12. Petrified corals from Norway.
13. Iridescent fluors from the alps.
The fish called by the Laplanders Sijk (the Gwiniad, or Salmo Lavaretus,) is taken in their lakes. Its head terminates in an obtuse point. The upper jaw is the longest. Mouth without teeth. Iris of the eye silvery, with a blackish upper edge, and a black pupil. The whole body is silvery, blackish about the back, eleven inches long and two deep. Head two inches long at the sides; from the snout to the dorsal fin four inches and a half. The dorsal fin consists of thirteen rays, of which the first is by far the largest, and the last cloven or interrupted. The soft fat fin is in its proper place.
July 21.
The following are the disorders or inconveniences to which the reindeer are subject.
When the frost is so intense as to form an impenetrable crust on the surface of the
snow, so that the animal cannot break it with his feet, to get at the Lichen on which he feeds, he is frequently starved to death. This misfortune is as dreadful to the Laplanders as any public or national calamity elsewhere; for, when his reindeer are killed, he must himself either starve to death, beg for his livelihood, or turn thief.
The hoofs of the reindeer are not uncommonly affected with a swelling at the edge where they are attached to the skin, at which part they consequently become ulcerated, and are seldom healed. The creature thus grows lame, and cannot keep up with the herd.
These animals are sometimes attacked with a vertigo, or giddiness in the head, which causes them to run round and round continually. The people assured me, that such of them as run according to the course of the sun may be expected to get the better of the disorder; but those which turn the contrary way, being supposed incurable, are immediately killed. The reco
very of the former is thought to be promoted by cutting their ears, so as to cause a great discharge of blood.