Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1Linné, Carl von
History
Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1
Linné, Carl von
Lapland -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Lapland
Towards evening I reached Stocknasmark and Iamtboht, where grew the
pretty little _Cameraria_ of Ruppius and Dillenius (_Montia fontana_), a
plant that had never fallen in my way before. In Källheden it was
peculiarly abundant, and afterwards I found it common throughout
Westbothnia. It is one of the smallest of plants.
The Laplanders in this neighbourhood had set traps to catch squirrels.
Each consists of a piece of wood cloven half way down, and baited with a
piece of dried fungus with which the animal is enticed. The fungus used
for this purpose is an Agaric with a bulbous stalk and crimson cap (_A.
integer β. Sp. Pl._).
In the huts I observed suspended over the tables two tails of the great
female Wood Grous (_Tetrao Urogallus_), spread so as to make a kind of
circular fan, which had a handsome appearance.
[Illustration]
The Little Cotton-Grass (_Eriophorum alpinum_) and the _Mesomora_
(_Cornus suecica_) grow abundantly in this neighbourhood. About the
water were several _Ephemeræ_. I also caught a little insect of the
beetle (or coleopterous) kind, the shells of which were red, the thorax
blue with a red margin, the whole shining with a tinge of gold. In
Lapland are scarcely any fleas, no bugs, though plenty of lice, nor any
frogs nor serpents.
_June 8._
Very early in the morning I set out again on my journey, and in my way
examined the Palmated Orchis with a green or pale flower, differing from
all others in the shape of its nectary, which is like a bag and not a
spur. Hence I have referred it to _Satyrium_ (_S. viride_). It connects
that genus with the real _Orchides_ with palmate bulbs[38].
[38] The more correct characters, founded by Haller and Swartz on
the anthers, reduce this plant very successfully to the genus
_Orchis_, with _Satyrium hircinum_ likewise.
I remarked that all the women hereabouts feed their infants by means of
a horn, nor do they take the trouble of boiling the milk which they thus
administer, so that no wonder the children have worms. I could not help
being astonished that these peasants did not suckle their children.
About four o'clock in the afternoon I found myself once more at the town
of Umoea. Large flies like gnats with great black wings were flying
about in the air, which I had before taken, May 27, for some species of
_Musca_; but their peculiar flight now gave me another opinion, which
was strengthened by the form of their poisers (_halteres_) and the round
entire figure of their wings. (_Empis borealis_). Here I found a curious
Ladybird (_Coccinella trifasciata_) of an orange colour, with oblong,
not round, spots.
A remarkable change had taken place in the appearance of the country
during the fortnight which had elapsed since I was here before. The
Aspen trees were then quite leafless; now they were in full foliage; the
grass was very dry, and about a quarter (of an ell?) high.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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