These hills might with great advantage be cleared of their wood; for here is a good soil remaining wherever the trees are burnt down, not barren stones as in Helsingland and Medelpad. The valleys between the mountains, as in those countries, are cultivated with corn, or laid out in meadows, but here are spacious plains besides.
Every house has near it one of those stages already described, on which the rye, less plentiful here than barley, is laid to dry, as are the peas likewise.
The woods abound with matted branches of the birch, I know not from what cause.
Between Norsby and Veda, on the hill towards Mörtsiön, I had a very extensive view of the surrounding country, which presented itself like clouds of dense vapour rising one above another. The mountains looked quite blue from the fog which rose from them; and this vapour gave them the appearance of having each a more lofty summit than the hill before it. This was the case in every part of the prospect.
Veda is situated near the great river of Angermanland, which takes its name from the country (_Angermanna Elfven_), and is half a Swedish mile in breadth near its mouth. The water is entirely salt, this being more properly an arm of the sea than a river.
I crossed this water, and, on approaching the opposite shore, observed all along the coast a remarkable line of white froth, an ell broad, carried along with the stream. On inquiring the cause of this, my companions in the boat replied, they knew of no other than that this line was the course of the current of the river.
Near the road, every here and there, were nets for catching fish. These were not painted black, but coloured red by boiling large pieces of the inner bark of the birch. When this liquor begins to cool, the nets are immersed in it.
In some places the cows were without horns; a mere variety of the common kind, and not a distinct species. Nor have they been originally formed thus; for though in them the most essential character of their genus is, as to external appearance, wanting, still rudiments of horns are to be found under the skin. A contrary variety is observable, in Scania and other places, in the ram, which has sometimes four, six or eight horns, that part growing luxuriant to excess, like double flowers.