At one place, close to the river, was a Laplander's shop, raised on a round pole, fig. a, as high as a tall man and as thick as one's arm. This pole supported a long horizontal beam, b, with two cross pieces, c c, which together formed the foundation of the edifice, and on this rested the wooden walls, whose form, together with the roof and door, may be more clearly seen at fig. 2. The height of the apartment was two feet; its length and breadth a fathom each. This structure is never moved from its place. The walls are very thin; the ceiling is of birch bark, with a roof of wood and stone above it. It is scarcely possible to conceive how the owner can creep into this building, the door being so small.
In a small bay of the river a large stone stood two or three ells in height above the water, which supported a fir tree six ells high, and, as appeared from counting its annual shoots, twelve years old. It seemed to have no particle of earth to nourish it; but perceiving some cracks in the rock, I was persuaded that its roots must through them find access to the water.
Towards evening I heard the note of the Red-wing (_Turdus iliacus_). On the north side of the forest large pieces of ice still remained unmelted near the shore.
The bark of the birch is extremely useful to the inhabitants of Lapland. Of it they make their plates or trenchers, boat-scoops, shoes, tubs to salt fish in, and baskets.
Near the shore grew the Naked Horse-tail (_Equisetum hyemale_), having a shoot springing from its root on each side. The sheathing cups of its stem are white, with both their upper and lower margins black. A more remarkable circumstance is, that the whole plant is perennial, not merely the root.
In the neighbouring marsh or moss the greater part of the herbage consisted of _Juncellus aquaticus_[29], which new bore its diminutive blossoms. I found three stamens to each scale, with a style among the upper ones, which was divided half way down into three lobes. Some of the spikes consisted only of stamens. The root is particularly curious, being scaly, with an entangled tuft of fibres under each scale, which form the basis of the turf.
[29] It must surely be the _Scirpus cæspitosus_ of which Linnæus here speaks.