33§ KALM'S ENGLAND. 



wheat straw, nothing else. Of this, long straws were 

 taken, which were cut off into pieces 9 inches long, which 

 were bound into small bundles after the tubes had been 

 first cleaned out. Such a straw as has been speckled 

 black by the rain, ought on no account to be taken. To 

 make the straw still whiter they did this: One of the 

 bundles was dipped in water ; afterwards sulphur was laid 

 in a round iron ladle, stopslev,* which had no handle, 

 [T. I. p. 335] and it was set fire to, after which this 

 lighted sulphur, together with the stop-slev was set on 

 the bottom of a can, pint-pot, or similar vessel of the 

 same width above and below. Round about the sides of 

 this vessel these straws, halm-stran, are set up, so that 

 the sulphur is in the middle of the bottom. The pint-pot 

 is covered over with a cloth, when the vapour and smoke 

 from the sulphur makes the straw in these bundles much 

 whiter than it naturally was before. When they wish to 

 plait, flata, with it, such a bundle is first dipped in water, 

 so that the straw may be softer, and not break off. The 

 particular manner in which this plaiting is afterwards 

 done cannot so clearly be described in words.f 



Anmarkningar vid Krita ocli Flinta. 



Notes on Chalk and Flint. 



It has often been mentioned before in this description 

 of my travels, that the hills in the whole of this district 

 in Hertfordshire, consisted only of chalk, af bara krita, 



* Stbp-slev. In Ivinghoe village, Sept. 1886, sulphur about the size 

 of a walnut is laid in * shallow circular iron pan, shaped like a scale-pan, 

 nearly 6 inches diameter and about J inch deep. This is set on to live 

 coals which are contained in a circular iron pan 6 inches diameter at top, and 

 2 inches deep, narrowing towards the bottom. The whole apparatus is 

 called the " Steam-pan," and is bodily put into a box or can with the straw 

 round it, and covered over as described by Kalm. [J. L.J 



f Straw plaiting is still to be seen, as described, at every cottage between 

 Hitchin and Tring. The women earn 2d. a day for all they can plait. [J. L.] 



