Part 11 (2/2)
This they applied, hot as it was, to the part affected, and the blisters disappeared.
What is here called _Taim_ is a sort of salmon, two spans in length at most, the tail scarcely cloven, the mouth not hooked, but otherwise like the common kind. (This is probably the _Salmo salar_ in a young state; and may perhaps be the _Laxunge_, or _Salmo minor_, _vulgari similis_, Artedi Spec. 50, not 80, mentioned in _Fauna Suecica_, ed. 2. 122, though Linnaeus has no allusion there to the _Taim_.)
As soon as the corn is carried from the field, it is usual to thrash it slightly, that whatever is loose may come away, and not be lost in the barn, as also that the coa.r.s.er part may be separated from the finer.
The flail is about a yard long, and rather thick.
The roofs in this part of the country are made of the bark of birch-trees, not covered over with any turf, but held fast by round poles, as thick as one's arm, whose upper extremities, alternately longer and shorter, reach to the ridge, and being bored through, are fastened to it, in such a manner that their ends project about a span each way beyond the ridge, crossing each other. Being thicker at their lower ends, they lie almost close together. Within this there is often a false roof, like a cieling, covered over with birch-bark and earth; but this is only when the house is wished to be very warm.
At the residence of the Governor of the Province at Calix, I saw three swans, which, having been taken when young, were as tame as domestic geese, to which these birds are so much alike in every respect, that I can have no doubt of their belonging to one genus. Their bill is flat, and black at the extremity, as well as the margins, convex and somewhat angular in the middle, so far at least that the swelling part terminates in an angle. The middle is fleshy, where the oblong nostrils are situated; the base flat or quadrangular, with two sinuses pointing upwards, and pale-coloured. The margin is toothed just like the _Concha Veneris_ (_Cypraea_).
A carriage called _Stotting_ is used here, for bringing home wood for fuel in winter, over the ice and snow. It is made of birch-wood, and resembles a sledge.
The length of this machine from a to b is three feet and a half, the breadth of each beam four inches and a half; their thickness two inches, except in the middle, at d, where it is three inches and a half, though in all the other parts of equal dimensions. The transverse bar, c, is one foot and a half long, three inches and a half broad, and is elevated four inches above the longitudinal pieces. e, e, are two slender triangular pieces, two feet in length, and two inches in thickness. f, f, are about one palm and a half each in length and breadth. h is curved upwards about two palms and a half out of the straight line. g is two feet long between the main beams, three inches and a half broad, but scarcely one in thickness.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The sledges, or beams, a, b, differ from the common ones in being broader, and in the elevation or thickness of each at d. The transverse beam c, on which the load is laid, is bored through at each end, to receive the supporting pieces. The slender bars e, e, which may be termed clavicles, are broadest in the fore part, where they also are bored through, and fastened with pegs, serving to give stability to the cross beam c. Two of these carriages are tied together, one behind the other, through the hole in the cross beam, at k. The loop, i, is made of birchen twigs.
At Calix I found the _Hippuris_ (_vulgaris_) with forked branches; _Pentaphylloides facie fragariae_, (_Potentilla rupestris_?); and _Eruca foliis sinapeos_. (What this was does not appear.)
I noticed lime-stone in the cliff at Calix and Tornea.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The scythe which serves at Cronby in East Bothland, for mowing barley, is made exactly like the common one of the Finlanders, with the foremost handle underneath, but, that nothing may be wasted or lost, the machine b c is fixed to the scythe, b being stuck into the hole at a, and fastened with a pin through it at the other side. A cord is tied from the other end c to the handle d, before the scythe is used. The lower, or shortest, bar of this appendage scarcely extends beyond the extremity of the scythe at f. Its position is regulated by a cord, according to the inclination of the blade f g.
The length of the main handle of the scythe, e f, is two ells.
_August 31._
I collected and described various species of _Fungi_.
(Here follow descriptions or characters of several species of _Agaricus_, _Boletus_ and _Hydnum_, given more correctly in the _Flora Lapponica_.)
_September 3._
I stood sponsor to the son of the Burgomaster Geyer Svanberg, who was born the preceding night, or rather between one and two in the morning.
He was named Geyer.
Mr. Svanberg told me the (_Cotyledon_) _Umbilicus Veneris_ grew on a hill called _Karvick_, near Wallivari to the north. (This probably was not confirmed, as the plant does not occur in _Flo. Suecica_.)
_September 4._
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