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85° TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM.
animals? The climate is one of the ftrongeft reafons. It has a fingular influence on
colour.
In the middle of the river Indahl, by the place we paffed, is feen a very beautiful
ifland, which has on each fide a bridge, formed of flat boats: beyond and below this
ifle the river appears to be a thoufand fathoms in width ; it is rapid; it {prings from the
lake Storfion, or great lake, and receives in its courfe nine fmall rivers, which defcend
from the mountain. Beyond this ifle are many water-falls: a mile below it runs into
the fea on the eaft, which fupplies it with falmon.
The province of Medelpad is feparated by a fimall rivulet from Angherman. On
entering this latter Hernofand prefents itfelf, fituated in an ifland furrounded by the fea,
and joining the continent by a bridge thirty fathoms in length. ‘This town, burnt by
the Ruffians in 1719, like all thofe of Nordland, is compofed of wooden houfes and nar-
row ftreets. ‘The fouth fide is built on the declivity of a hill, extending to the fea :
this fide it only receives lighters and large barks; but on the northern fide the rargate
veffels may anchor, and load before the magazines. ‘There are few inhabitants: Bodies
of trades are ufelefs here, for want of capital; and the college is of no benefit, in the
want of occupations more effential than ftudy. The women fpin, warp, and manufac-
ture cloth ; though they fucceed indifferently, it is one of their principal refources.
Nearly all the men fifh during the fummer: they falt all the fifth they take, or fell
them frefh to the peafants, who falt them for their ule. When the birds of the fea col-
leé&t together, it is a fignal for the fifhermen that the fifh are not far off : the fea is imme-
diately covered with boats and nets. Every fociety would have laws relative to its kind
of life and property. The fifhermen of Hernofand have a maritime code, according to
which they are judged, by a particular council. All the inhabitants of Hernofand, ex-
cepting five or fix, live on the produét of their fifhery or lands.
The lands are divided between all the citizens; they burn them, and fow them with
rye: they have pafture lands, which they hire of each other on occafion, at a price vary-
ing with the abundance or fearcity of forage. Near a foil which they have obferved to
be fit for the bearing of flax, they have built in the town itfelf a manufacture of linen
cloth. This eftablifhment will become confiderable, if we may judge from the fituation
of the town, the character of its inhabitants, and the nature of the foil.
The commerce of this country confifts particularly in flax: it has befides, like the
other diftricts of Nordland, a refource in the traffic of game, which it fends to Stock-
holm, during the whole of the winter. In Hernofand there are factors who travel in the
fummer to certain parts of Lapland, to buy, or exchange for brandy, all merchandife
fuitable to that town: thefe merchants travel farther than fifteen miles. They would
render greater fervice to commerce and the {ftate, if they employed themfelves in tans
ning of hides, and preparing the fkins of the beavers, they procure from Angherman-
land and Lapland: they would add or fubftitute the profit of the manufa@turer to that
of the dealer: the returns of their capital would augment in their hands.
The town of Hernofand is paved with a fpecies of flint, which might be ufed as whet.
{tone ; but it is fo common, that the commerce would not compenfate for the expences.
The mineral waters of the environs, very rich in oker, form a more lucrative object.
Hernofand has the advantage of being the refidence of the fuperintendant of all Nord-
land, which is the moft extenfive and perhaps the beft government in Sweden. But
there exifts an abufe common enough in that kingdom, which is, that the fuperintendant
pofleffes the prebends deftined for the lecturers of the colleges, who never enjoy them 5
thus the patron becomes the incumbent: neverthelefs, Hernofand without a cole
wou
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