June 24.
Midsummer day. Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and of spring, and for what is here in greater perfection than almost any where else in the world,—the air, the water, the verdure of the herbage, and the song of birds!
I walked out in the morning to botanize, but met with nothing curious, except Arisarum of Rivinus (Calla palustris), the flower of which is described in my Characteres Generici; and the Corallorrhiza.
Here I was first informed of a disease which had made great ravages amongst the cattle in this neighbourhood, and which was of so pestilential a nature, that, though the animals were flayed even before they were cold, wherever their blood had come in contact with the human body, it had caused gangrenous spots and sores. Some persons had had both their hands swelled, and one his face, in consequence of the blood coming upon it. Many people had lost their lives by it, insomuch that nobody would now venture to flay any more of the cattle, but they contrived to bury them whole. As a preventative they had adopted the practice of swimming their cattle once a day, which they believed rendered the animals proof against the disorder.
I was told that the cattle grazing on a
certain declivity at Tornoea die to the number of two or three hundred in the course of the summer. I must examine whether the cause of this may not be the Water Hemlock (Cicuta aquatica).
Could not meadows be freed from their wart-like tumps by burning? These swellings might be cut off with an oblique hatchet, in spring after the frost ceases, and burnt in a heap; their ashes would serve as a valuable manure for the corn-field. Sandy grounds are rendered fertile with bog-earth; clay with sand. Ledum (palustre) is laid among corn in the barns, to drive away mice.
I here obtained some of Nasaphiel's silver ore, and the curious iron ore of Lulean Lapmark, called gubbsilfver (old man's silver). The mine is not yet exhausted. The working of it had been for some time discontinued, but it is now resumed. It yields sixty per cent. It is situated a mile distant from Jockmock, and is called Rutawari. I procured also from the pa
rish of Pithoea some pencil lead, or lead-like mica (black lead) which blackens the fingers.