HAVING been appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences to travel through Lapland, for the purpose of investigating the three kingdoms of Nature in that country, I prepared my wearing apparel and other necessaries for the journey as follows. My clothes consisted of a light coat of Westgothland linsey-woolsey cloth without folds, lined with red shalloon, having small cuffs and collar of shag; leather breeches; a round wig; a green leather cap, and a pair of half boots. I carried a small leather bag, half an ell in length, but somewhat less in breadth, furnished on one side with hooks and eyes, so that it could be opened and shut at pleasure. This bag contained one shirt; two pair of false sleeves; two half shirts; an inkstand, pencase, microscope, and spying-glass; a gauze cap to protect me occasionally from the gnats; a comb; my journal, and a parcel of paper stitched together for drying plants, both in folio; my manuscript Ornithology, Flora Uplandica, and Characteres generici. I wore a hanger at my side, and carried a small fowling-piece, as well as an octangular stick, graduated for the purpose of measuring. My pocket-book contained a passport from the the Governor of Uppsala, and a recommendation from the Academy.

May 12, 1732, old style.

I set out alone from the city of Uppsala on Friday May 12, 1732, at eleven o'clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age. At this season Nature wore her most cheerful and delightful aspect, and Flora celebrated her nuptials with Phoebus.

Omnia vere vigent et veris tempore Arent,
Et totus fervet Veneris dulcedine mundus.

Spring clothes the fields and decks the flowery grove,
And all creation glows with life and love.

Now the winter corn was half a foot in height, and the barley had just shot out its blade. The birch, the elm, and the aspen-tree began to put forth their leaves. Uppsala is the ancient seat of government. Its palace was destroyed by fire in 1702. With respect to situation, and variety of prospects, scarcely any city can be compared with this. For the distance of a quarter of a Swedish mile it is surrounded with fertile corn-fields, which are bounded by hills, and the view is terminated by spacious forests.

I had no sooner passed the northern gate of the city than I perceived signs of a clay soil, except in the hills, which consist of sand and stones. The road here is level, and for a quarter of a mile destitute of trees. In ditches by the way side the Water Byssus was observable (Byssus flos aquæ), particularly in places sheltered from the wind. It greatly resembles the cream of milk, and is called by the peasants Watnet blommar, or Water Flower.

A number of mares with their colts were grazing everywhere near the road. I remarked the great length of the young animals' legs, which according to common opinion are as long at their birth as they ever will be; therefore if a measure be taken from the hoof up to the knee of a young colt, and so on from the knee to the extremity, it will give the height of the horse when full grown. A similar observation has been made on the size of the bones in the ear of an infant.

I observed the same kind of moss, or rather Lichenoides terrestre, dædaleis sinubus, (Lichen nivalis,) which is found on the hill near the palace at Uppsala.

Geese were now accompanied by their goslings, which are all uniformly of the same yellow hue when hatched, whatever colour they may acquire afterwards.

I left old Uppsala on the right, with its three large sepulchral mounds or tumuli.

The few plants now in flower were Taraxacum (Leontodon taraxacum), which Tournefort erroneously combines with Pilosella (Hieracium pilosella,) notwithstanding the reflexed leaves of its calyx; Draba caule nudo (D. verna), which in Småland is called Rye Flower, because as soon as the husbandman sees it in bloom he is accustomed to sow his Lent corn; Myosotis scorpioides; Viola tricolor and odorata; Thlaspi arvense; Lithospermum arvense; Cyperoides (probably some species of Carex); Juncoides (Juncus campestris); Salix (S. caprea?); Primula veris, as it is called, though neither here nor in other places the first flower of the spring; Caltha palustris, known by the name of Swedish Caper, as many people are said to eat it instead of the true Caper; the report of its giving a colour to butter is certainly false.

The lark was my companion all the way, flying before me quivering in the air.

Ecce suum tirile, tirile, suum tirile tractat<1>.

