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At length the mountains began to present rocks uncovered by snow, a glimpse of the ocean was obtained, and soon after the scene entirely changed. Arriving upon the abrupt edge of this elevated region, he beheld a vast expanse of forest stretching towards the sea, and presenting the semblance of cultivated fields. As he descended, the alpine plants gradually disappeared, the climate improved, and on reaching the margin of the plain, he sat down to regale himself with wild strawberries. He was struck with the circumstance, that the two natives who accompanied him showed no symptoms of fatigue. He attributes their superiority as walkers to their wearing no heels on their boots, to their being accustomed to running from their infancy, to their exemption from hard labour, to the habitual exercise of their muscles, to their chiefly using animal food, to their not overloading their stomachs, and to their being of small stature. Their continued health he imagines to be owing to the extreme purity of the air, to their eating their meat cold, to the excellence of the water, to their tranquillity of mind, to the absence of spirituous liquors, and to their being inured to cold from their earliest days.

Nothing could be more delightful to the feelings of our traveller than this transition from the severity of winter to the warmth of summer. He now approached the coast, and next day proceeded by[Pg 213] sea, examining the various objects that presented themselves. In the evening he arrived at the house of Mr Rask, the pastor of Torfjorden, who received him with much kindness. When day dawned he proceeded on his voyage, but was obliged by a contrary wind to put about and return to the place from which he had sailed. On the following morning, having climbed one of the neighbouring heights, he was resting on its side, when he heard the report of a gun, the ball from which struck a stone quite near him. It was fired by a native, whose intention, it would appear, had been to murder him, although, as he presently took to flight, no information could be obtained respecting his motives.

On the 15th of July he set out on his return from the low grounds of Norway, and began to ascend the snowy mountains, accompanied by an interpreter. He directed his course towards the Alps of Tornea, which were described as about forty miles distant; but having for several days endured the greatest fatigue and privation, he doubted the expediency of advancing farther, especially as he made few discoveries in natural history. He therefore, on the 23d, took leave of the mountainous part of Lapland, and returned by water towards Lulea. In this tract he had abundant opportunities of observing the peculiar characters and manners of the inhabitants, which he cursorily details in his journal. On the 26th he reached a place called Purkijaur, where he in vain attempted to procure a boat to descend the river. His attendants and he were therefore obliged to make a raft, on which they embarked; but they had not proceeded half a mile when the force of the current separated[Pg 214] the timbers, and with great difficulty they reached a house situated on an island.

Here he hired a man to show him the manner of fishing for pearls. This person made a raft of five logs, two fathoms in length, which he furnished with a stone anchor, a cable of birch-rope, a pole, and a pair of wooden pincers. When he reached a part which he wished to examine, he dropped the anchor, lay down at full length, looked over the edge of the raft, and on perceiving a pearl-mussel laid hold of it with the instrument. This shell is common in many of our own rivers, such as the Tay, the Ythan, the Dee, and the Don; but the pearls which it yields, although frequently large, are inferior in brilliancy to those of the true pearl-oyster, which is a marine, not a fresh-water production.

The forests having been set on fire by lightning, the flames raged with great violence, owing to the drought of the season; hence he and his guide, in crossing a part of the woods, experienced no small danger. The wind beginning to blow, a sudden noise arose, and the travellers, imagining it best to hasten forward, ran with all their might to reach the open ground. Sometimes the fall of a huge tree was so sudden that they looked aghast, not knowing which way to turn; and in one instance a large trunk fell between them, while the space by which they were separated did not exceed six feet. However, they at length effected their escape.

Visiting the Laxholms, or Salmon Islands, in this vicinity, he made observations on the fish, for the taking of which an establishment had been formed. He remarked, that the individuals of which the[Pg 215] lower jaw was bent inwards and attenuated, were invariably males. On the 30th July he reached the old town of Lulea, where he was detained a day by a violent storm of thunder and rain; and on the 3d of August arrived at Tornea, which stands on a small island, or rather peninsula, with a swamp for its isthmus. At this place every body was talking of a distemper to which the cattle were subject, and which attacked them principally in spring. On walking to examine the meadows to which they are first turned out, he found them covered with a profusion of the water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa), to which he attributed the malady. "The slightest observation," he says, "teaches us that brute animals distinguish, by natural instinct, such plants as are wholesome to them from such as are poisonous. The cattle, therefore, do not eat this hemlock in summer or autumn, whence few of them perish at those seasons, and such only as devour the herb in question incautiously, or from an inordinate appetite. But when they are first let out in the spring, partly from their eagerness for fresh herbage, partly from their long fasting and starvation, they seize with avidity whatever comes within their reach. The grass is then but short, and insufficient to satisfy them," and they eat up whatever comes in the way. The proper remedy was pointed out by the visiter; and, as from 50 to 100 of their cattle perished annually, the matter was of great importance to the inhabitants.

In the church he saw a memorial of King Charles the Eleventh's zeal for astronomical science. That prince having visited Tornea, on the 14th June 1694 saw from the belfry the solar orb at midnight,[Pg 216] and the following year sent Professors Bilberg and Spole to repeat the observation.

Leaving that town on the 9th August, Linnæus proceeded to Kimi, where there was a great salmon-fishery, and continued his journey through East Bothland; but finding that the Finlanders did not, or would not, understand him, he was obliged to return. He next directed his steps to Calix, and made several excursions in the neighbourhood, noting the Finnish names of articles which he might want at the inns, and again ventured to enter East Bothland. He then pursued his way along the east coast, through that district and Finland, visiting Ulea, Brabestadt, Carleby, Christina, and Abo. In the latter place he found one of his class-fellows, Mennander, who was afterwards archbishop of Upsal, and who furnished him with some money as a recompense for instructions in natural history. He then went by the post-yacht to Aland, crossed the sea of that name, and on the 10th October reached Upsal.

The whole extent of the journey was about 3800 English miles. It is quite unnecessary for us to expatiate on the dangers of such an expedition, to extol the courage and perseverance of him who accomplished it, or even to dilate on the important results. "My journey through Lapland," he says in a subsequent notice, "was the most toilsome; and I confess, that I was obliged to sustain more hardship and danger in wandering through this single tract of our northern world, than in all the travels which I undertook in other parts, though these were certainly not without fatigue. But when my journeys were over, I quickly forgot all their dangers and[Pg 217] difficulties, which were compensated by the invaluable fruits obtained on these excursions."