VOL. XXXV. 3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 211 



3. Their food consists chiefly in a sort of fish which they call oret, and 

 which answers to our salmon-trout; being a very delicious fat fish, which they 

 catch in the rivers that run through the woods, and next to that, in bread and 

 rye meal, which they sometimes get great plenty of, by cutting down and 

 burning whole forests, and sowing the ground with rye, which sometimes pro- 

 duces 30 or 40 fold. But this method of producing has been of late strictly 

 forbidden, under very severe penalties, by the proprietors of those forests, by 

 reason of the damage by the loss of so much timber ; and because the fire 

 sometimes lays waste immense tracts of land : so that it is with great diffi- 

 culty extinguished, burning whole months together, to the great detriment 

 of trade. 



They frequently use bathing, at least once a month, thus thinking to pre- 

 vent sickness, and dissipate all weaknesses from the body : and their method of 

 bathing seems so very particular, as would scarcely agree with any other con- 

 stitution, or meet with approbation fronrt physicians. The method is this ; 

 In the middle of the house, which usually consists of one large room, built all 

 of whole timbers laid across, and notched in at the ends to let them close, and 

 then caulked with moss, as the seams of a ship are with okam, they build an 

 oven with stone without mortar, and without a funnel; the smoke going out 

 at a hole in the roof, which is left open while the wood is burning in the 

 oven, but shut close as soon as it is all burnt to a bright coal, which keeps in 

 all the heat. When the oven is thus made red hot, they then strip, both men 

 and women, without any reserve, and place themselves on benclies made near 

 the roof on purpose : then cold water is brought in, which from time to time 

 is sprinkled on the oven ; from whence arises a thick steam on the bathers, 

 which makes their bodies so warm, that they sweat profusely. Each person 

 has a rod in their hand, with which they gently beat their whole bodies ; and 

 if they find themselves so hot that they cannot well endure it, they call 

 for cold water, which they pour over themselves in so dextrous a manner, that 

 it diffuses itself over their whole bodies, and so cools them again. Thus when 

 they have bathed sufficiently, they go directly out into the air, though in the 

 most inclement season of the year; and will even roll themselves in the snow 

 for a good while together, without any harm from it. And this method of 

 bathing they make use of as their ordinary cure, when they find any in- 

 disposition. 



In the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they make use of a 

 sort of long wooden shoe, 3 or 4 ells long, on which they go so swiftly, that 

 in 1 hours time they will run 13 or 14 miles: and, as they are generally good 

 E E 2 



