12 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



where he could obtain food and rest for the night. 

 It is said that, at the time of this journey through 

 the various provinces of Lapland, it did not contain a 

 single town, and only thirty-two scattered villages, 

 some of which were only very small. It can be 

 easily gathered how perilous and lonely this 

 journey must have been. Linnseus said of this 

 journey some years afterwards: — "My journey 

 through. Lapland was particularly toilsome : and I 

 own that I was obliged to sustain more hardships 

 and dangers in the sole peregrination through the 

 frontier of our northern world, than in all the 

 travels which I undertook in other parts, though 

 not without fatigue and weariness. But having 

 once sustained the toils of travelling, I buried in the 

 oblivion of Lethe all the dangers and difficulties 

 which I had suffered. The invaluable fruits which 

 I reaped from these excursions compensated for 

 every toil." 



He travelled during this journey about 4,000 

 miles, and brought back upwards of a hundred plants 

 before unknown or undescribed ; but, as before stated, 

 his attention was not wholly absorbed with the 

 plant"' region. He noticed the curiosities of the 

 animal region, the domestic arrangements and 

 customs of the inhabitants, and many other things 

 which came in his way, making as he went along 

 lengthy notes in his diary, and which were after- 

 wards elaborated and published by him in 1748. 

 In this he described the plants, not by their 

 flower or blossom, but by his own plan of sex, 



