exporting tar, butter, tallow, pitch, furs, fish, especially salmon, and deals; but in the whole, there are not more than 124 houses, and 225 families. The inn was a good one: we might be supplied with wine, beer, and almost any thing else that we required. Every thing, of course, was very dear. The master of the inn had been in Scotland, and spoke a few English words. Some of the merchants here could converse in our language. This, an experienced traveller will never consider as a very good omen; since imposition is never so frequent upon the Continent as in places where an Englishman finds persons very ready with their offers of service, who address him in his own language. A German surgeon was smoking and playing cards in the inn, when we arrived: finding that he was also consulted in the place as a physician, the author sent for him, to ask his advice respecting the inflammation in his throat. The German would not stir until his game was ended; but came at last, full of the importance of a new mode of cure, which, he said, he had adopted in all such cases: this was nothing less than that of painting the inside of the throat, by means of a camel's-hair brush, dipped in a kind of green paint, which he produced from his pocket. This ingenious project

II.

II.

CHAP. not exciting much confidence in the skill of the practitioner, was politely declined: he took care, nevertheless, to exact a considerable sum for the offer of his services; and the author, glad to escape so easily from worse consequences, paid him his fee, and left Brahestad the following morning. As soon as we regained the main road, we proceeded to Luoto. The country ance of the south of this place was as beautiful as the

Appear

Country.

Origin of the Court

Sweden.

County of Surrey, which it resembled. A wide prospect of rich cultivated country extended on every side in the midst of it appeared large farms, and husbandmen everywhere busy, with their families, getting in the harvest. The Court Uniform of Sweden, first introduced by Gustavus Uniform of the Third, has often been considered merely as a fashion of his own invention; but it was, in fact, the national dress of his Finland subjects, as we have before described it. In this part of our journey, the same dress was universally worn by the peasants. The women, as in Wales, knit stockings walking along the road with burdens upon their heads. Near the rivers we observed flocks of wild geese. We changed horses at Karialuoto, Infvala, and Heusala; between which places the road winds in a beautiful manner through forests, with occasional views of the Gulph. Near Heusala, we saw

once more a field of wheat: not having noticed any wheat for such a length of time, since our first coming into Sweden, that we could not recollect where we had observed it before in the country. Here there is an inlet to the Gulph.

Between Heusala and Roukala, a breed of dogs resembling the wolf, like those we had seen in Lapland, was very common. There was not a house without one of these dogs, and sometimes three or four appeared in the same dwelling. Between Roukala and Hihnala, we left the province of Uleå, and entered that of Wasa': the roads were as fine as the walks in any English nobleman's pleasure-ground. It was here that we took up some of the gravel used in making and mending them; having never seen any thing so perfect before. The scenery too was beautiful: the soil full of rocks. Opposite the Post-house at Hihnala we had a view of the open Gulph. From Hihnala to Juntila, a flat fertile country. The old churches of the country now occur in every village, forming very picturesque objects: they are all painted red. It would not be easy to name any style of national architecture that they resemble; but in Switzer

(1) The boundary between the two provinces is marked by a painted Coat of Arms, placed like a sign-post on the road; and by an avenue cut through the forests, on either side.

II.

CHAP. land, and the passes of the Alps, the ecclesiastical structures are, in many instances, formed after the same taste; the roofs being decorated with little iron crosses, balls, and other ornaments. The belfry is always a distinct building, separated from the church itself. Ladders affixed to the roof, and reaching to the ground, almost always appear: they are never removed, that they may be ready in case of fire. Some of the houses, also, have the same precaution: we had observed it at the Parsonage, near the new church in Torneå. If a hasty traveller were to judge of the population in this country by the number of houses in the villages, he would be greatly deceived: the houses are numerous; yet the greater part consist of empty buildings, looking like dwelling-houses, but being in reality mere repositories, belonging to peasants living remote from the spot, and constructed to afford them a lodging during their occasional visits to the church; or as warehouses for the merchants, in places where fairs are held. We began now to see once more chimneys upon the different dwellings; the outside of the houses being painted red; denoting a more advanced state of civilization, and greater wealth among the people. One of the most interesting sights which occur in this part of Ostero-Bothnia is

that of the Finlander, morning and evening, going to and returning from his occupation of fishing in the Gulph. Fine, tall, well-proportioned men are regularly seen at these hours, walking with bare legs and feet, carrying upon their shoulders knapsacks made of the matted bark of trees. We saw one this day strike out of the main road into a thick part of the forest, with such a load of fishes behind him as one would think might feed half a village; but the quantity devoured in a single family, at a meal, is prodigious. The Laplander, during his fishing excursions, will swallow an incredible quantity at a time; and, after gorging himself, have recourse to sleep, to enable him to digest his food: so, among the Finlanders, half a bushel is consumed by a single family at a meal.

Description

Ostero-Bothnia, comprehending several pro- D vinces, is the most fertile part of the Swedish Bothnia. dominions'. The farmers are remarkable for their neatness in agriculture: the land, after they have finished ploughing and harrowing, looks like a well-cultivated garden: it is laid out in borders, into which the seed is always drilled; and it is moreover kept perfectly free from weeds, all sorts of rubbish being carefully

(1) It is now in the possession of Russia.