Another subject of inquiry is, why the Laplanders are so healthy; for which the following reasons may be assigned.
1. The extreme purity of the air, which seemed to give me new life as I inhaled it.
3. Eating their food cold; for they always let their boiled meat cool before they taste it, and do not seize it with avidity as soon as it comes out of the pot.[62]
[62] Linnæus's expression is, "they do not spring upon it with boots and spurs."
5. Tranquillity of mind. They have no contentions, neither are they over and above careful about their affairs, nor addicted to covetousness. Their lives are protracted to extreme old age.
6. Their never overloading the stomach, while the rustic of other countries eats till he is ready to burst.
7. Deficiency of spirituous liquors. Of these they rarely taste; and only in such quantities as to be rather beneficial than otherwise.
8. Their being inured to cold from their infancy renders them hardy.
9. Probably the quantity of flesh they eat may prolong their lives, as carnivorous animals are long-lived.
I saw no flies in Lapland, but in Norway the houses are full of them. I was however no longer infested with swarms of gnats.
At the place where I stopped to rest after my fatiguing journey, they gave me Sword-fish (_Xiphias Gladius_) to eat, which very much resembled Salmon in flavour. It was of a large size, with a dorsal fin continued from the middle of the back to the tail.
The next day it blew so very hard that I did not venture to leave this place by sea. I took a walk in the morning on the beach, it being low water, and noticed various marine productions. Several species of _Fucus_ were attached either to stones or shells, as well as _Ulvæ_ and _Confervæ_. Barnacles (_Lepas Balanus_ and _L. Balanoides_) were seen sticking to large stones, at present left by the tide. I noticed also several univalve and bivalve shells of various sizes. The _Strombus_ (_Pes pelecani_) with and without its dilated lip; also some small Crabs, and other things. I gathered a viviparous avenaceous grass (what this was cannot be ascertained). Here likewise I noticed several Zoophytes, and among them the three following _Medusæ_.
1. _Medusa_ (_capillata_) of an octagonal shape, with notched angles. The annexed figure shows its under side. The whole is transparent like glass. There are eight pair of rays, within which the disk, and other rays at the base of the former, are all covered with minute scaly prickles, ranged in concentric circular rows. The outer feelers, which look like the stamens of a flower, are sometimes snow-white, sometimes of a reddish flesh-colour, and crisped. Within these is a central cluster of longer feelers, resembling pistils.