THROUGH FINLAND. 
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From Pello to Kardis is eighteen Englifh miles, a padage which 
■w r as wholly performed againft the current by the vigorous arms of 
our Finlandilh Laplanders, who aftonifhed us by the addrefs as 
well as the ftrength they difplayed, in the progrefs of this molt la¬ 
borious navigation. 
We obferved all along the river a particular mode, quite new 
to me, of obtaining the eggs of an aquatic bird, which is named 
mergns merganfor by Linnaeus. The natives are very fond of the 
eggs of this bird, which has very fingular habits for one of this 
defcription. Whether it is from a kind of indolence, or a defire 
of concealing its eggs from birds of prey, it never builds a neft. 
The neft of aquatics in general, feems to be of no ufe but that of 
holding the eggs; for their young take to the water the moment 
they are out of the lhell, and acquire their food in their own ele¬ 
ment. The mergus merganfor, inftead of building a fmall neft 
like the ducks, on the banks, or among the reeds or bufhes, chufes 
to lay her eggs in the trunk of an old tree, in which time, or the 
hand of man, has made fuch an excavation, as fhe can conveniently 
enter. The perfon that w r aylays the bird for her eggs, places 
againft a fir or pine tree fomewLere near the bank of the river, 
a decayed trunk, with a hole in its middle: the bird enters, and 
lays her eggs in it: prefently the peafant comes, and takes away 
the eggs, leaving, however, one or two. The animal returns, and 
finding but a lingle egg, lays two or three more, which the man 
purloins in the fame manner : the bird ftill returns, and, as if lhe 
had forgot the eggs die had laid, proceeds once more to complete 
3 D 2 the 
