Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
198 REGNARD’s JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.
fatter and more delicious than in the month of September, when they return. Thete
are fome years when, in the river of-Torno alone, they fifh to the amount of three thou-
fand tons, which are fent to Stockholm, and to all the inhabitants of the Baltic Sea,
and the Bothnian Gulf. The pike is equally abundant with the falmon ; they dry them,
and carry immenfe quantities of them. I have already defcribed the method they em-
ploy to fifh at night, by the light of a large fire which they kindle on the prow of their
boats. The trout is very frequently met with : but there isa kind of fifth which I never
faw before, and which they call /e/ ; it is of the fize of a herring, and extremely deli-
cate.
After having remained fome days with thefe Laplanders, and learned from them all
the information we wifhed, we returned by that road which led us to the prieft ; and on
the fame day, Wednefday, the twenty-feventh of Augult, we left him, and flept at Cok-
uanda, which is the boundary between Bothnia and Lapland. But, Sir, I know not
whether you confider it ftrange that I fhould have talked to you fo much of the Lap-
landers, while I have faid nothing of Lapland. I do not know how it has happened,
but I am going to end where I fhould have begun : but it is better to fpeak of it late,
than not at all; and before I leave the fubjeét, I will tell you all I know reipecting it.
I cannot tell you what name this province was known by among the ancient geogra-
phers, becaufe it was unknown to them: and Tacitus and Ptolemy know no province
more diftant than Scrifinia, which we now call Bothnia, or Biarmia, and which {tretches
along the Bothnian Gulf. All that we know of Lapland to-day is, that it is divided
into eaft and weft: on the weft it faces Iceland, and is under the dominion of
the King of Denmark ; on the eaftern fide it is bounded by the White Sea, in which
the port of Archangel is fituated, which belongs to the Grand Duke of Mufcovy. It
is proper to add a third divifion, which is in the middle of thefe two, and which is much
larger than both the others, and this is under the government of Sweden, and is divided
into five different provinces, which have all the general name of Lapland ; and are
called Uma Lapmarch, Pitha Lapmareh, Lula Lapmarch, Torna Lapmarch, and Kimi
Lapmarch. They take their names from the rivers which water them ; and thefe fame
rivers give all their names to the cities they pafs, if this appellation may be given to a
parcel of huts made of trees.
The province of Torna Lapmarch, which is exaétly fituated at the bottom of the
Gulf of Bithynia, is the furtheft in the world on the fide of the arctic pole, and extends
as far as the North Cape. Charles the Ninth, King of Sweden, being anxious to know
the fituation and extent of his dominions, fent to this place, at various times in the year
1600, two illuftrious mathematicians, the one called Aaron Forfius, a Swede, and the
other Jerome Bircholto, a German. ‘Thefe individuals performed the journey, with
all the neceffary provifions and inftruments, very fuccefstully ; and they reported on
their return that they found no continent on the north beyond the feventy-third degree
of latitude, but an immenfe frozen ocean ; and the laft promontory which bordered on
the fea was Nuchus, or Norkap, not far from caftle Wardhus, which belongs to the
Danes. It was in this part of Lapland that we travelled; and we have re-afcended the
river which waters it to the fource.
We arrived next day at Jacomus Maftung, which was only diftant two leagues. from
the place where we had flept: we made three or four on foot in order to arrive at it,
and we did not lofeour labour. ‘There is at this place a very good iron mine, but it is
almoft abandoned, on account of its great diftance. We went thither to fee the iron-
work ; but although we were difappointed in this expectation, we were more fortunate
than we expected: we went into the mine, from whence we procured very beautiful
{tones
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
