Every where near the road grew the
Mesomora or Herbaceous Cornel (Cornus suecica, very minutely described in Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 39. See also English Botany, v. 5. t. 310.).
All the little woods and copses by the road side abounded with Butterflies of the Fritillary tribe, without silver spots. The great Dragon Fly with two flat lobes at its tail (Libellula forcipata), and another species with blue wings (L. Virgo), were also common.
Various modes of rocking children in cradles are adopted in different places. In Smoland the cradle is suspended by an elastic pole, on which it swings up and down perpendicularly. The poorer Laplanders rock their infants on branches of trees, but those of superior rank have cradles that commonly roll from side to side. In the part of the country where I was now travelling, the cradles rock vertically, or from head to foot, as in the figure.
Close to the road hung the under jaw of a Horse, having six fore teeth, much worn and blunted, two canine teeth, and at a distance from the latter twelve grinders, six on each side. If I knew how many teeth and of what peculiar form, as well as how many udders, and where situated, each animal has, I should perhaps be able to contrive a most natural methodical arrangement of quadrupeds[42].
I could not help remarking that the very best fields of this part of the country, in which from six to ten barns commonly stood, were almost entirely occupied with turfy hillocks producing nothing but Hair-moss, Polytrichum, and that quite dried up. Some of the barns were evidently in a decayed state; which made me suspect this condition of the land to be an increasing evil, and that it had formerly been more productive than at present. Indeed
some of these tumps were so close together that no grass had room to grow between them. If the cause of this evil, and a cure for it, could be discovered, the husbandman would have reason to rejoice. Wherever these hillocks abounded, the earth seemed to be of a loose texture, consisting of either mud or clay. When I stepped upon them they gave way, and when cut open they appeared all hollow and unsound. I conceive the frost to have a great share in their formation, which when it leaves the ground causes a vacuity, and the turf, loosened from the soil, is raised up.
The insects which occurred to my notice this day, besides those above mentioned, were the following:
A black Ichneumon, like a Humble Bee, with club-shaped antennæ four lines long, and blueish wings. Its mouth armed with a pair of toothed forceps. Thorax hairy, with several smooth spots interspersed. Abdomen depressed, ovate, rough at the