Several parts of Lapmark are inhabited by colonists from Finland, who, by royal license, taking up their abode here, break up the soil into corn and pasture lands[28]. They pay a certain tribute to the crown, and are thenceforth free of all extraordinary taxes, as well as the native Laplanders, being neither obliged to furnish a soldier for the army, nor a sailor for the navy. Whether it be time of peace or war it is all the same to them, as they are burthened with no taxes. These Finlanders are permitted to fix in any part of Lapland in which they find a probability of cultivating the ground to advantage, so that there is no doubt but most part of Lapmark will in time become colonized and filled with villages.
[28] These colonists (_novaccolæ_) are often mentioned in the _Flora Lapponica_.
At Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, as well as on the four annual festivals by law established, the Laplanders and colonists usually attend divine service at church, where they stay till the holidays are over, and are accommodated in huts adjoining to the sacred edifice. Besides the times above mentioned, the colonists go to church on Lady-day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and the 21st of September or St. Matthew's day. Those who live at no great distance from a church, attend there every other Sunday, to hear a sermon. On the intermediate Sundays, prayers are read to the members of each family at home.
At Whitsuntide this year no Laplander was at church, the pikes happening to spawn just at that time. This fishery constitutes the chief trade of these people, and they were therefore now, for the most part, dispersed among the alps, each in his own tract, in pursuit of this object.
I observed the forests to consist chiefly of Fir and Birch. Where woods of the former had been burnt down, the latter sprung up in abundance, and wherever the Birch abounded, the pasture ground was of the best quality.
At Flaskesele I found _Rubus alpinus repens_ (_R. saxatilis_), _Trientalis_, _Aconitum lycoctonum_, _Ulmaria_ (_Spiræa_), _Podagraria tenuifolia sterilis_ (probably _Angelica sylvestris_), _Polypodium Dryopteris_, _Thymelæa_ of the old writers (_Daphne Mezereum_), Herb Christopher (_Actæa spicata_), and Juniper (_Juniperus communis_); also _Lichenoides_ with a greyish white crust and flesh-coloured tubercles, growing in watery places (_Lichen ericetorum_), and another on stones with black tubercles. A yellow species with a leafy crust grew on the Juniper (_L. juniperinus_).