I observed the forests to consist chiefly of Fir and Birch. Where woods of the former had been burnt down, the latter
sprung up in abundance, and wherever the Birch abounded, the pasture ground was of the best quality.
At Flaskesele I found Rubus alpinus repens (R. saxatilis), Trientalis, Aconitum lycoctonum, Ulmaria (Spiræa), Podagraria tenuifolia sterilis (probably Angelica sylvestris), Polypodium Dryopteris, Thymelæa of the old writers (Daphne Mezereum), Herb Christopher (Actæa spicata), and Juniper (Juniperus communis); also Lichenoides with a greyish white crust and flesh-coloured tubercles, growing in watery places (Lichen ericetorum), and another on stones with black tubercles. A yellow species with a leafy crust grew on the Juniper (L. juniperinus).
I remarked here water abounding with a red ochraceous sediment like arnotto (Bixa Orellana), such as I had before seen further south. It was chiefly in the bogs near Flaskesele water-fall that this ochre was to be found, and it stained the footsteps of
passengers who passed over it. The colonists use it to paint their window-frames red.
The eatable moss of Norway (Lichen islandicus) was here of two kinds, the one broad and scattered, the other in thick tufts about three inches high. Both of them are reddish towards the root, and are certainly only varieties of each other.
Near the water side I met with the nest of a Sandpiper (Tringa Hypoleucos), which is one of the smallest of its genus. The nest was made of straw, and contained four eggs. The parent bird had flown away at my approach.
In the neighbouring forest grew a rare little leafy Lichenoides, of a fine saffron colour beneath, and bearing on the upper side flat oblong shields (Lichen croceus). Also the Boletus perennis (described in Fl. Lapp.), and a small white Agaric with gills alternately forked and undivided.
Adjoining to the cataract of Gransele the strata in the left-hand bank appeared
as follows. Under the soil a brown sand, next to it some fathoms depth of white, below which were two fathoms of a purple sand, which lay upon small stones, and those upon larger ones on a level with the water.