LAPLAND. 



589 



Lp!nd. ,T UM J. The lake* were (ret from ice. 



* ~i '-' July 1.x Nigbc t'rocu began. 



C:i*.^c- Oct. 18. The rivet* froze, 



Oct. tS. The lakes fro/e. 



Nor. 3. The ground corered with mow. 



NOT. 20. The un under the horizon 



During the winter solstice, when the sun continues 

 during seven weeks together below the horizon, instead 

 of a clew day-light, there is only a twilight of a few 

 hours. It is not so dark, however, but that a person 

 might see to write, or do any ordinary business, from 

 JO o'clock in the forenoon to 1 o'clock in the after- 

 noon ; while the superior brightness of the moon and 

 tars at this season, with the aid of the aurora borealis, 

 nd the reflection of the snow, supply in a great mea- 

 sure the absence of the sun. The cold, at this time of 

 the year, is frequently so intense as to freeze brandy 

 and spirits of wine. The lakes and rivers are covered 

 with ice of extraordinary thickness ; and the whole face 

 of the country buried under snow to the depth at least 

 of four or five feet. In the alpine regions, the lakes 

 have been known \o be frozen to the depth of a fathom 

 on the 9th of July ; and the whole range of these moun- 

 tains utterly impassable in winter, on account of the ex- 

 treme cold ; the total want of subsistence for the rein- 

 deer ; and the violent gusts of wind which overturn 

 both men and sledges. 1'he drifting of the snow, when 

 newly fallen, renders it impossible to go abroad till a 

 partial thaw has taken place, when a hard crust is form- 

 ed on the surface by frost, and enables the natives to 

 travel on their sledges with the utmost celerity. Du- 

 ring a thaw the atmosphere is surcharged with vapours ; 

 but when the north wind blows, the air is clear and 

 the sky beautifully serene. Thunder storms are not 

 uncommon even in the depth of winter. At the sum- 

 mer solstice, the sun is as many weeks continually'above 

 the horizon as below it in winter ; but his light during 

 the night is paler, and less brilliant than during the 

 dsijr. The heat is then extremely oppressive, especially 

 in the vallies ; and the air is darkened by clouds of 

 troublesome insect*, which the natives have no possi- 

 bility of avoiding, except by covering their heads with 

 a doth, or smearing their faces with tar, or involving 

 in the smoke of a fire. " The degree of 

 ' says Acerbi, " was twenty-nine (on the thermo- 

 r of Celsius) in the sliade, and forty-five in the sun. 

 The ground burned under our feet ; and the few shrubs 

 we met with in our way afforded us little or no shelter. 

 We were almost suffocated with heat ; and, to add to 

 msr sufferings, we were under the necessity of wearing 

 dress at thick woollen cloth as a security from the in. 

 seta, and to cover our face* with a veil, which in a 

 great measure prevented our drawing breath." In 

 many parts of Lapland, the days in summer are bright, 

 serene, and warm, and the season, though short, re- 

 markably healthy and delightful. At Altengaard, as 

 observed by Baron Von Much, in 79 North Lat. the ther- 

 mometer generally stood at 70 or 72 in July ; and the 

 mean temperature of the month was nearly 63. 

 : The soil of Lapland is generally sterile. The great- 



er part of the country is covered with rocks, or moss, 

 or gravelly plains, or a kind of turf composed of mosses 

 decayed by the frost, and impregnated with standing 

 water. There are a few tracts of tolerable soil, espe- 

 cially in the more southern districts. 



The vegetable production? are not numerous, but Lapland. 

 more various than generally imagined. Wahlenberg's ^"""" V T7" 

 edition of the Flora Lapponica describes 1087 species ' 

 of plants found in Lapland, more than double the num- tions. 

 ber observed by Linnaeus. Of this number only 4.96 

 are perfect plants; the remaining 591 are cryptoga- 

 mous. Of grasses there are 102 species ; of a\gse, 55 ; 

 of fungi, 9* ; of musci, 200 ; and of lichens, 207. Of 

 the perfect plants, the snowy Alps contain 93 species ; 

 the subalpine region, 125 ; and the woody region, about 

 313. Of trees (reckoning the salices) there are 26 

 kinds ; consisting^of the Scotch fir, spruce fir, birch, al- 

 der, poplar, mountain ash, bird-cherry, and nineteen 

 species of willows. There are no fruit trees in the 

 country, but a variety of berries are spontaneously pro- 

 duced ; such as black-currants, rasp-berries, craw-ber- 

 ries,juniper-berries,bil-berries, and the Norwegian mul- 

 berry, which grows upon a creeping plant, and is great- 

 ly esteemed as an antiscorbutic. ' In the gardens to- 

 wards the south, are raised cresses, spinach, onions, 

 leeks, chives, orache, red cabbage, raddishes, mustard ; 

 currants, barberries, elder-berry ; wild-rose, colon. 

 bines, rose-campion, carnations, sweet-williams ; pota- 

 toes about the size of poppy-heads ; French-beans, 

 broad- beans ; and tobacco when carefully managed; but 

 neither white cabbage nor pease come to any perfec- 

 tion ; and apples, pears, plums, and cherries, scarcely 

 grow at all, though cultivated with the greatest atten- 

 tion. The most abundant native vegetables are sorrel, 

 which is of great service on account of its antiscorbu- 

 tic properties ; angelica, which is highly relished as an 

 article of food ; and the lichen rangit'erinus, which fur- 

 nishes the chief subsistence of the rein-deer during 

 winter, and which the Laplanders frequently boil in 

 broth for their own use. Of the indigenous fruits, the 

 most delicious is the berry of the rubus arcticus ; which, 

 when sufficiently ripened, is said to be superior in fra- 

 grance and flavour to the finest raspberries or strawber- 

 ries. A small plateful fills an apartment with a more 

 exquisite scent than the finest perfumes ; and it is pre- 

 served in Sweden as one of the finest sweatmeats. 



Except in a few sheltered vallies, and on the banks Agricul- 

 of the river.-, in the southern districts, there are no agri- ture. 

 cultural labourers in Lapland. In some places, a plough 

 of a peculiar construction, suited to ground full of large 

 stones, is employed in preparing the field for the seed; 

 but in general the earth is dug by the labourer. The 

 grain, which grows best, and is chiefly sown in. Lap- 

 land, is barley, or rather big ; but in the lower regions 

 rye is occasionally cultivated ; and oats have been raised 

 even in the high level of Enontekis. It is found, that 

 grain will not ripen in any district where the mean 

 temperature of the three summer months does not 

 reach to 47-f . Its progress to maturity is extremely 

 rapid ; and the corn sown in the end of May is com- 

 monly cut down in the end of July. From the com- 

 mencement of the seed time to the end of harvest, sel- 

 dom more than sixty days elapse. As an instance of 

 the rapidity of vegetation during the summer season of 

 Lapland, Acerbi has affirmed, that, at Enontekis, a to- 

 bacco plant generally increases more than an inch in 

 circumference during the interval of 24 hours. The 

 Finnish colonists in Lapland sow considerable quanti- 

 ties of turnip seed, which frequently succeeds ; and of 

 this root the native Laplanders are so fond, that they 



TW > toc the wtrm fat rf Lapl 



. toward, the sea, art analogous to those of Scotland and Iceland : while the most abu- 

 ttfaweof Siberia. 



