120 LULEAX LAPLAND. 



clearer, and it was more (liflicult to catch 

 any fish. 



Scarcely any species of" Career was to be 

 found this season but what had some de- 

 gree of smut or ustilago about its spikes, 

 consisting of httle globular black bodies, 

 changing to dust. 



July 29. 



Tanning of leather is thus performed by 

 the Laplanders. 



The scaly cuticle of the birch being first 

 stripped off, the bark is then scraped from 

 the tree and boiled fresh in water, for about 

 as long a time as is requisite to boil fish ; 

 being afterwards set by to cool, to a cer- 

 tain degree, that it may not injure the hide 

 by being too hot. The latter, having pre- 

 viously been scalded, by dipping into luke- 

 warm water, is then soaked in the decoc- 

 tion of bark, and the vessel containing it 

 sunk into a hole dug in the ground, at the 

 extremity of the hut. The hide is taken 

 out every day, and softened in luke-warm 



