102 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



months out of the twelve, collecting. So all I wanted was 

 a home to come to, where I could leave my books and 

 things in safety when I was absent ; in fact, where I could 

 have head- quarters to arrange my collections, put together 

 my notes, etc. ; and I was lucky enough to find just the 

 place I wanted, at Gardsjo, South Wermland, with my old 

 friend, Q. E. Stenstrom. My mode of living and expenses, 

 were as follows, and in any part of Wermland I have no doubt 

 an Englishman, when he was used to the country, could live 

 in the same manner, and probably get much better sport 

 than I had. 



I paid about 3 yearly for my room, and if I had liked to 

 have gone into farming, I could have hired some land as 

 well, and the whole house pretty cheap, and by laying out a 

 little I could have made it a very nice summer residence. 

 But I was always longing to get back to the Australian 

 bush, and could never make up my mind to settle. I was 

 surrounded by birch woods with a lake of about 100 acres full 

 of pike and perch in front of me. I paid Mr. Stenstrom's 

 gardener's wife, who lived in the same house, about 3 a 

 year to "do for me," and gave her coffee, which came 

 to quite as much as her wages (and, I may add, that it is 

 wonderful how fond these peasant women are of coffee). 

 I might have easily hired a proper housekeeper, but this 

 would have probably been much more expensive. 



My collecting lads I paid by the piece, and if I wanted 

 a man to row me for fishing or shooting, I had no trouble 

 in getting one. 



My firing I got very cheap, for little more than the cost of 

 cutting. I bought the whole of my household furniture, 

 beds, tables, chairs, linen, crockery, cooking utensils, 

 at an auction for a little more than 8. A few good 

 English sporting pictures, racing, steeple- chasing, boxing, 

 and rowing, just to show them here how we do it in Eng- 

 land, made the walls of my room quite smart, and a library 

 on natural history, etc., such as few British naturalists could 

 beat, filled my book-shelves. My little cabin was quite 

 a show place for the neighbouring peasants, and it was a 



