Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 2

by Carl von Linné

The lakes in this part of the country did not afford me so many plants as further south. Their bottoms were quite clear, and destitute of vegetation. Their shores were no less barren. No Water-lilies (Nymphææ), no Water-docks, &c., (different species of Rumex,) grew about their borders, but the surface of the water itself was covered with the Water Ranunculus (R. aquatilis), bearing round as well as capillary leaves, and whitening the whole with its blossoms. I could not but wonder to see these broad patches of white spread over the lakes, though, when I passed up the country but a fortnight before, I had not perceived the least appearance of even the herbage of the Ranunculus that composed them. Now its

branches, an ell in length, swam on the surface. The growth of the stem must be very rapid, as it often proceeded from a depth of three fathoms. Some of the plants thrown up on the shore had capillary leaves, as are all those which grow under the water. The root resembles that of the Iris.

I noticed also the Pondweed with leaves clasping the stem (Potamogeton perfoliatum, rare in Lapland); and a very large branched floating Water-grass, with cylindrical spikes, which I hesitate whether to separate from the Gramen aquaticum geniculatum spicatum, (of Bauhin and Rudbeck. Alopecurus geniculatus of Linnæus. The grass of which he here speaks is n. 38 of his Flora Lapponica. A. geniculatus β, Sp. Pl. 89.)

The annexed figure represents the Norwegian cross-bow, used for shooting squirrels, which it will hit at the distance of twenty or thirty paces as certainly as a gun.

It was curious to observe the dexterity

with which one of the Laplanders hit a small fly, which I had set up for a mark, at the distance of thirty paces.

The bow itself, a, a, a, made of steel, is two feet and a half long, two inches wide in the middle, gradually sloping off to the extremities, which are only one inch in width. Each end is rounded, with a notch, where the cord is fixed, which, when the bow is drawn, seems in danger of immediately slipping off, but it never does. The whole bow when at rest makes a curve of two inches; when strongly bent it forms one of seven.

The cord b, fixed on at the ends b, b, is made of twisted hemp, as thick as one's finger, bound round with hempen thread, especially in the middle, where it is to receive the bolt.