The natives of the country tan their leather with birch bark, buying hides of the colonists for this purpose. The hides, after being plunged into warm water, are buried in some out-of-the-way corner of the hut, and taken up every day till the hair begins to separate, which is then scraped off with a roundish knife. The recent inner bark of the birch, cut into small pieces, is then boiled in common water for half an hour; in which liquor, when partly cooled, the skin is immersed. On the two following days it is taken out, the liquor warmed, and the skin replaced. Afterwards it is dried in the open air in the shade. This leather is much better and softer than what the colonists themselves prepare, but these last-mentioned people are very tenacious of their own modes and customs. Near the margin of the river various species of Willow, which I had already gathered and described, were growing in high beauty, and contributed greatly to the ornament of its banks. The neighbouring forests consist of pine trees intermixed with birch, but the latter tree is much less abundant here than in Umoean Lapmark, especially in Siodorne. Leaves of the Meal-berry (_Arbutus Uva-ursi_) are used in tanning or dyeing; which saves a great deal of alum. Many barrels of these leaves are sent for sale to Stockholm. The Laplanders of Westbothnia give their young children the unripe berries of this shrub boiled, by way of a laxative or purge. Ten or twelve are the usual quantity, but the dose varies according to the age of the patient. Several kinds of Foxes are found in Lapmark. Their fur is more valuable in proportion as they come further north. 1. The black is the dearest of all. From sixty to two hundred dollars of copper money are paid for one of these skins. People of rank in Russia use them for hoods or head-dresses. All their counsellors have caps of black foxes skin. 2. The rusty-coloured kind, with grey legs, sells for sixty dollars. 3. The cross foxes skins, black over the shoulders, loins and backbone, sell for three or four plates (rather more than as many shillings sterling). 4. Blue foxes are worth from six to ten dollars. 5. Red foxes, which are of a yellowish hue, and 6. White ones, fetch but three dollars each. The Sting-gnat (_Culex pulicaris_) is a very minute insect, much the smallest of its genus, being about the size of a large flea, of a greyish or clouded white. Its sting is very severe, and leaves a blackish spot as large as that caused by a flea-bite. The wings of this species lie one over the other, as in (_C. reptans_) the kind already mentioned, _p. 209_.