June 1694.

8th. Found nothing noteworthy.

9th. Travelled from Torneå to KEMI where there was a great salmon fishery – hence the saying “richer than the Kemi salmon fishery, the meadows at Limingö and the fields at Storkyros“.

10th. Stayed with the dean in Kemi until the 11th.

The womenfolk, when they are about to give birth, drink schnaps with pepper in it, partly as a narcotic in order to get drunk and partly to bring on the pains.

From the dean’s wife I learned how to prevent the afterpains so effectively that they are scarcely felt. When the first child is born and the umbilical cord is cut, a little of the blood is taken in a spoon and drunk by the mother. This is repeated at each and every childbirth and in this way the pains after the birth, which are more severe for many women than those at the birth itself, disappear.

In Medelpad and other places where the people work shielings they are put in the charge of a farm-girl and it is her job to produce 18 pounds of butter, 18 pounds of cheese and 18 pounds of whey butter per cow.

In order to get plenty of butter, put the milk in a cellar or a building with double walls – it must be somewhere cold. Let the milk stand there for at least 2 days or until the cream does not stick to the fingers when it is touched. The milk will not curdle but becomes very thin and blue instead and the cream turns quite thick and perfect. Collect the cream in a chum and it will be found to be so thick that, after it has been churned a little, it is often possible to lay the churn on its side without anything running out. It is consequently heavy to chum.

The milk that is left over is used for making cheese; it is heated, left to curdle and then made into cheese since it is not suitable for sourmilk. This thin milk is not particularly suitable for drinking. The whey that is left after the separation of the cheese is usually left to turn to “syra”, ie. once it has cooled it is poured into a vessel or barrel and left to stand for a long time until it has become quite tough. This is usually boiled – whatever has been collected over 2 or 3 days being boiled together with any new – until it has reduced to a very small amount of the consistency of porridge. This is put into a vessel and set aside to stand very still, after which it goes hard and turns into whey-butter. NB. the blue milk can be boiled like fresh milk and does not curdle.