In the evening I arrived at Jamtboht, where some women were sitting employed in cutting the bark of the aspen-tree (_Populus tremula_) into small pieces, scarcely an inch long, and not half so broad. The bark is stripped from the tree just when the leaves begin to sprout forth, and laid up in a place under the roof of a house till autumn or the following spring, when it is cut into the small fragments above described. In this state it serves as food for cows, goats and sheep, instead of hay, the latter being a very scarce article in these parts; for the fields consist principally of marshy tracts, whose herbage is but of a coarse kind. On my inquiring what I could have for supper, they set before me the breast of a Cock of the wood (_Tetrao Urogallus_), which had been shot and dressed some time the preceding year. Its aspect was not very inviting, and I imagined the flavour would not be much better; but in this respect I was mistaken. The taste proved delicious, and I wondered at the ignorance of those who, having more fowls than they know how to dispose of, suffer many of them to be spoiled, as often happens at Stockholm. I found with pleasure that these poor Laplanders know better than some of their more opulent neighbours, how to employ the good things which God has bestowed upon them. After the breast is plucked, separated from the other parts of the bird, and cleaned, a gash is cut longitudinally on each side of the breast-bone, quite through to the bottom, and two others parallel to it, a little further off, so that the inside of the flesh is laid open in order that it may be thoroughly dressed. The whole is first salted with fine salt for several days. Afterwards a small quantity of flour is strewed on the under side to prevent its sticking, and then it is put into an oven to be gradually dried. When done, it is hung up in the roof of the house to be kept till wanted, where it would continue perfectly good, even for three years, if it were necessary to preserve it so long. It rained so violently that I could not continue my journey that evening, and was therefore obliged to pass the night at this place. The pillows of my bed were stuffed with the hair of the reindeer instead of feathers. Under the sheet was the hide of a reindeer with the hair on, the hairy side uppermost, on which the people told me I should lie very soft. _May 27._ In the morning the continued rain prevented my pursuing my journey till noon. The bark of the large smooth kinds of Willow is here used for tanning leather. The smooth bark of the upper branches, cut into small pieces, is chosen for the purpose, the coarse part on the bottom of the stem being useless.