LINN.EUS. 79 



years of age ; she seemed to me uncommonly 

 beautiful." The next morning, Linnaeus took his 

 leave of this elysium, and proceeded on his way. 

 Climbing the mountains again, he found a work 

 of "no small fatigue and exhaustion," and he 

 has given us a most painful account of the sub- 

 sequent route he pursued towards the Alps of 

 Tornea. "What I endured," he concludes, "is 

 hardly to be described ; how many weary steps 

 I had to set, the precipices that came in my way, 

 and my excessive fatigue. Water was our only 

 drink during the journey, and it never appeared 

 so refreshing as when we sucked it out of the 

 melting snow." At length, tired of advancing 

 further into this inhospitable country, he deter- 

 mined to return to Quickjock. In the course of 

 his journey thither his life was twice endangered, 

 but at length he reached the place of his destina- 

 tion, "having been four weeks without tasting 

 bread." After resting some days at Quickjock, 

 Linnaeus descended the river again to Lulea, where 

 he " learned the art of assaying from the mine- 

 master, Swanberg, at Calix, in two days and a 

 night," and thence his journey was continued 

 through Tornea. He had intended to visit the 

 mountains, but before he could get thither the 

 winter set in, and he was obliged to return along 

 the coast on the eastern side of the Bothnian Gulf. 

 The last entry in his journal is dated October loth, 

 and is as follows: "About one o'clock, P.M., I 

 arrived safe at Upsala. To the Maker and Pre- 



