September 19.
After attending divine service I left this place. Sledges in use here are constructed with a cross board to rest the feet against. (a, seems to be a bandage or belt, to keep the traveller from being suddenly jolted out of this vehicle, and b is the part to rest the back or head against; but there are no references in the manuscript to these letters of the sketch.)
I now came in sight of the extensive meadows of Limingo, more spacious than all the meadow-ground of Tornea and Rödbeck together. (Tuneld says in his Geography, that the meadows of Limingo,
and cornfields of the neighbouring parish of Storkyrro, are famous to a proverb for their great extent.) At first the land seemed a perfect marsh, filled with Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile), and especially with Reed, Arundo (Phragmites), which last grew in such abundance as to resemble a forest. The Water Hemlock, Cicutaria aquatica, Cicuta virosa; (see p. [136]), was very plentiful by the road-side. This led me to inquire whether the cattle ever fed there? I was answered by the peasants in the affirmative, with a question in my turn, whether I could give them any advice on the subject, for they had lost a great many; adding similar particulars to what I had heard at Tornea.
Red Currants (Ribes rubrum) grew all the way by the road, as well as Lenticula (Lemna or Duck-weed), and the Lichenoides of which powder is made was observable on the trees. (Lichen prunastri, said to have been used for hair-powder.)
The meadow of Limingo is two miles
in length. The best part of the land, near the village of that name, was now occupied by the horned cattle. The land here is more elevated and less marshy, though somewhat impaired by tumps (of Carex cæspitosa). If but a third part of it were cultivated, according to the Scanian mode of husbandry, it would be of more value than the whole is at present. I was told that the whole marsh might be laid dry, by cutting a channel down to the seashore; but it was feared that the land might in consequence become covered with White Moss (Sphagnum palustre), which would render it altogether unprofitable.
About a thousand hay-cocks were now before me on the meadow, but none of them consisting of more than a horse could draw. They never here use more than a single horse or ox at a time for draught. Each of these cocks was raised from the ground on a kind of scaffold, supported by several cross poles. Some of the Water