B O T 



kto recommend its being abandoned. But we enter- 

 tain many doubts whether such a measure would be 

 expedient, and it will be well to pause deliberately on the 

 consequence, before deciding on what is of such im- 

 portance to tle community both at home and abroad. 

 Attempts to found other settlements, under the most 

 favourable circumstances, have failed j and the success 

 of Botany Bay must, in a very great degree, be ascri- 

 bed to the vigour and intelligence of the governors, to 

 whom its management has successively been confided. 

 Extreme difficulty also must ever attend the proper 

 choice of a situation for a similar purpose ; and al- 

 though both the expence of the colony to Great 

 Britain, and the length of the voyage, are objections 

 to our preserving it. Whether any place could be 

 selected nearer our own island ; and whether it would, 

 in a longer space of time, make equal progress, are 



359 



DOT 







BOTARGO, the name given to a kind of sau- 

 sage, made of the milts and roes of the mullet fish, 

 and much used in the southern parts of Europe. See 

 Ray's Travels, p. 396. (j) 



BOTHNIA, a division of Sweden, is separated 

 into east and ivesl by a gulf of that name. It is 

 bounded on the north and west by Swedish Lap- 

 iJand, on the east by Russia, and on the south by 

 Sweden Proper and Finland. Were we disposed to 

 dwell on the curiosa of etymology, we might derive 

 this word from the Latin term Bulimia, used by Ga- 

 len to denote the roots or fangs of the teeth, ossa 

 yuce sube tint dentiiim Jbrnmi/ia, some of which bear 

 an exact resemblance to the form of this country, as 

 divided by the Bothnic Gulf. 



Bothnia contains a vast number of lakes and rivers, 

 with a considerable quantity of wood : its largest fo- 

 rests are upon the frontiers of Lapland. The pas- 

 ture grounds are excellent, but the rein-deer find a 

 sufficient subsistence on the high mountains, which 

 yield only moss. Much of this country is level, and 

 the soil fertile. Though the seed is put into the 

 ground late, the corn will ripen in six, seven, or eight 

 weeks, as it happens to lie more or less to the north. 

 The frosts of July often prove excessively injurious. 



It has a number of pleasant islands along the coast 

 of the Bothnic Gulf, one of which, the Isle of Ado, 

 produces black marble and touchstone. 



East Bot/inia is in length about 300 miles, and 

 from 60 to 210 in breadth. A chain of mountains 

 running along its eastern frontier, separates it from 

 Russia and Finland Proper. This province contains 

 three departments, under one governor. It is but 

 very thinly inhabited, the population not exceeding 

 80,000 souls. It is divided also into 28 parches, in- 

 cluded in the bishopric of Abo, nine of which only 

 are m the possession of Swedes, the rest are occu- 

 pied by Riiins. The soil (particularly in the two pa- 

 rishes of Stockiro and Liminga) is found remark- 

 ably fertile ; but it is somewhat low and marshy to- 

 wards the southern coast. Vegetation, though fre- 

 quently checked and destroyed by sudden frost, has 

 been known, at other times, to proceed with asto- 

 nishing rapidity. Corn hai been sown and reaped in 

 the space of six weeks, and instances of this have 



been observed and recorded as far north aa ITleaborg. 

 This rapid maturity ii.i bed to the longer ' 



presence of the sun, which, to I lie inhabitants of Tor- 

 nea, is for some weeks visible at midnight. The 

 lakes and rivers afford abundance of salmon. There 

 is a particular fish which the inhabitants name miiihi, 

 and of the roes of which they make caviar. In some 

 of the rivers have been found pearls. Besides fish- 

 ing and agriculture, the inhabitants employ them- 

 selves in grazing, hunting, and ship-building ; they 

 export cattle, butter, salmon, stroming, and other 

 fish; skins and fat of the sea-dog, pitch, tar, and 

 whale oil. They traffic also in timber, joists, brick, 

 chalk, and other commodities. Veins of silver are 

 said to have been discovered in the parish of Kiemi 

 Other parts of this province contain granite, asbestos, 

 mountain crystal, and alum. There is also to be 

 found an iron ore, of a reddish brown colour, from, 

 which is prepared a sort of metallic sand. The inha- 

 bitants use the language of Finland, excepting a few 

 Swedes upon the coast. The principal towns are 

 Cafana Ulea, Brahestadt, Gamla-carleby, Ni-carleby, 

 Jacobstadt, Wasa, and Christinestadt. 



As much of the western province is still waste, 

 and without inhabitants, its extent, as a whole, has 

 not yet been ascertained. The inhabited part, reach- 

 ing to Upper Tornea, has been estimated at 58 

 Swedish miles in length, and from 16 to 18 in- 

 breadth. It belongs to the see of Hernosand, has 

 two provincial jurisdictions, and is subdivided into 

 four inferior governments. The soil is fertile, and- 

 the country has several mines of copper and iron.. 

 The inhabitants are remarkable for sobriety, courage, 

 and perseverance, and find their chief employment in 

 hunting, fishing, grazing, and agriculture. Thcy 

 havc a singular practice of using, in their bread, a 

 mixture of chaff and pounded pine bark. This cus- 

 tom, though at first perhaps the result of necessity, 

 ' must, in time, have become agreeable : they are 

 known to practise it even when their crops are most 

 abundant. Their chief articles of traffic are timber 

 and shingles, dried pike, salted and smoked salmon, 

 feathers, bread, cummin, pitch, tar, and train oil. They 

 export also a great variety of skins ; those of the 

 black and blue fox, the ermine, bear, hysena, wolf,, 

 marten, goulas, and rein-deer, the skin and fat of the 

 sea-dog, and hats made of otters hair. Part of these, 

 by a contraband trade, are transported to Russia and 

 Norway : they dispose of the rest in Sweden. Umea, 

 Pitea, Lulea, and Tornea, are the chief towns, each 

 of them lying on the Bothnic Gulf, and seated at the 

 mouth of a river of the same name, (w) 



BOTHNIA, GULF OF, takes its name from a 

 division ot Sweden, and is formed by the Baltic Sea, 

 from which it is separated by the Isles of Aland. It 

 is bounded on the north, east, and west, by the do- 

 minions of Sweden. Its length, from north to south, 

 is about 350 miles, and its breadth, from east to west, 

 is from 50 to 14-5 miles. This gulf is often so 

 completely frozen, as to afford a short and conveni- 

 ent passage from the opposite provinces ; at the Isles 

 of Aland, however, it is passable, in this way, scarce- 

 ly once in ten years. Its water, in common with the 

 rest of the Baltic, possesses a peculiar degree of fresh- 

 ness, and contains only one third the proportion of 



Bothnia* 



