481 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817 



I • 



certain distances are allotted to 

 the share of each individual. 

 Without such an arrangement all 

 communication would be entirely 

 at an end, not only during the 

 long winter nights, but every time 

 that the srtow was falling, or that 

 a mist should arise to intercept 

 the sight. 



The cottages of the islanders 

 were rough-hewn log-houses, and 

 they were themselves people ap- 

 parently of such simple manners 

 and habits, as their secluded situa- 

 tion and scanty number mi^^ht 

 lead one to expect : each rustic 

 householder was provided with 

 the tools and implements of a 

 dozen necessary arts or professions, 

 performing for himself with equal 

 address the duties of caipenter, 

 shoemaker, tailor, fisherman, 

 baker, miller, &c. So little was 

 the division of labour studied, or 

 the appropriation of means, that 

 we observed the corn-mills almost 

 equalled in number the houses of 

 the villages ; they were cheap and 

 of simple form, acting by sails 

 constructed of wooden planks, 

 and their mill-stones shaped like 

 the querne or old Celtic machine 

 for grinding with the hand. 



Luxuries, such as ochre paint 

 for their cabins, or coats of wool- 

 len cloth, where sheep-skins would 

 suffice, weie not common. Caps 

 of the most ordinary fur served as 

 covering for their heads ; and for 

 their feet the want of shoes was 

 supplied by a mis-shapen bag of 

 dried seal-skin : the harness of 

 their horses consisted of nothing 

 more than a plain collar attached 

 to the shafts of the cart or sledge; 

 the horse's neck was thrust in, 

 and he had nothing to do but pro- 

 ceed ; the contrivance, it must be 

 added, answers all the purposes 



of draught, because neither here 

 nor in Sweden is the animal train- 

 ed to resist the weight of the car- 

 riage on a descent, however steep 

 it may be. 



Very little grain is produced ; 

 the chief dependance of the people 

 is placed on the purchases they 

 are enabled to make at Stockholm 

 by the sale of their wood. For 

 our own subsistence, it was abso- 

 lutely necessary to carry with us 

 our provisions ; coffee being the 

 only article of luxury which they 

 had hoarded up for the use of a 

 chance traveller. We cut off our 

 meat and bread, as occasion re- 

 quired, from our store with a 

 cleaver or hatchet, and having 

 been dressed at Stockholm before 

 we set out, the beef steaks, &c. 

 were unfrozen by the application 

 of cold water, then placed for a 

 few minutes in the stove-oven, 

 and served up to table as if fresh 

 from the hand of the cook. Our 

 wine and brandy underwent a 

 partial decomposition, and the 

 watery particles were converted to 

 a core of ice ; nevertheless, after 

 what we had before endured, the 

 weather could not now be called 

 severe, except during a few hours 

 of the night, and these accidents 

 were regarded but as so many 

 agreeable novelties that relieved 

 the weariness of our journey. 



Four days were spent in our 

 passage, when we once more set 

 our feet on the continent, and 

 after a short stage arrived at Abo, 

 the great university of Finland. 



Kiev. — .\midst the toils of a 

 long jouiney, oppressed by the 

 constant heat of the climate, and 

 wearied with the restless travel- 

 ling of many days and nights, 



there 



