Lachesis Lapponica Part 10

They catch _Sijk_ (_Salmo Lavaretus_) in a curious manner at this place.

These fish, like the common salmon, swim against the stream, and for that reason are to be caught only near large falls of the river, which they are unable to ascend. The fisherman, being furnished with a net fixed at the end of a long pole, strips himself naked up to the waist, and walks into the middle of the strongest cascade. To prevent accidents from the force of the water, a rope is often tied round his waist, the other end of which is held fast by a friend on sh.o.r.e. Thus they catch the fish below the fall.

Seals are taken by various means, being either shot with fire-arms, or caught in a net. The latter, three or four fathoms high, is made of hempen cord, as thick as a goose-quill, each mesh being two spans wide.

This net is kept upright in the water by means of oblong floats of wood, and has no stones at the bottom. Four or five such nets are frequently tied to the ends of each other, and a large stone is attached to the last, bound about with willow or osier, which serves to keep the nets steady. These are set in places where the seals are known to hide themselves, for those animals do the fishermen great damage, not only by devouring fish, but by tearing the fishing nets, from the destruction of which the haunts of the seals are discovered. When a seal comes in the way of the above-described nets, he either thrusts his head between the meshes, getting more and more entangled the more he pushes forward, or, as often happens, he is caught by the foot.

On a sand-hill near the church at Tornea, grew, in great abundance, _Gramen spica triticea maritimum_, (_Tritic.u.m radice repente_, _foliis rigidis_; _Fl. Lapp. n._ 34, which, in the second edition of that work, p. 23, I have, by the persuasion of my intelligent friend Dr. Afzelius, referred to _Elymus arenarius_, and what Linnaeus here says, confirms this determination.) Its blue leaves looked quite different from all others, and very handsome. I picked some seeds from the spikes, which were as large as grains of rye. Hence I was induced to consider whether this plant might not serve as a kind of corn, to be cultivated on such dry and blowing sands, provided the proper method of managing it could be discovered, which surely would not be a very difficult task. The advantage of this would be that, by such means, many sandy tracts, where nothing else will grow, might be turned to advantage; and the perennial roots, which no other corn has, would of course save the trouble of sowing it annually. Perhaps even these roots themselves might, in hard times, serve for food.

The tall Finlander Daniel Caja.n.u.s, at Stockholm, born in this part of East Bothland, was the son of a clergyman. At his birth he was no bigger than the generality of children, and his health was very indifferent, particularly with regard to his chest, till the age of twelve or fifteen years.

I was informed that the inhabitants of this neighbourhood often hear thunder in the alps during winter.

In the alps of Tornea cold is brought by a south wind, and mild weather comes from the north, because of the sea.

The Laplanders consult several natural objects by way of compa.s.s as they travel.

1. Large Pine-trees, which bear more copious branches on their southern side than towards the north.

2. Ant-hills, the south sides of which bear gra.s.s, the northern whortle-berries.

3. Aspen trees, whose bark is rough on the north side, smooth on the opposite part.

4. Old withered Pines are clothed, on the north side, with the black _Usnea_, or filamentous _Lichen_ (_L. jubatus_).

By such marks as these they are able to find their way through pathless forests. Have we any guides so certain?

When these people kill any wild reindeer with fire-arms in summer, they lodge the carcase in a cold cellar, and cut it up as they want it for provision.

I observed a curious kind of lime-stone burnt at Kimi, Tornea, and other places round the neighbouring sea-coast.

_August 14._

A very rainy day. A silver ore from Hjortot has been a.s.sayed by the Mineral Board, and found to contain forty _per cent._ lead, but only three or four of silver.

_August 15._

Near the ferry at Tornea I picked up the Fresh-water Sponge, _Spongia lacustris_ of Newton, (_S. lacustris_; _Syst. Nat. v._ 1. 1299. Linnaeus here refers to Mr. Newton, the friend of Ray, who found the Sponge in question in the Norwich river, where it still exists. It is however denominated in Ray's _Synopsis_, _S. ramosa fluviatilis_, not _lacustris_. Linnaeus quoted from memory.)

_August 16._

In dissecting the flower of _Artemisia_ (_vulgaris_), I was struck with its very curious conformation. (This alludes to the want of a limb to the corolla of the female or marginal florets. See _Fl. Lapp. ed._ 2.

244.)