The weather was warm and serene. Now and then a refreshing breeze sprang up from the west, and a rising cloud was observable in that quarter.

Okstad (more properly Högsta) is a mile and a quarter from Uppsala. Here the forests began to thicken. The charming lark, which had till now attended my steps, here left me; but another bird welcomed my approach to the forest, the Redwing, or Turdus iliacus, whose amorous warblings from the tops of the Spruce Fir were no less delightful. Its lofty and varied notes rival those of the Nightingale herself.

In the forest innumerable dwarf Firs are to be seen, whose diminutive height bears no proportion to their thick trunks, their lowermost branches being on a level with the uppermost, and the leading shoot entirely wanting.          It seems as if all the branches came from one centre, like those of a palm, and that the top had been cut off. I attribute this to the soil, and could not but admire it as the pruning of Nature. This form of the Fir has been called Pinus plicata.

Läby is a mile and a quarter further. Here the forest abounds with the Red Spanish Whortleberry (Arbutus uva-ursi), which was now in blossom, and of which, as it had not been scientifically described, I made a description; (see Flora Lapponica; and Engl. Bot. t.714.)

A large and dreary pine-forest next presented itself, in which the herbaceous plants seemed almost starved, and in their place the soil, which was hardly two inches deep, all below that depth being pure barren sand (Arena glarea), bore Heath (Erica), Hypnum parietinum, and some Lichens of the tribe called coralloides.

Above a quarter of a mile beyond the post-house, near the road, is a Runic monument; but I did not allow myself time to copy the inscription, finding it had lately been deciphered by somebody else.

A quarter of a mile further stands a land-mark of a curious construction, consisting of four flattish upright stones placed in a square, with a fifth in their centre.

I discovered a large stone of the kind called Ludus helmontii,<2> and, wishing to break it, I took a smaller stone, which proved to be of the same kind. My endeavours were vain as to the former; but the small one broke into many fragments, and proved to contain minute prismatic crystals, which were quite transparent; some white, others of a deep yellow.

Before the next post-house, I noticed on the right a little farm, and on the other side of the way a small ditch used to wash in. Here stood a plain sloping stone of white granite, in which were three large dark-grey squares, seeming to have been inlaid by a skilful stone-cutter. It was evident, however, on examining one end, that they were continued through the whole substance of the stone.

Opposite to Yfre is a little river, the water of which would at this time have hardly covered the tops of my shoes, though the banks are at least five ells in height. This has been occasioned either by the water continually carrying away the loose sand, or, as I am more inclined to believe, the quantity of water is less than it has been.

Chrysosplenium (alternifolium) was now in blossom. Tournefort defines it foliis auriculatis, but erroneously, as the leaves are all separate and distinct<3>. It has eight stamens, placed in a quadrangular position, and two pistils. Thus it evidently approaches nearer to the Saxifragæ, as former botanists have justly thought, than to the campaniformes, or flowers with a monopetalous corolla.

At Yfre, two miles further, I noticed young kids, under whose chins, at the commencement of the throat, were a pair of tubercles, like those sometimes seen in pigs, about an inch long, of the thickness of their mother's nipples, and clothed with a few scattered hairs. Of their use I an ignorant.

Near the church of Tierp runs a stream, whose bank on the side where it makes a curvature is very high and steep, owing to timber placed close to the water. The great power of a current, and the way in which it undermines the ground, is exceedingly visible at this place. Hence the strongest earthen ramparts, made with the greatest expense and labour, are often found insufficient to secure the foundations of large palaces or churches in some situations. But where timber has been used, the attacks of water are little to be dreaded. On both sides of the church were several small sepulchral mounds. It now grew late, and I hastened to Mehede, two miles and a half further, where I slept.

May 13.

Here the Yew (Taxus baccata) grows wild. The inhabitants call it Id or Idegran.

