LYCKSELE LAPLAND. 173 



June 6. 



In order to observe how fast the water 

 rose in the river, -which was increasing 

 daily, I had fixed a perpendicular stick the 

 preceding evening at eight o'clock close to 

 the margin of the stream. This morning 

 at five it had gained a foot in depth and 

 two feet in breadth. Near the bank, which 

 is continually undermining in some part or 

 other by the current, stones are found in- 

 crusted with sand, coagulated as it were 

 about them by means of iron. Some of 

 them seem as if they had been blown to 

 pieces with gunpowder. 



I was told that the peasants had in the 

 winter preceding foretold an unusual rise 

 of the river, and a great flood, in the 

 course of this summer, which when it hap- 

 pens is a considerable detriment to those 

 whose pasture grounds are overflowed by 

 it. Their mode of judging is by the swell- 

 ing of the stream in winter, to which they 