_August 17._

I went by sea from Tornea to Calix. The wind proved contrary. The islands abounded with Whortle-berries, and with the fruit of _Rubus saxatilis_. On one called Korsholm I met with a sort of _Behen_. Can it be the same with that which grows in cornfields? Their different parts are tolerably alike. This grew among the pebbles of the beach. Its calyx is oblong. Leaves narrow. Stem erect. Fruit of one cell. In other respects it resembles _Behen_. (This was _Cucubalus_ (_Behen_) variety the third, or ?, _Fl. Lapp. n._ 180. _ed._ 2. 149. _Silene maritima_, _Fl. Brit._ 468. _Engl. Bot. t._ 957. We have found it remain for many years unchanged in a garden, propagating itself by seed, though Linnaeus reports that the third year he could not distinguish his from our common _Silene inflata_, his _Cucubalus Behen_.)

CONOMICAL REMARKS CONCERNING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF TORNEA.

The soil is various, sometimes clay, sometimes sand. The corn-fields are sown every other year, and lie fallow the intermediate seasons, half of each field lying fallow, while the other half is cultivated. The former is ploughed during the whole summer, to prevent the growth of gra.s.s or weeds, which might exhaust it. Barley is sown in these open fields only.

Rye is cultivated on land that has recently been cleared of its wood by burning, but not in any great quant.i.ties. Turnips and Rye are sown together in one crop, and not, as usual in other places, Turnips one year and Rye the other. Rye bread is reserved to treat visitors. Barley bread is of three different qualities; 1. made of the unmixed barley; 2.

of a mixture of barley and chaff; 3. of chaff without any addition, except now and then a handfull or two of barley. This last is their _Spis-brod_, or household-bread.

The plough is of the same construction as that used in Westbothland.

Almost every person, except such as are very poor, catches as many of the small kind of Herrings, called _Strmming_ (_Clupea Harengus_ , _Membras_ of old authors,) as are necessary for the support of his family. Those who are not otherwise employed in spring and autumn, catch them for sale afterwards to such as have not time to take any for themselves. These fish begin to sp.a.w.n about the 18th of May, and continue till about the 16th of June. After the latter period they go into the small inlets among the rocks, and are taken by means of large nets till St. Peter's day, June 29th. This is called the large Strmming fishery. From St. Peter's day till St. Bartholomew's (Aug.

24th), or even later, they are taken likewise with nets in their usual haunts. These fish are found with milt as well as roe throughout the summer.

One barrel of sour Strmming is as valuable as two of the salted sort, the former being greatly preferred. A peasant whose family consists of a dozen people, takes half a barrel of salt Strmming for his whole supply, and this is used to make a kind of soup when boiled with turnips; but he takes a barrel and three quarters of sour Strmming, which is eaten without any preparation, like smoked and salted meat. If the director of the family is a good conomist, he will never allow it to be boiled or roasted. They let the fish which is to make sour Strmming lie for three or four hours only before they take out the entrails, after which it is washed in a small coa.r.s.e sieve, till most of the blood is removed. It is then salted, in the proportion of thirty pounds of ordinary salt to each barrel of fish. The fish destined to make salt Strmming must be much more carefully washed, for if the least drop of blood remains it will turn sour. Every barrel of this requires a quarter of a barrel of salt which is disposed in layers, alternately with layers of fish. Each layer of fish and salt are rubbed together with the hands, till a sort of sc.u.m rises on the top.

Another way of preparing salt Strmming is to make so strong a brine that the entire fish, thrown into the tub, will not sink. They put in only so many of the fish as can readily be stirred about in the brine.

If the tub be so full that the brine does not entirely cover the Strmming, more is added, and the whole is suffered to remain for some days. The fish is afterwards gutted in the following manner. A person puts ten or twelve of them on the thumb of his left hand, in such a manner that the back of each fish is turned towards the palm. He then very dexterously loosens the gills with his right hand, pinching out the gills and intestines at once; which is performed with great quickness.

The fish are then put into a rope basket, and salted as before. When they have remained thus for a couple of days, they are put into other baskets, in order that the brine may drain away, and finally are packed up in new kegs for keeping, without any further salting. A hole is bored in each tub, just above the lowermost hoop, to draw off the brine, which is always collecting from the fish, and if permitted to remain, will cause the whole to turn sour; but the same method is not practised for the sour Strmming. This last is in its greatest perfection about St.

James's day (July 25th).

