I 701. out o f eighteen thoufand feven hundred and fixty who died,
thirty-feven fuffcred under the hands o f the executioner ; and at
Naples and in Sicily,, fix hundred murders are fuppofed to be perpetrated
one year with another in a population' o f five millions.
From the year 1 74g to the year 1 7 7 3 , there were born in Aland
one hundred and nineteen illegitimate children; from 1 7 7 4 to
■1 790. the number of thefe was. one hundred and twenty-fix ;
which is in the proportion, for the firft twenty-five years, o f one
baftard child to eighty-three legitimate children; and for the following
fixteen years, o f one to fifty-three. T he latter proportion,
however, is in fome meafure a proof o f an increafe o f moral depravity
; though it be trifling when compared with other places,
fueh as Stockholm and Abo, where one-fixth part o f the children
born are illegitimate ; and i f we take the births through Sweden
we lhall find the proportion to be one to forty-five.
T h e people o f Aland are far from being fuperftitious; but, for
what reafon I know not, they are accufed o f being o f a litigious
difpofition.
No bears or iquirrels are to be found in thefe ¡Hands ; and the
Elk, which formerly was uncommonly numerous, is now no
longer feen in them. T he animals chiefly found are wolves,
(which are faid to crois the fea from Finland, when it has. happened
to be frozen over) foxes, martens, hares, ermines, bats,
moles, rats, mice, &c. ; otters are but rarely met with : on the
coaft are found feals, &c.
Q f birds there are above a hundred different fpecies found in
theie
thefe iilands. Amongft the fea fowl are the colymbus, the pelican,
four different forts o f gulls, the didapper, the eider, and more
than a dozen other o f the tribe o f ducks.
O f amphibious animals are three fpecies o f lizards, or newts,
frogs, &c. Amongft the filh are found falmon, trout, cod, haddock,
ling, perch, tench, pilchards, fprats, together with a con-
fiderable number o f other kinds.
The in fers found in Aland amount to the number o f betwixt
feven and eight hundred different fpecies : among thefe we fhall
only make mention o f one, and that on account o f its very de-
ftru&ive qualities. You often find trees in great number which
have been killed by this fpecies o f infed ; and, what is ftill more
diftrefling and harraffing, houfes newly built have been known to
fall into decay and ruin in a ihort time, entirely by the devaluation
o f thefe pernicious animals.
The Alanders pay no great attention to the culture o f bees.
Crawfifh are not very common in thefe iilands, and were firft
brought over by the queen dowager o f Guftavus the firft.
The Flora Suecica reckons about fix hundred and eighty plants
that are indigenous in Aland and the neighbouring ifles ; o f which
number one hundred and fifty are cryptogamia. Moft o f the
trees common to Sweden are alfo found in Aland. Few minerals
are to be met with here ; and the mountains are formed chiefly
o f a red kind o f granite.