p 



LINN^US. 73 



large stone, which was hurled down the track 

 Linnaeus had just left, and fell exactly on the spot 

 he had occupied. " If I had not (he says) provi- 

 dentially changed my route, nobody would ever 

 have heard of me more ; I was surrounded by fire 

 and smoke, and should certainly, but for the pro- 

 tecting hand of Providence, have been crushed to 

 pieces." From this point of the journey a change 

 came over the face of nature. The country was 

 covered over with snow, in some places inches 

 deep ; the pretty spring flowers disappeared, and 

 in their place nothing but wintry plants were 

 seen peeping through the snow. At length, on 

 the 23rd of May, he reached Umoea, in West 

 Bothnia, where he turned out of the main road to 

 the left, designing to visit Lycksele, Lapmark ; by 

 which means he lost the advantage of the regular 

 post horses, and found the ways so narrow and 

 intricate, that at every step he stumbled. " In this 

 dreary wilderness I began to feel very solitary, and 

 to long earnestly for a companion (he says) ; the 

 few inhabitants I met had a foreign accent, and 

 always concluded their sentences with an adjective." 

 As the night shut in, the way-worn traveller 

 began also to long for a good meal, and has thus 

 recorded the result of his application, on arriving 

 at a village where he passed the night : — " On my 

 inquiring what I could have for supper, they set 

 before me the breast of a cock of the woods, which 

 had been shot and dressed some time the preceding 

 year. Its aspect was not very inviting j but the 