The forest abounded with the Yellow Anemone (Anemone ranunculoides), which many people consider as differing from that genus. One would suppose they had never seen an Anemone at all. Here also grew Hepatica (Anemone hepatica) and Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella). Their blossoms were all closed. Who has endowed plants with intelligence, to shut themselves up at the approach of rain? Even when the weather changes in a moment from sunshine to rain, though before expanded, they immediately close. Here for the first time this season I heard the Cuckoo, a welcome harbinger of summer.

Having often been told of the cataract of Elf-Carleby, I thought it worth while to go a little out of my way to see it; especially as I could hear it from the road, and saw the vapour of its foam, rising like the smoke of a chimney. On arriving at the spot, I perceived the river to be divided into three channels by a huge rock, placed by the hand of Nature in the middle of its course. The water, in the nearest of these channels, falls from a height of twelve or fifteen ells<4>, so that its white foam and spray are thrown as high as two ells into the air, and the whole at a distance appears like a continual smoke. On this branch of the cascade stands a saw-mill. The man employed in it had a pallid countenance, but he did not complain of his situation so much as I should have expected.

It is impossible to examine the nature of the inaccessible black rock over which the water precipitates itself. Below this cataract is a salmon fishery. A square net, made of wicker work, placed at the height of an ell above the water, is so constructed that the salmon when once caught cannot afterwards escape. Oak trees grow on the summits of the surrounding rocks. At first it seems inconceivable how they should obtain nourishment; but the vapours are collected by the hills above, and trickle down in streams to their roots. In the valleys among these hills I picked up shells remarkable for the acuteness of their spiral points. Here also grew a rare Moss of a sulphur-green colour.<5>

From hence I hastened to the town of Elf-Carleby, which is divided into two parts by the large river, whose source is at Lexan in Dalecarlia. The largest portion of the town stands on the southern side, and contains numerous shops, occupied only during the fairs occasionally kept at this place.

I crossed the river by a ferry, where it is about two gun-shots wide. The ferryman never fails to ask every traveller for his passport, or license to travel. At first sight this man reminded me of Rudbeck's Charon, whom he very much resembled, except that he was not so aged. We passed the small island described by that author as having been separated from the mainland in the reign of king John III. It is now at a considerable distance from the shore, the force of the current rendering the intermediate channel, as Rudbeck observes, every year wider. The base of the island is a rock. Only one tree was now to be seen upon it.

The northern bank of the river is nearly perpendicular. I wondered to see it so neat and even, which may probably be owing to a mixture of clay in the sand; or perhaps it may have been smoothed by art. Horizontal lines marked the yearly progress of the water. The sun shone upon us this morning, but was soon followed by rain.

Elf-Carleby is two miles and a half further. On its north side are several sepulchral mounds.

Here for the first time I beheld, what at least I had never before met with in our northern regions, the Pulsatilla apii folio (Anemone vernalis), the leaves of which, furnished with long footstalks, had two pair of leaflets besides the terminal one, every one of them cut half way into four, six or eight segments. The calyx, if I may be allowed so to call it, was placed about the middle of the stalk, and was cut into numerous very narrow divisions, smooth within, very hairy without. Petals six, oblong; the outermost excessively hairy and purplish; the innermost more purple and less hairy; all of them white on the inside, with purple veins. Stamens numerous and very short. Pistils cohering in a cylindrical form, longer than the stamens, and about half as long as the petals.

We had variable weather, with alternate rain and sunshine.

A mile from Elf-Carleby are iron works called Härnäs. The ore is partly brought from Danemora in Roslagen, partly from Engsiö in Södermanland. These works were burnt down by the Russians, but have since been repaired.

Here runs the river which divides the provinces of Uppland and Gästrikland. The soil hereabouts is for the most part clayey. In the forests it is composed of sand (Arena mobilis and A. glarea). The post-houses or inns are dreadfully bad. Very few hills or lakes are to be met with in Uppland. When I had passed the limits of these provinces, I observed a few oak trees only in the district of Medelpad.

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