142 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



the way to see it, especially as I could hear its roar 

 from the road, and saw the vapour of its foam rising 

 like the smoke of a chimney. I perceived the river to 

 be divided into three channels by a huge rock. The 

 water in the nearest of these channels falls from a 

 height of twelve or fifteen ells, 1 so that its foam and 

 spray are thrown as high as two ells into the air. On 

 this branch of the cascade stands a sawmill. Below 

 the cataract is a salmon-fishery. Oak trees grow on 

 the summit of the surrounding rocks. At first it 

 seems inconceivable how they should obtain nourish- 

 ment ; but the vapours (of the cataract) are collected 

 by the hills above, and trickle down in streams to their 

 roots. In the valleys I picked up shells remarkable for 

 the acuteness of their spiral points. Here also grew a 

 rare moss of a sulphur-green colour. 



' I hastened to the town of Elf-Carleby, which is 

 divided in two parts by the large river. I crossed it by 

 a ferry, where it is about two gun-shots wide. The 

 ferryman ' [of course he likens him to Charon] ' asked for 

 my passport, or license to travel. At Elf-Carleby for the 

 first time I beheld what I had never before met with 

 in our northern regions, a peculiar variety of purple 

 anemone 2 hairy and purplish, stamens numerous and 

 very short.' This flower (a peculiar variety) grows 

 plentifully near Borgholm on the island of Oland. 

 Linnaeus also met with it there later. 



1 The fall is forty-nine feet high. 



2 Pulsatilla ajriifolia or Anemone rernalis. 



