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354 TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM.
gular a courfe to the waters, fo little navigable. How fhould a country be inhabited
which prefents fo many difficulties to the traveller ?
We travelled about four miles, over fix of thefe fehles, where the water feems to re-
pofe: the firft was that of Junfila, Hence we travelled half a mile by land to the fehle
of Jal, upon which we navigated a quarter of a mile. Afterwards, having travelled
three quarters ofa mile by land, we travelled a fourth by water on the fehle of Korting ;
then one anda half by land, and three quarters of a mile on the fehle of Gowhle. A fmall
ifland which we meet in the middle of this laft fehle, feparates Anghermanland from
Wettern-bothnia.
We again travelled by land feven-eighths of a mile, then a quarter of a mile on the
fehle of A/fwets ; afterwards half a mile by land; laftly, we navigated on the fehle of
Hellan, to the village of that name. We arrived there in the evening, very much fa-
tigued, by a route of about twelve leagues, in which we were obliged to embark and
difembark fix tinfes in the fpace of twenty-two hours, pafled in the open air, during a
continual rain; for no houfe is met with in the whole of this road, interfected with
deep marfhes, high mountains, and extenfive countries of gravel and fand. Hellan is
two miles and a half fromthe church of Afehle, where we went the next day, as much
by foot as by water. The courfe on thefe routes is direéted as at fea, by the compafs
and map ; not that the waters vary as much as the winds, but their direction is oblique.
and finuous. ‘The terms north-ea{t and by north, north and by eaft, fhould be as fami-
liar and as frequent in a journey in Nordland, as they are in the journal of a navigator.
‘Though the province of Afehle be in Lapland, there are no Lapland inhabitants in
its fouthern part: fome peafants have formed in thefe defarts colonies, which they call
Nybygehes.
They reckon twenty-five; the parifh of Afehle contains a part of them: Hellan and
Gaffeble are the moft ancient : they have been eftablifhed nearly fifty years ; the others
are recent.
The firft traces up even to the reign of Charles XI. This great monarch, by an
ordinance of the twenty-third of September, 1673, exempted from the militia, the lodge-
ment of troops, and the poll-tax, all thofe who would fettle in the province of Afehle;
and thefe privileges were confirmed by the ftates of the kingdom, at the diet of 1720.
Each colony only pays, like the Lapland diftriats, a fixed fum, which never varies with
the wealth of the contributors. ‘lhe richeft peafant only pays twenty-one crowns of
copper, which amounts to twenty-five livres and four fous of France; but the greater
part only pay three crowns of copper, or three livres and twelve fous. For this price
they may poffefs a land of about twelve miles, or four leagues, in circuit ; and often
even any quantity of land they choofe. ‘The land indeed is fo barren and poor in thefe
countries, that it need not be meafured. ‘The exemption from fervice, and the fmal-
nefs of the taxes, are the leaft encouragements which may induce men to come and cul-.
tivate thefe barren and frozen mounts.
The inhabitants of Afchle are large, laborious, aétive, able in their kind of commerce,
and hofpitable to {trangers : their houfes are tolerably well built, very fimilar to thofe
of Nordland, except that their walls are not of {tone or lime. ‘The province neither
affords that material, nor the kind of argil which might be fubftituted > in two places:
only is found a very fine argil, of which they make brieks, which ferve for building.
‘Thefe people are very comfortable; notwith{tanding their little wealth, which confilts.
in their cattle and nets; but this latter refource feldom ¢ifappoints their hopes. The
river of Anghermanna, which traverfes the province, and all the fmall lakes by which.
the.
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