4<78 NOTES OF A VOYAGE TO 



few (leer in the south, but that it was very common for sheep 

 to do so, and the fact had come under his own observation : 

 those sheep, however, who did so, very soon became emaciated, 

 or, to use his own words, " dried up." As soon, there- 

 fore, as a sheep was seen to commit this act, it was killed 

 before it became useless. It appears to me far more probable 

 that the disease was the cause, and not the result, of this 

 strange perversion of nature. Equally singular cases of 

 depraved appetite occur both among animals and the human 

 species, and generally attended with great emaciation ; I was 

 certainly much pleased to find the fact established, and at the 

 same time to find a reasonable cause for its occurrence. In the 

 course of our ramble our guide showed us a little hollow, in 

 which during the previous winter he had discovered and killed 

 a large bear. They are, however, now by no means of fre- 

 quent occurrence, especially in summer time ; indeed, both 

 bears and wolves seem rapidly decreasing in number. 



The ground we traversed afforded us but few new plants. 

 One very interesting species, Kcenigia Islandica, occurred in 

 abundance in the half dry bed of a small rivulet, and near it 

 I found a few plants of Corallorhiza innata. We reached the 

 hut at Iby pretty well fatigued, and after resting ourselves, 

 and finishing the remaining fragments of our provisions, we set 

 out on our return to Bossekop. It was a lovely evening, and 

 we had a most delightful walk along the banks of the Alten 

 river. 



^th. — We rambled among the mountains at the back of the 

 Fagedtgaard, having as our guide the Postmaster Norager, 

 who, although not a botanist, is well acquainted with the 

 native plants, and possesses a small herbarium. Unluckily 

 this was formed many years ago, and he has forgotten the 

 places where he gathered some of the rarest plants. This was 

 especially the case with the rare and beautiful Rhododendron 

 Lapponicum. We did not find many good plants, except that, 

 near the summit of one mountain, I observed a few plants out 

 of flower, of the very rare Andromeda tetragona. 



A part of our descent towards the valley of the Alten was 

 through a very remarkable reft or crevice in the mountain, in 

 some places not three yards wide, and with lofty perpendicular 

 rocks on each side. In a part of the forest adjoining the desert 

 bed of the river before mentioned, Mr. Norager pointed out to 



