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JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS. 237
The day after our arrival at Pullingi, M. L’Abbé Cuthier left us, accompanied by
an officer of the fame regiment which had rendered us fo much fervice; to erect a
fignal towards towards Pillo. On the fourth we perceived one on Niemi that the fame
officer had raifed: having taken the angles between thefe fignals, we left Pullingi the
fixth of Auguft, (having fuffered feverely), to go to Pillo ; pafling four cataracts we
arrived there the fame day.
Pillo is a village inhabited by a few Fins, near to which Kittis the loweft of the
mountains is fituated ; upon this our fignal was placed. In afcending towards it, we
found aipring of the pureft water, ifluing froma very fine fand, and which in the
fevereft trofts of winter, preferves its liquid ftate; when we returned to Pillo at the
end of winter, while the fea at the bottom of the gulph, and all the rivers were become
hard as marble, this water ftill ran asin the middle of f{ummer.
We were {fo fortunate on our arrival as‘to complete our obfervations, and ftaid at
Kittis only till the following day ; leaving it at three o’clock in the afternoon, and ar-
riving the fame evening at ‘Turtula.
Already a month had pafled that we had lived in the defarts, or rather on the tops
of mountains, having no other bed than the ground, or a ftone fpread over with deer
fkins, nor any other nourifhment than a few fifth which the Fins brought us, or which
we ourfelves caught, and fome fpecies of berries, or wild fruits which the forefts af+
forded. The health of M. Monnier which was not proof again{t this kind of life ;
and which was confiderably hurt at Pullingi, diminifhed vifibly, and entirely failing him
here, I left him at Turtula to defcend the river, and go for its re-eftablifhment to the
houfe of the rector of Ofwer Torneo which was the beft, and almoft the only afylum
the country poffeffed.
At the fame time I left Turtula in company with Meffrs. Cuthier and Celfius to
traverfe the foreft in fearch of the fignal that the officer had erected at Niemi, this was
a terrible journey ; we proceeded as far as to a little rivulet on leaving Turtula, when
we got on board three fmall boats, but they pafled with fo much trouble among the
rocks, that we were every now and then obliged to get out, and leap from one to
another. ‘This rivulet led us to a lake, fo full of little yellow grains of the fize of
millet, that its water was entirely coloured by it ; [took them to be the chryfals{of fome
infect, and conjectured that they were thofe of the flies which had fo much tormented
us, fince I faw no others whofe numbers could anfwer the quantity of grains, requifite
to fill a lake of tolerable fize. At the end of this lake we had to walk to another of the
fineft water, on which we found a boat; we put our quadrant in it, and followed it
along the fhore. Onthefe fhores the foreft was fo thick that we were obliged to cut
our way through, every moment inconvenienced by the height of the mofs, and by the
fir trees which we met with lying on the ground. In all thefe forefts there are nearly
as many of thefe trees fallen as ftanding, the foil which nourifhes them to a certain
point, is incapable of affording them nutriment beyond, and not deep enough to allow
them to eftablifh themfelves firmly ; one half perifhes or is blown down by the leaft
wind. All thefe forefts are full of firs, and birch trees thus rooted up. ‘Time has re-
duced the latter to duft without occafioning the fmalleft change in the bark: we were
furprifed to find that with the leaft {troke we could crufh and break them although of
fome fize. It is this moft likely which gave origin to the ufe that the Swedes make of
he bark of birch; they cover houfes with it, and in fact nothing can be better adapted
sr the purpofe.
In fome provinces this bark is covered with earth, upon which gardens are formed
UP) the roofs, as on many of the houfes at Upfal. In Weftro-Bothnia the
bark
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