In a small bay of the river a large stone stood two or three ells in height above the water, which supported a fir tree six ells high, and, as appeared from counting its
annual shoots, twelve years old. It seemed to have no particle of earth to nourish it; but perceiving some cracks in the rock, I was persuaded that its roots must through them find access to the water.
Towards evening I heard the note of the Red-wing (Turdus iliacus). On the north side of the forest large pieces of ice still remained unmelted near the shore.
The bark of the birch is extremely useful to the inhabitants of Lapland. Of it they make their plates or trenchers, boat-scoops, shoes, tubs to salt fish in, and baskets.
Near the shore grew the Naked Horse-tail (Equisetum hyemale), having a shoot springing from its root on each side. The sheathing cups of its stem are white, with both their upper and lower margins black. A more remarkable circumstance is, that the whole plant is perennial, not merely the root.
In the neighbouring marsh or moss the greater part of the herbage consisted
of Juncellus aquaticus[29], which new bore its diminutive blossoms. I found three stamens to each scale, with a style among the upper ones, which was divided half way down into three lobes. Some of the spikes consisted only of stamens. The root is particularly curious, being scaly, with an entangled tuft of fibres under each scale, which form the basis of the turf.
The Laplanders are very fond of brandy, which is remarkable in all people addicted to fishing; and there is nothing that the Laplanders pursue with such ardour as hunting and fishing.
[28] These colonists (novaccolæ) are often mentioned in the Flora Lapponica.
[29] It must surely be the Scirpus cæspitosus of which Linnæus here speaks.