I departed from the posthouse of Kimi. The weather was unfavourable, for it rained all day long. I took up my lodging in the
evening at the posthouse of Jö. This part of the country lies very low, abounding with marshes and numerous small rivulets, but few hills. There is plenty of grass. The buildings are bad. The forests consist chiefly of Birch, intermixed with the acifoliæ (slender-leaved evergreens). Of these last the Juniper was remarkable for its abundance and large size, so as to be almost arborescent. The Birch and the dwarf Willows had now become pale, but the Sorbus (Mountain ash, Pyrus aucuparia, Fl. Brit.) had assumed a red hue, as well as all the mosses. (Pedicularis) Sceptrum Carolinum appeared every where by the roadside. Thalictrum (flavum) and Scutellaria (galericulata) were less frequent, but Golden-rod (Solidago Virga aurea), Trollius (europæus), (Spiræa) Ulmaria, and Epilobium (palustre?) were plentiful, as was the sweet Milium (effusum), with the Gramen ramosum (probably Aira cæspitosa.)
The inhabitants were in their smoky huts, with their eyes full of smoke, and the
tears running from them. Nevertheless they seemed more studious of warmth than careful of their eyesight.
The same sort of plough is used here as at Kimi.
I had frequent views of the sea through the woods on the right hand. Wherever the waves had thrown up sand-hills grew a pea with a triangular stem, a white creeping perennial root, and thick leaves alternately pinnate, (Pisum maritimum).
Near Jö I noticed a pit-fall designed to catch wolves. This was dug in a hill, at no great distance from the house. Around it within were eleven pales or stakes, placed upright and close together. In the centre stood a pole, which, as well as the pales, was on a level with the surface of the ground. The pole supported a wheel, over which were laid boards, so as entirely to cover it, in such a manner that if the wolf, when caught, should be able to climb up as high as the wheel, he might not get any further.
The peasants of this upper part of East Bothnia, children of darkness in their houses, are no less so in their slovenly appearance, chiefly owing to their uncombed hair. Their breeches reach as low as the feet, and are white, and they wear a sort of short cloak, sewed together in front.—Their disposition is quarrelsome. Their habitations are infected with a smell of sour fish, like sour Strœmming, for they are kept very dirty. These people speak no other language than the Finlandish.
Here and there by the road I had this day travelled, I noticed the Sea Wheat-grass, (Elymus arenarius. See Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. n. 34.)