88 WESTBOTHLAND. 



Indeed I did not arrive there till nine 

 o'clock, when I found the people assembled 

 at prayers, after which a sermon was read 

 out of a book containing several ; and as 

 this service did not end till eleven, it would 

 then have been too late to have set out for 

 Lycksele, more than five miles distant, 

 without any house or resting-place be- 

 tween. 



One of the peasants here had shot a 

 small Beaver. I inquired concerning the 

 food of this animal, and was told it was the 

 bark of trees, the birch, fir, and mountain 

 ash, but more especially the aspen, and 

 the castor becomes larger in proportion as 

 the beaver can get more of the aspen bark. 

 This confirmed the truth of what Assessor 

 Rothman formerly asserted, t-hat castor is 

 secreted from the intermediate bark of the 

 poplar, which has the same scent, though 

 not quite so strong : hence it is to be pre- 

 sumed thai a decoction of this bark, if the 

 dose were sulliciently large, would have 

 the same medicinal effects. 



