226 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



at Orsa, that the mortality is due to hectic fever arising' 

 from the pernicious exhalations of the mines. He thought 

 he found a still better explanation of the disease when 

 riding through the narrow streets of Orsa Kyrkoby, 

 where sixty or seventy farms lie very close together, and 

 the close unwholesome stabling attracts swarms of flies. 

 He was inclined to think here lay the root of the eviI 7 

 the extreme closeness of the dwellings and the sudden 

 exposure to cold air precipitating the disorder. Lun- 

 den, a hamlet by the shores of Orsa, is a wholesomer, 

 pleasant er place than Orsa Kyrkoby (church town), 

 where the dazzingly white and clean parish church is a 

 fine example set to the householders. The people here 

 are poorer than at Leksand. It is good and pleasant, 

 for them to get away for the summer months to the 

 fahodar (saeters), where the marshy pasture-lands afford 

 rich feeding for the cattle, and the ponds, fringed with 

 horsetail, 1 are filled with clean water, while the air is 

 filled with the fragrance of the pines. One hears the 

 girls calling the cattle with a horn, or sees them knit- 

 ting stockings, surrounded by the herd, which they lead 

 readily by means of a pocket of salt at their waists. 



For their own part the exploring squadron preferred 

 to sleep in a barn on new hay, or on bags filled with the 

 dry Dalarne moss. l These mosses of the Dalarne woods 

 are all in some way remarkable. Fontinalis antipyretica, 

 the longest of the tribe, is much used by the peasantry 

 as a remedy in their chest complaints, also as a preserva- 

 tive against fire. The farmers place it between the stones 

 1 Equisetum. 



