Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 2Linné, Carl von
History
Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 2
Linné, Carl von
Lapland -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Lapland
At sun-rise I took my departure from Wasa. The pines in the forest were
stripped of their bark, so that vast tracts were covered with nothing
but such naked trees. No more was left on each trunk, to the height of
three ells or three and a half, than a small strip of bark, about the
breadth of four fingers, generally on the north side, to prevent its
being ... (here is a word not to be decyphered). The trees are left
standing for six or seven years afterwards, and are then cut down close
to the roots, being also headed a little above the naked part. The
heads or branches either serve for firing, or, as often happens, are
left to rot on the ground.
Three miles below Wasa I recognised the Climbing Nightshade (_Solanum
Dulcamara_). In the town itself I had noticed (_Leonurus_) _Cardiaca_,
and Henbane (_Hyoscyamus niger_). Near the shore grew _Salix oleæfolia_
with its berries, _(Hippophaë rhamnoides_). It is known by the name of
_Finnbær_ or _Surbær_, (Finn-berries, or Sour berries). The fruit is
situated below the leaves, as in the Alder. The footstalks are two lines
long. Berries bluntly oval, of a tawny orange-colour, three or four
lines long, smooth, sour, having a watery pulp mixed with ochraceous
matter. Seed solitary, roundish-oblong, slightly compressed, obtuse,
attached by its lower edge to a membrane which enfolds it. When this
cover is removed, the seed itself appears brown and polished, having a
longitudinal groove at each side. The fishermen eat these berries
bruised, by way of sauce to their fresh fish, but I thought them rather
too acid.
_September 26._
I passed Christina (Christinestadt), but before coming to that place,
noticed at Nerpis a very extensive tract of land, which had formerly
been a fine meadow, the soil being extremely good. But at present it was
so entirely overrun with tumps (originally perhaps formed of _Carex
cæspitosa_) that it produced little or nothing. These tumps were crowded
almost over one another, and were overgrown by _Polytrichum_
(Hair-moss), which had come to its full stature, and rendered most of
them nearly black. There was scarcely room for the cattle to make their
way to any food between the tumps.
In the passages of all the houses hung nets, used for catching bears.
These are made of ropes of Lindenbast, (the inner bark of the lime-tree,
_Tilia europæa_,) full as thick as a bridle or rein. The meshes when
stretched are each three quarters of an ell wide. The height of the net
is equal to the stature of a man. Such nets, supported by poles, are set
up in a line of one hundred fathoms in extent, the lower side close to
the ground. The bear is driven into them by the people hunting him on
all sides.
_September 27._
This day I observed a mode of brewing in a kneading trough, which stood
on a table, and its end being made so as to slide up and down, the wort
is easily poured out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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