the dairy, one of the most curious sights belonging to the establishment. It consisted of nothing more than a shelf or platform raised between two trees, supported by their stems and overshadowed by their branches, neatly set out with curds and cheese as white as the milk from which they had been recently made. They were placed either in wooden frames or on splinters of wood, or in nets hanging from a pole placed longitudinally over the platform. About fifty yards from the tent were the rein-deer, in their enclosures, running about, and apparently tame: when we entered this enclosure, they came and stood by us. The males were separated from the females. These enclosures consisted of the trunks of fir-trees, laid horizontally one upon another, without being stripped of their branches. In the centre of each enclosure there was a fire burning, to keep the flies and moschetoes from the cattle. When we first entered, our little dog put about fifty of the rein-deer to flight: they scampered off into the forest, and as quickly returned; which enabled us to judge of the astonishing speed with which they travel, exceeding that of any animal we had ever seen: they darted between the trees like arrows, and over deep bogs with such velocity as not to sink through the yielding surface. The boy, who had conducted us, vaulted upon the back of one of them, having a rein-deer skin for his saddle, and two sieves by way of stirrups. When it is necessary to catch any of these animals, it is done by merely throwing a cord over their horns. Some of the females were milked; and the women presented us with the milk, warm: it was thick, and sweet as cream; we thought we had never tasted any thing more delicious: but it is rather difficult of digestion, and apt to cause the head-ache in persons unaccuse

tomed to it, unless it be mixed with water. At this time the rein-deer were all casting their hair, which made their skins look as if they were mangy. Their horns, covered with soft hair, seem to yield to the touch, and partake of all the warmth of the animal's body: this soft cuticle was now falling off in ribands, which hung loose about their ears, leaving the horny part red and sore in several places. . .

The soil every where in the neighbourhood, and throughout the parish of Enontekis, (a town situated in 68°, 30'. N. at the source of the river Muonio,) is unfavourable to agriculture. It consists of sand and clay, but chiefly of sand. Nevertheless, the pastures around the church and buildings belonging to the village appeared rich, and were covered with good crops of hay. Mr. Grape, however, was of opinion that ages might elapse before the natives will be induced to pay any adequate attention to the cultivation of the earth. The principal obsta-cle arises from the fisheries upon the Norwegian coasts; a great part of the youth, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, emigrating to those shores, where the means of subsistence are abundant, and easily obtained; and the rest adopting the nomade state of the Laplanders, and living after their manner. A little barley is almost the only species of grain sown: they have not even attempted to sow rye, which is so commonly in use in Sweden; and wheat is altogether unknown. The sowing season commonly begins in May; and the harvest is got in, at the latest, before the end of August; but sometimes the growth is so rapid, that it takes place much earlier. The grain is harrowed into the ground by means of a wooden rake, or at best with an iron hoe, and the crop reaped with a sickle. Sometimes the whole of the grain used for seed

is lost, and the crop never ripens: in middling crops, the amount does not exceed the triple or quadruple of the seed sown; and in the best harvest, the average may be reckoned at about a sextuple; but such seasons are very rare. Hence it must be evident, that the food of the natives does not consist in bread: indeed, the only bread known among them is often nothing more than the bark of trees. The inhabitants are divided into what are called Colonists, or Peasants, and Laplanders. The former are Fins; and the Finnish language is universally spoken, although the Lapland tongue is every where understood: but in the whole parish of Enontekis there were only two women who understood Swedish. The Log-houses are small and low, affording different dwelling-places for winter and summer. The winter habitation is called Poerte it contains a large stone oven, without flue or chimney, the smoke being dispersed throughout the room; there being no aperture for its escape, except through a small hole in the roof, or through the door-way. In summer, they inhabit a house with windows; and these frequently have chimneys. Almost all the Colonists have a chamber set apart for the reception of strangers. Instead of candles, they make use of splinters of deal, about four feet in length; and these are called Partor. The principal means of subsistence among the Colonists are, fish, and the produce of the forests. The fishing-season commences when the ice is melted, about the middle of June. Then they quit their dwellings, and do not return before the end of July. During this time they are seen, upon the banks of the rivers and lakes, hard at work with their nets. A single net will sometimes enable its owner to procure from 350lbs. to 400lbs. weight of Salmon-trout,

called Lavaret, and from eight to twelve barrels of a species of fish called Saback, or lesser Lavaret; but the greater part of those employed in fishing do not take above half this quantity. There are generally three men to each net. In this manner Pike are also caught. Dried Lavaret is used as a substitute for bread. Towards the end of the fishing-season begins the work of salting the fish. Very little salt is used, to the end a slight degree of putrefaction may take place; when an acid being thereby generated, the fish becomes, in their opinion, more nourishing, and has a better flavour. That portion which they do not keep for home consumption is sold to the Lapps, or it is carried to Kangis fair, where they exchange it for grain; a measure of fish for an equal measure of grain. After harvest, the fishing employment is renewed, nets being chiefly used; but even by angling a good fisherman will, in the course of the year, catch half a barrel of fish; and in this way, salmon are sometimes taken. But the fishing for salmon after the tenth of September is prohibited; for which a curious reason is assigned, that “the salmon, now become poor, may return back to the sea, and conduct a fresh supply of fish up the rivers in the ensuing year."

