How trifling would be the expense of building a small church, and how much have those in authority to answer for before God for neglecting to provide one! Timber for the purpose was brought here so long ago as the time of the late Abraham Lindelius; but it has lain till it is rotten, as the clergy find some difficulty in the undertaking: nor is this the only obstacle!
Here I observed a kind of dark-coloured gnat with very large dark wings (Empis borealis.)
[18] From the above description, this is very likely to have been the Lichen byssoides, Engl. Bot. v. 6. t. 373, in its early state, when it has exactly the appearance Linnæus mentions.
[19] By the description and sketch in the manuscript, this seems a variety of L. rangiferinus.
[20] I am ignorant what Linnæus means by this denomination.
[21] This closely resembles the French method of cleaning, or at least scrubbing, their rooms, except that the Laplanders have the advantage in using water as well as a brush.
May 28.
I left Teksnas and proceeded to Genom; but as there is no conveyance but by water, from the last-mentioned place to Lycksele, and the wind blew very hard, I was obliged to stop at Genom till the following day.
Indeed I did not arrive there till nine o'clock, when I found the people assembled at prayers, after which a sermon was read out of a book containing several; and as this service did not end till eleven, it would then have been too late to have set out for Lycksele, more than five miles distant, without any house or resting-place between.
One of the peasants here had shot a small Beaver. I inquired concerning the food of this animal, and was told it was the bark of trees, the birch, fir, and mountain ash, but more especially the aspen, and the castor becomes larger in proportion as the beaver can get more of the aspen bark. This confirmed the truth of what Assessor Rothman formerly asserted, that castor is secreted from the intermediate bark of the poplar, which has the same scent, though not quite so strong: hence it is to be presumed that a decoction of this bark, if the dose were sufficiently large, would have the same medicinal effects.