CHAP to Kiemi for sale to the Torneå and Uleåborg mer

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1

chants. Not being able to find either the owner of the cottage, or his wife, or any one of his family, we robbed him of a barrel of his fruit; leaving upon his table three rix-dollars (about nine shillings English), to pay for our plunder; about double the price he would receive for one of these barrels, after conveying it to Kiemi. Our boatmen told us, that the old man and his wife, upon their return, would never believe that any human being had taken away the barrel, and deposited so much money for their fruit. It is the poorest of the peasants who engage in the sale of this fruit; the wealthier farmers, who cultivate land by the sides of the river, being able to employ their time more profitably. All of them engage in the salmon-fisheries, which are numerous in this river. When the fish is caught, it is cut in pieces and salted, and afterwards sent down the river in barrels, for the towns situate on the Gulph, and for the supply of Stockholm.

A

We arrived at a large farm at Kilpala; the people belonging to it, as usual, being all absent, and employed at a distance from their home, in mowing the long grass by the sides of the rivers and lakes. As soon as it is cut, it is made up into stacks upon the spot where they find it, by

means of a few poles made into a rack, for dry- CHAP. ing it, in this manner:

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We frequently observed these racks near the river. In this deserted mansion we were compelled to have recourse to our former practice of plunder; and finding good store of rich cream in the dairy, we sate down to it with our barrel of berries, and began to eat our dinner. The servants also took care of themselves. In the Reception at Kilpala. midst of our meal, the owner of the cottage, with his wife, children, and grandchildren, made their appearance; the old man laughing heartily to see us so much at our ease; and cracking his jokes upon the thieves who had broken into his wife's dairy, said we must make our peace with her, by giving her, each of us, a salute. He made us heartily welcome; and we became such

CHAP. friends, that we had difficulty in persuading him If we

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Primeval
Plough.

to take us away in one of his boats.

would consent to pass one night beneath his roof," he said, "we should be well treated, and it should not cost us a farthing;" adding, moreover, that "he would transport us and our baggage the whole of the way to Kiemi for nothing." This was genuine Swedish hospitality; such as no other country, perhaps, in the world, displays with equal sincerity and constancy. We remained with our kind-hearted host as long as it was in our power: but the season was too far advanced to allow of any waste of time; for we had all the mountains of Norway to scale, before the passage over the higher alps of that country would be closed by the snow. He shewed to us several implements belonging to his farm. The sort of plough used in this country, and throughout the whole of Ostero-Bothnia, is primeval; and it proves that the soil is light, as it could not be used in deep and heavy land. It is drawn by a single horse, and guided by a peasant. In fact, this plough merely harrows the ground: it called to mind the old Samnite plough, as it is still used in the neighbourhood of Beneventum in Italy; where a peasant, by means of a cord passed over his shoulder, draws the plough which his companion guides. It

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only differs from the most antient plough of CHAP. Egypt, as we see it represented upon images of Osiris, in having a double instead of a single coulter.

Lock and

After leaving Kilpala, the shore on either side was entirely covered with prismatic Trap. To avoid the passage of a cataract, we landed, and walked by the side of the river, until we came to a farm, destitute, as before, of its usual inha→ bitants. Upon the door of their steam-bath we found a wooden lock, with a wooden key left in Wooden it; the whole being so singularly and ingeni- Key. ously contrived, that we committed another theft for the benefit of the proprietors, and left a small sum of money for the said lock and key, upon the house table'. Afterwards we arrived at Tervola, where we hired two boats. To the Tervola. south of this place, the Kiemi exhibits one of the liveliest scenes imaginable, by no means destitute of magnificence. Here forests no longer crowd and darken the sides of the river; the land appears like a fine cultivated garden; farms, continually succeeding to each other in an uninterrupted series, cover the shores with cheerful dwellings. There is no scene of this descrip

(1) This curious wooden lock and key are now deposited in the Collection made for Lectures upon Arts and Manufactures, by Professor Farish, in the University of Cambridge.

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CHAP. tion upon the Torneå. The stir and buzz of industry has succeeded to solitude: again the voice of gladness, and the burst of mirth, are heard in songs and laughter. Banks gently sloping to the wide and fast-flowing river, fringed with shrubs, and decorated by the fields of the husbandman, everywhere manifested a numerous population. Female peasants, in their best apparel, were seen crowding into boats as the evening drew on; or on foot, in large parties, hastening with their swains, along the shore, to the fair at Kiemi. About ten o'clock the sun went down; but in such splendour, as it is not easy to describe;-an horizon all of crimson! What is marvellous, and we had remarked the same before, that part of the horizon which was opposite to the point of his setting was tinged with hues as vivid as those which marked the place of his going-down. The river, like a broad mirror, caught the kindling glow; and sky, and land, and water, seemed to be on fire. Long after the sun had set, this appearance continued, with an astonishing effulgence of light and colour, in the northern part of the hemisphere. We could no way account for it; but we gazed upon it, with that rapturous, yet awful admiration, which bade the Psalmist exclaim, "THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING THE GLORY OF GOD, AND THE, FIRMA