Västerbotten [1]

The beaver is capable of chopping down even the biggest aspen tree with its teeth and I know of no other animal that can do that: it is thus superior to all other animals with regard to the power of its bite.

29th. I left Granön very early in a “håp”, that is, a small boat, which I shall describe below, on the western branch of the Ume river, for the Ume river is composed of two branches which join up at GRESILE 13 miles from Umeå. One branch comes from Lycksele and the other from Sorsele (NB. so they claim). We travelled on the western branch to Lycksele.

It was a great joy in the sunrise to look into the still waters of the river undisturbed as they were either by the currents of the naiads or by the wheezing of Aeolus, and to see how the forest on both sides was reflected back to the traveller as a subterranean realm in the water. Great heaths, ornamented with shrubbery, lay on both sides, dipping steeply to the river bank and revealing a landscape in the water – a landscape that was steep and sloped away from us like some subterranean earth. The tall pines that still defied Neptune cast deceptive shadows in the water, though he and his brother Aeolus had already triumphed over many of them: Neptune had eaten away their roots and Aeolus thrown down their crowns.17

There were a number of small islands here – KALNӒSHOLMEN etc. – that the current had cut off from the shore.

A number of ‘Charadrii’ [Little Ringed Plovers], ‘Hiaticulae’ [Ringed Plovers] and ‘Tringae’ [Sandpipers] were running around close to the river-bank and an attempt was made to shoot one with ball. We succeeded to the extent that we were left with a wing and a foot, the rest being so smashed and dismembered that I found it impossible to tell the species.

A little further on I saw 2 young owls hanging up and I asked the reason why. The farmers showed me hollow wooden cylinders fixed right at the top of the tallest pines. These had both ends covered and a hole in the side. They were intended for ducks to lay eggs in so that the farmers could take the eggs. In this case they had got young owls instead of ducklings.

I was given breast of ‘capercaillie’ to eat but without the keel bone that the last one had. It had been shot in the spring and dried in the sun without being cooked. It was meant to be eaten uncooked.

Farther on we saw 7 or 8 large white swans calling and snapping as they swam on the water. There are also cranes here and the oarsman had shot one and nailed it up on the wall with all its flesh and feathers still on. What a stupid thing to do.

My oarsman – a farmer – had nets set out along the whole route and he had caught plenty of pike. He had as many as 30 small nets and his prime source of taxable income came from fishing. 18 lbs of dried pike sells for 1 silver daler and 5 öre.

In one net he had caught a male goosander.