These people have three meals a day in summer, besides breakfast, and the sour Strmming always makes a part of their dinner, as well as of the preceding refreshment. The fish, after being repeatedly squeezed, is laid between two slices of bread, and so eaten. After it they take some sour preparation of milk, without cream. Sometimes indeed they eat a bit of cheese, or bread and b.u.t.ter; but they never eat meat after the sour Strmming. Their vegetable food consists of cabbage, pease, or turnips, the first being generally eaten on Sundays. Pease are eaten once a week, except when the cabbage is deficient, and then they supply its place. Turnips and salt Strmming are generally eaten in a morning, in the following manner. When the turnips are boiled nearly enough, the fish is put to them, but not before, lest it should be broken to pieces. To this some flour is added; and they drink sour milk after it. Their supper always consists of flummery, made of barley-meal.

Before they first go out in a morning they eat either bread and b.u.t.ter, or bread and cheese, but they prefer the former. The mixed bread (made of corn and chaff) is their ordinary portion; good bread, made entirely of corn, they seldom or ever taste. It is reserved for visitors, or for very extraordinary occasions. Their mixed or household bread, being baked in cakes as thin as paper, is eaten by laying four or five such cakes together upon each other. They are never unprovided with ale in their cellars, to treat visitors, though their ordinary drink is table beer. In summer time they always drink _Syra_, (see vol. i. p. 243.)

The peasants themselves eat but very little of their own mutton, and chiefly the shoulder and brisket. The rest they sell; scarcely any is kept in the house but the above parts, with the marrow-bones, which they break to get at the marrow. The heads and feet of sheep, goats, and hogs, are salted and dried, being, when wanted, boiled with pease, and not ill-tasted. The legs of sheep, cut off at the knee, are often boiled fresh; the fat which floats on the top being collected and preserved in a horn or pot, as very useful to grease small ropes, and wheels. The legs and feet thus boiled are afterwards thrown away, not eaten. The head and feet of a calf are usually pickled.

For fire-wood these people use birch-wood. They burn no candles in their houses. They go to smoke themselves with the Finlanders in their huts.

The hay is mown here in the same manner as in Upland, and the corn is managed in the same way as in Smoland. When the season is dry, they prefer drying the corn in heaps in the open air, as before described; but in wet weather they have recourse to sheds. The hay is spread out till dry, and afterwards carried, without being made into c.o.c.ks.

They raise as many hops as are wanted for each family, and have perhaps a few pounds over, for sale.

Their pales are high, made of pine-wood, and placed sloping.

The milk is set in the cellar, in deep tubs made of alder wood, by which they obtain a great proportion of cream, even two fingers' thick. This cream is stirred up with the milk, warmed, and then coagulated, for making cheese. Another mode is with b.u.t.ter-milk, to which they add a sixth part of fresh milk, that has stood one day and been skimmed. This mixture, being first warmed, is then coagulated. The cheese thus made is preferred to the former, and often eaten in preference to b.u.t.ter.

Between Midsummer and St. James's day (July 25th), the whey is collected, after the cheese is made; which, after boiling for some hours, is set by to cool. When cold, it is barrelled up for winter use.

Poor people and old women beg or buy it, a small bottle-full at a time.

To one pot of sour milk they add a fourth part of _Syra_; and these together have the taste of what they term _Filbunke_, which is sour milk with the cream on, just beginning to ferment, and of which they make _Servet-mjolk_; (see p. 150.)

Thick milk (perhaps _Mesosmor_, see vol. i. p. 243,) is often kept in barrels till winter, as is the meal made of fir-bark, when both serve for winter provision.

_Syra_ is so very sour as not to be eatable by itself. When they have no milk to dilute it with, they add an equal quant.i.ty of water to the _Syra_, and mix the whole with flummery, which mixture they prefer to small beer.

b.u.t.ter is now and then made of goat's milk; but it is very strong, and quite as white as that made of the milk of the rein-deer.

_August 18._

On islands near the sh.o.r.e I saw a _Salix_ with leaves like the cultivated olive. It is a shrub three feet high, but growing in a spreading manner. Stem grey, with roundish dusky solitary buds, of a very large size, in proportion to the plant. Leaves gradually larger (upwards?), oblong-lanceolate, bluntish, on scarcely perceptible footstalks, furnished with an obtuse longitudinal rib beneath, but no veins. Their upper surface is green, sprinkled all over with minute white dots; very slightly channelled, and paler, along the nerve. (This appears to have been _S. rosmarinifolia_.)