OF TREES. 137 



when the fun by its mild rays at the beginning 

 of fpring refrelhes the earth, the fnows melt> 



the 



has fcarcely been known in this age, for the botanic ther- 

 mometer funk to 32 degrees. Barck. 



In that thermometer the freezing point is o, and that of 

 boih'ng water 100. So that taking it for granted that the 

 author mull mean 32 below o, this point would anfwer to 57 

 below 32 or the freezing point of Farenheit, which is a de- 

 gree of cold never known in this countrey. I am aflured 

 from good authority, that in the year 1739 the thermome- 

 ter did not fink nine degrees below freezing point in England. 

 They who are curious to fee much more furprizing inftances 

 of cold than that in Sweden, may confult the preface to 

 Gmelin*s Flora Sibirica, where they will find how very apt 

 philofophers are to fall into miftakes about the powers of 

 nature, when they truft to theory, inftcad of confulting 

 experience. Monf. Maupertuis fays, that the mercury in 

 Reaumur's thermometer in Lapland funk to 37 degrees below 

 freezing point, which is equal to 67 degrees in Farenheit. 



Perhaps, fays linnaeus in the Flora Lapponica, the 

 curious reader will wonder how the people in Lapland 

 fluring the terrible cold, that reigns there in winter, can 

 preferve their lives ; fince almoft aJl birds, and even 

 fome wild beads, defert it at that time. The Laplander 

 not only in the day, but thro' whole winter nights is 

 obliged to wander about in the woods with his herds of 

 rhen deer. For the rhen deer never come undercover, nor 

 eat any kind of fodder, but a particular kind of U^ern.vort. 

 On this account the herdfmen are under a neceflity of liv- 

 ing continually in the woods, in order to take care of their 

 cattle, left they Ihould be devoured by wild beafts. The 



Lap- 



