THROUGH FINLAND. 287 
them, even ill their moral habits, from the nations of the South. 
The peafants during the winter are occupied, not only in the la¬ 
borious performance of fuch bufineffes as are moft advantageoufly 
accomplifhed when the earth is covered with ice and fnow, but alfo 
in preparing for their neceffary avocations during the fummer. 
They employ themfelves in making nets, cutting wood, conftrudt- 
ing cart wheels, and in tying up faggots for the fire. That of trans¬ 
porting things from one place to another, is one of the principal 
occupations of the Finlandifh. peafantry in winter. They proceed 
to the foreft and cut down timber for building, and making their 
fledges, as well as for fuel and other purpofes : they drag over 
fields of ice and fnow fuch enormous trunks of trees, as they 
could fcarcely be able to move in fummer. 
Hunting and fifliing are alfo avocations that are attended to in 
winter. Their mode of fifhing is as follows a couple of open¬ 
ings are made in the ice, and by means of ropes and long poles, 
they then contrive to pafs their nets from one opening to the 
other: the drawing out of the nets is attended with infinite la¬ 
bour. They have another method of fifliing on the ice, which 
feemed to me extremely curious, at leafi: the novelty of it excited 
my furprife. It is in catching fifh by a ftroke of a mallet or dub. 
In autumn, when the frofl: begins to fet in, the fifherman courfes 
along the rivers ; and when he obferves a fifh under the ice in 
fhallow water, he ftrikes a violent blow with his wooden mallet 
perpendicularly over the fifh, fo as to break the ice. The fifh, 
llupified by the blow communicated to it by the water, in a few 
feconds 