In winter, fishing is carried on beneath the ice of certain lakes.

The produce of the forests consists in the capture of wild rein-deer, which is the most profitable. An adroit hunter will, in some years, take not less than ten or twelve of these animals. They are caught in spring and in autumn. In spring, when the yielding surface of the snow gives way to the feet of the rein-deer, the hunter pursues them in skiders, killing them either with his dart or with a gun. After the festival of the Virgin Mary, this chase is prohibited; because the

rein-deer are then lean, and their hides are of no value. In autumn, they are commonly caught by the feet, with snares; or they are shot. Traps and snares are also laid for foxes, hares, white-partridges, and water-fowl.

The manufactures of a people in such an incipient state of society, are, of course, little worth notice; yet a very considerable quantity of glue is made both among the Colonists and the Laplanders. This is obtained from rein-deer's horns, boiled down to a jelly during two days and a half, and afterwards dried in the shade. From three and a half to four portions of the horns yield one of glue. A little tar is also made, merely sufficient for their own consumption; the scanty and dwindled growth of the forests in this latitude not being adequate to the production of any greater quantity. Another produce of the forests is the food they afford for the cattle. It was mentioned to us as a remarkable circumstance, that as much provender is required for the sheep as for the cows. The number of cows in each colony, of course, varies, from five to ten, and even to twenty. Of sheep there may be found as many as fifty. For the maintenance of their cattle, hay and dried boughs are used; and, above all, the Lichen rangiferinus, or white rein-deer moss, without which, however excellent the hay be, the cows do not yield either so much milk, or of such good quality. During the nights of summer, the cattle are penned in folds, called Tarrha; in which fires are kindled, to keep off the moschetoes, by means of smoke. From the beginning of June until the middle of September, they are allowed, during the day-time, to roam the forests for food. Each colony has its own troop, also, of rein-deer, from ten to thirty, fifty, and even an hundred. The whole of this statement applies only

to that portion of the inhabitants who are called Colonists: of the Laplanders, properly so called, we shall speak more fully in the sequel. By a colonial establishment is meant nothing more than a farm, supporting sometimes a single family: in other instances, two or three. The Colonists are either Finlanders, or bankrupt nomade Lapps, who have been ruined by the loss of their rein-deer; but whoever is disposed to settle in Lapland, has only to choose his situation, provided it be six miles distant from the nearest village. The moment he has built his hut, all the land, including the produce of all the lakes, rivers, forests, &c. for six miles round, be comes his own, by right of possession. The Colonists pay an annual tribute of twenty-nine rix-dollars to the crown: the Laplanders pay only twenty-seven. The first tax was fixed in 1747; the last, in 1794, to be collected by an equal levy among the tributaries, without augmentation or diminution, whether their number be increased or diminished. administration of the territorial justice, the gathering of the tribute, and the annual fair, commence in the middle of February. The two first

The

are completed in three or four days; but the fair lasts ten days. This fair is made by the Tornea merchants, who come hither to sell flour, salt, tobacco, coarse and fine cloth, hides, hemp, cordage, silver drinking-vessels and spoons, guns, caldrons, axes, &c. The Colonists traffic with them by exchanging the skins of rein-deer, foxes, hares, squirrels, ermines, &c.; also dried pike and salmon-trout, and a little butter, which the Tornea merchants carry afterwards to Norway. The distance to Tornea from Enontekis Church is 287 British miles by land, and 296 by water; the journey being performed at this season of the year, in sledges, drawn by rein-deer. The commodities brought

for sale by the Laplanders to the fair at Enontekis consist of rein-deer and sheep skins, and rein-deer flesh; pelisses, called Lapmudes; boots, shoes, gloves; various articles of furriery, such as the skins of white and red foxes, gluttons, martens, sables, otters, and beavers; they bring, also, cod and stock fish, fresh and frozen, or dried, which they have caught themselves, or bought in Norway.

