Fatigued with my late journey, I remained here all the following day and night, not only because it was Sunday, but because I was too much tired to undertake to cross the ice that day. Near the icy mountains the water of the neighbouring lakes was frozen to the depth of a fathom. I employed myself in making the following memorandums.
I was told that _Fungi_ are very plentiful in the alps in autumn.
Scarcely any other fish is found in the lakes of this neighbourhood than the _Röding_, which the Laplanders call _Raud_ (_Salmo alpinus_, or Charr), and this is extremely abundant. It is a Salmon, or rather Trout, with a scarlet belly. Its length is about a foot. The scales are extremely minute. Head smooth, ovate, obtuse. Jaws furnished with teeth, and the tongue also bears two rows of teeth, six in each row. The palate moreover is toothed at each side. Nostrils small, with two holes to each, one above the other, the lowermost largest, and capable of being closed. Iris of the eyes grey, with a black pupil. Below each eye, in the cartilage of the cheek, are seven little hollow points ranged longitudinally, and in its hinder part are three others placed perpendicularly. The rays which cover the gills are ten on each side, connected together. Fin of the back with twelve rays, of which the two foremost are gradually longer, the third and fourth longest of all and subdivided. The whole fish is black in the upper part; its sides of a sky blue; head and throat white underneath; belly reddish-yellow. The ventral fins are red, with a white exterior edge. Many yellowish spots are scattered longitudinally along each side of the fish near the lateral line. The tail is of a brick-colour, and forked. The flesh is red, and very palatable. The people here caught fifty of these fishes with two hauls of the net, of which they made a dinner for me and themselves. One dish consisted of the fresh fish boiled, which was not agreeable to my palate for want of salt. Others were roasted on a wooden spit before the fire, but for the same reason I could hardly taste them. The third mode of preparation was the most acceptable to me, and had a very good flavour. This was made of the dried and salted Röding, roasted on a spit. The Laplanders drink the water in which the fish has been boiled, which I was unable to do,--though I could not but commend the practice, as favourable to digestion.