W e took leave o f our aged companion, and were puriuing our
journey, when a ftorm and violent fall o f rain obliged us to take'
refuge in a houfe upon an eminence on the left fide o f the river.
Here we had an extenfive profpe<d, which prefented to our view
different diftriils o f the country overflowed by the river Tornea.
This houfe had a bat-h quite in the tafte o f Finland, and we
amufed ourfelves by looking at the men and women who entered
into the bathing room. T he men undreffed themfelves in the
houfe, and ran naked into the bath, which is at a diftance o f fifteen
or twenty feet from the dwelling-houfe. T h e women, it is
true, took o ff their clothes in the bathing-place itfclf, but they
threw their petticoats on the outfide, and thus were obliged td
come out, like fo many Eves, to put them on. They threw their
clothes out o f the room to prevent their becoming wet by the vapour
o f the bath. When they were all in the midft o f the bath,
my curiofity influenced me to run in alfo to fee what was going on,;
and to ilation my thermometer in a corner o f the bath for the
purpofe o f afcertaining the heat; but it was fo infupportable, that
being abfolutely unable to breathe, I made my way out as fail as I
went in, having had fearcely time to look around me. I twice
attempted to place my thermometer in the room, but I was obliged
to call my Finlandiih interpreter, who was more accuftomed to
it, and I found that the heat was Go degrees o f Celfius.
A t Kirkomeki we met with what I may call an excellent lodging,
and a very polite landlady, who was not o f the feme clafe
svith the peafentry, but a relation o f a merchant in Tornea. Iri
a finall
a fmall houfe adjoining, I few a kind o f hand-mill to grind corn
for the family : it confided o f two round dones, in the uppermod
o f which was inferted a dick, whofe other extremity paffed
through a hole in a triangular board, which was fadened to the
corner o f the room.
Proceeding fix miles beyond Kirkomeki, , we arrived at Niemis
which word fignifies, in. the language o f the country, a promontory
: here we changed horfes for the lad time. It is a groupe
o f fmall wooden houfes, where we few fome little boats on the
river Armesjoki - the place is a fmall dependency o f Tornea.
Farther on you have a view o f a mountain named Luppio, which
is compofed o f rocks’ that are feemingly falling into ruins.
From Niemis to Upper Tornea is eight miles: this is the lad
dage o f the journey. T he road is mountainous, and in fome
places fo full o f fend, as to render it extrerpely fatiguing to the
horfes.. W e reached Upper Tornea on the eighteenth o f June in
the afternoon. The plants which we found in flower, in the
courfe o f this route, were the following :
Menyanthes trifoliata Cornus fuecica
Trientalis Europasa Leontodon taraxacum
Betula nana Rubus chamoemorus
Andromeda polifolia Rubus arilicus.