Part 2 (1/2)

3. Native alum, rough and green, separate from its matrix; from the same mountains.

4. Alum like the former in appearance, but not salt, perhaps a calcareous stone; found not far from the same place.

5. Various alpine micaceous stones.

6. Marle from Lapland.

7. Quartz from Lapland.

8. Silver ore from Kiurivari.

9. Silver ore from Nasaphiel in Pithan Lapland.

10. Sandstone containing three per cent. of iron.

11. Black slate from the alps.

12. Petrified corals from Norway.

13. Iridescent fluors from the alps.

The fish called by the Laplanders _Sijk_ (the Gwiniad, or _Salmo Lavaretus_,) is taken in their lakes. Its head terminates in an obtuse point. The upper jaw is the longest. Mouth without teeth. Iris of the eye silvery, with a blackish upper edge, and a black pupil. The whole body is silvery, blackish about the back, eleven inches long and two deep. Head two inches long at the sides; from the snout to the dorsal fin four inches and a half. The dorsal fin consists of thirteen rays, of which the first is by far the largest, and the last cloven or interrupted. The soft fat fin is in its proper place.

_July 21._

The following are the disorders or inconveniences to which the reindeer are subject.

When the frost is so intense as to form an impenetrable crust on the surface of the snow, so that the animal cannot break it with his feet, to get at the Lichen on which he feeds, he is frequently starved to death. This misfortune is as dreadful to the Laplanders as any public or national calamity elsewhere; for, when his reindeer are killed, he must himself either starve to death, beg for his livelihood, or turn thief.

The hoofs of the reindeer are not uncommonly affected with a swelling at the edge where they are attached to the skin, at which part they consequently become ulcerated, and are seldom healed. The creature thus grows lame, and cannot keep up with the herd.

These animals are sometimes attacked with a _vertigo_, or giddiness in the head, which causes them to run round and round continually. The people a.s.sured me, that such of them as run according to the course of the sun may be expected to get the better of the disorder; but those which turn the contrary way, being supposed incurable, are immediately killed. The recovery of the former is thought to be promoted by cutting their ears, so as to cause a great discharge of blood.

The _Kurbma_, or ulceration caused by the Gad-fly, (see _vol._ 1. _p._ 280.) takes place every spring, especially in the younger fawns. Such as are brought forth in the summer season are free from this misfortune the ensuing spring, but in the following one many of them lose their lives by it. When come to their full size and strength, the consequences are less fatal; but no reindeer is entirely exempt from the attacks of this pernicious insect.

The fawns are of a reddish hue the first season, during which they cut their foreteeth. In the autumn they turn blackish, and have fodder given them. They are when young frequently afflicted with a soreness in the mouth, so as to be unable for a while to eat.

Reindeer are subject to a disease called by the Laplanders _Pekke Kattiata_, accompanied with ulcerations of the flesh, which however often heal by a sloughing of the part affected. This is an epidemic disorder. It is believed that if any of the ulcerous part, which is cast off, be swallowed by the animal, in licking his own coat, or that of any other of the herd labouring under this malady, it proves fatal by corroding the viscera.

The dugs of the female often become chapped or sore, so as to bleed whenever they are milked.

The male reindeer in his natural state is fatter than such as are castrated, except the latter be kept without work, in which case they become the fattest. Such as are castrated and allowed to run wild, become considerably larger, as well as tamer, in consequence.

The rutting season lasts but a fortnight, that is, from about a week preceding the feast of St. Matthew (Sept. 21.) to Michaelmas day, during which period the male is savage and dangerous. Immediately afterwards he casts his coat and horns, and not unfrequently becomes so emaciated, that, in many instances, death is the consequence.

Towards the feast of St. Eric (May 18.) in the following year, or within a fortnight of that period, very rarely later, the females bring forth their young. They do not copulate the first year, and seldom before the third, their progeny being found the better for this delay. Indeed neither the males nor females arrive at their full growth and perfection before they are towards three years old.

The fawn, whether male or female, is called the first year _mesk_; the second season the male is called _orryck_, and the female _whenial_. In the third year the latter, if she has been covered, is known by the appellation of _watja_ or _waja_, which means a wife; if otherwise, she goes by the name of _whenial-rotha_, the three-year old male being called _wubbers_. In his fourth year the male is termed _koddutis_; in the following one _kosittis_; in the sixth _machanis_, and in the seventh _namma lappotachis_. After that period no male is kept, they all peris.h.i.+ng in consequence of the exhaustion above mentioned, but the castrated ones live to a more advanced age. None of these animals however survive beyond their twelfth or fourteenth year. When the castrated males become very fat towards autumn, and show signs of old age; or the females, having become barren, appear otherwise to be on the decline, they are killed, by the knife, in the close of the year; from an apprehension that they might otherwise perish of themselves from infirmity, in the course of another season.

Such of the male reindeer as are destined to serve for a stock of provision, are killed before the rutting-time, and their carcases hung up to be exposed to the air and frost before flaying. The flesh is smoked and a little salted, and then laid upon sledges to dry in the sun, that it may keep through the winter till spring. About the feast of St. Matthias (Feb. 24.) the reindeer begin to be so incommoded with the gad-fly, that they are not in a fit condition to be slain for eating.