The sinews of which the fine thread is made that, when covered with tin, serves for embroidery, and is called _tentråd_ (tin-thread), are taken from the feet of the reindeer, or of oxen, boiled; though sometimes the feet of sea-fowl are chosen for this purpose. Old women and girls are employed in preparing this thread, by drawing it through holes made in a piece of reindeer's horn. They wind it round their hands and feet as they form it, and smear it with fat extracted from the foot of the animal, to make it more supple, as they proceed. Hay is made in different modes in various parts of Sweden. In Westbothland the fresh-cut grass is heaped together over night, that it may get a heat. Next day it is spread out, and by this method its quality is supposed to become richer and stronger. The same is practised with hops in Jamtland, where the fresh-gathered hops are packed together, as hard as possible, till they become warm; after which they are spread out to dry. Their strength is by this means improved. The people of Scania having mowed their grass, let it lie till dry, when they rake it together. The Smolanders dry it in a kind of shed. The East Gothlanders range it in heaps, two and two together, in a long row. In Upland the new-mown grass is tied up in bundles, and collected into cocks. In Angermannia the whole year's crop is laid by upon a kind of raised floor. In Westbothland, after being dried in the shed, the hay is kept there for use, being laid crosswise, and cut when wanted[4]. _July 23._ This evening I took leave of the alpine part of Lapland, and returned by water from Hyttan towards Lulea. The White, or Mountain, Fox (_Canis lagopus_) lives among the alps, feeding on the Lemming Rat or Red Mouse, (_Mus Lemmus_,) as well as on the Ptarmigan (_Tetrao Lagopus_). This White Fox is smaller than the common kind. The Ptarmigan, which the Laplanders call _Cheruna_, feeds on the Dwarf Birch (_Betula nana_), which for that reason is called _Ryprys_, or Ptarmigan-bush. At night this bird lies squat upon the snow, in the same posture as the Wood Grous (_Tetrao Urogallus_, see _vol._ 1. 179): hence a great deal of its dung is seen in the prints it makes in the snow. This mode of roosting renders the Ptarmigan an easy prey to the Fox. The Lemming or Red Mouse, see _p._ 18, (_Mus Lemmus_,) in some seasons entirely overruns the country; devouring the corn and grass: but though these animals thus occasionally appear by millions at a time, they subsequently depart and disappear as unaccountably, so that nobody knows what becomes of them. They do no mischief in the houses. The Ermine (_Mustela Erminea_) is white in winter, red in summer. This animal is seldom met with on the alps, but is very plentiful in the forests. Foxes and Wolves have destroyed the chief of the Hares. The Wolves indeed kill the Foxes. The Shrew Mouse (_Sorex araneus_) and Common Small Mouse (_Mus Musculus_) are found in Lapmark, but no Rats (_Mus Rattus_).