The number of inhabitants, at present, in the whofe parish of Enontekis, amounts to 870 persons; of which number 434 are males, and 436 females; that is to say, 268 Colonists, and 602 tributary Laplanders. In this list are included 175 married couple, six widowers, nineteen widows, 170 unmarried persons under the age of fifteen years, and 325 children. The number of births annually may be averaged at thirty; and of deaths from ten to fifteen and twenty. In 1758, the number of deaths amounted to for ty-five: but this is recollected in the country as a very remarkable circumstance. A single person, at the time of our visit, had attained the age of eighty years, which is also uncommon. The most common diseases are, pleurisy, fever, pectoral disorders, and ophthalmia. In the whole parish of Enontekis there were, however, but three blind persons, and one of this number became so in consequence of the small-pox. Hardly one in ten among the Laplanders have ever had this disease: when once infected with it, they generally die, owing to want of proper treatment. Their domestic medicines are few and simple; and it is remarkable that the Laplanders are, in this respect, more skilful than the Colonists; industriously seeking for such things as experience has taught them to make use of in disorders to which they are liable, both external and internal. Cam

phor, castor oil, asafatida and turpentine dissolved in brandy, are considered as the best remedies in all internal complaints; and for disorders of the head, or in cases of pleurisy, they have recourse to cupping; or they suck the part affected so as to draw blood. Bleeding is very generally practised; and, for this purpose, it is usual to open a vein in one of the feet, rather than in any other part of the body. The climate, although extremely frigid, is not unwholesome. The coldest summer ever remembered was that of 1790, when not a sheaf of barley, or of any kind of grain, was harvested; even in the August of that year the snow remained unmelted, and in the same month fresh snow began to fall. The annual depth of the snow varies from three to four feet English. According to an average, founded upon eight years observation, either rain or snow falls every three or four days throughout the year. The winds, especially in autumn, are very impetuous : among these, the north-west is the prevailing, and the most violent. Whirlwinds have been sometimes experienced, but they are rare: for the last twelve years there had not been a single hurricane. The appearance exhibited by the Aurora Borealis is beyond description magnificent; it serves to illuminate their dark skies in the long nights of winter: but, what is most remarkable, it is distinctly stated, by Mr. Grape, that this phenomenon is not confined to the northern parts of the hemisphere, but that its appearance to the south of the Zenith is no uncommon occurrence. The latitude of Enontekis, accurately estimated at the point where the church stands, is 68°. 30'. 30": its longitude, 39o. 55'.

POLYANTHEA.

The art of making ale seems to have been of very great antiquity.

Tacitus, in speaking of the Germans, clearly describes that species of drink in the following terms:"Liquor quidem ex hordeo in similitudinem vini corruptus."—" A certain liquor fermented (or corrupted) from barley, into the semblance of wine." This, be says, the Germans were accustomed to drink. That the ancient Greeks had some idea of the process of distillation, the following translation of a passage in Olympiodorus's commentary on the 2d Book of Aristotle's Meteors, will serve to show." Sailors, when they labour under a scarcity of fresh water at sea, boil the sea water, and suspend large sponges from the mouth of a brazen vessel, to imbibe what is evaporated, and in drawing this off from the sponge, they find it to be sweet water." Newry Mag.

Historical Sketch of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the University of the State of New-York.

Upon the establishment, in this city, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New-York, a number of the students of the University, entertaining the opinion, that an association formed for the purpose of encouraging liberal discussion on Medical and Surgical subjects, would, in an eminent degree, tend to their advancement in useful and ornamental knowledge, held a meeting at the College building, then in Park Place, on the 5th of December, 1807, with a view of organizing themselves into a society, for the promotion of these important objects. At this meeting, a committee was appointed to draft a Constitution and a set of By-Laws for the government of the association; and, on the subsequent Saturday, December the 12th, the report of the committee being received, the society was declared to be constituted, under he name of the Medical and Surgi

4

cal Society of the University of the State of New-York.

Sixteen members of the University attended the first meeting of the association, and conformably to the provisions made in their constitution, elected their respective officers.

The Society thus emanating from the students of the State Medical School of New-York, founded by the Honourable the Regents, and countenanced and supported in its endeavours to promote medical science, by the professors of the University, declared the Regents of the University, and the Professors of the College, to be, ever after, honorary members. They also adopted a constitutional regulation to create honorary and corresponding members in different parts of the United States and elsewhere; always, however, exercising this pow er with due limitation. The resident members of the society are composed almost exclusively of students of medicine, belonging to the University; though any gentleman engaged in medical pursuits, and of moral character, may be elected a member. The President is, by their laws, always selected from the professors of the University.

In the winter of 1810, an attempt was made to lay the foundation of a library, for the benefit of the members of the society; but this effort, owing to unforeseen occurrences, was attended with but partial success. In 1812, this attempt was advantageously renewed, and it is but proper to state, that owing to the disinterested exertions of many active members, and the liberal donation of a distinguished professor of the University,* the society embraces in its library no inconsiderable number of the best standard works on medicine and the collate-

* Dr. David Hosack, Professor of the Practice of Physic.