1 64 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



cranes.] c The peasant who was my rower and com- 

 panion had placed about thirty small nets along the 

 shore, in which he caught pike. A dried pike of 20 

 Ibs. weight is sold for a dollar and five marks, silver 

 coin. In one of the nets he found a large male goosander 

 caught. 



' The river along which we had rowed for nearly 

 three miles ' [S.], ' and which had hitherto been easily 

 navigable, now threatened us with interruptions from 

 small shelves forming cascades, and at length we came 

 to three of these, very near each other, which were ab- 

 solutely impassable. One of them is called the water- 

 fall of Tuken. My companion, after committing all 

 my property to my care, laid his knapsack on his back 

 and turning the boat bottom upwards, placed the two 

 oars longitudinally, so as to cross the seats. These 

 rested on his arms as he carried his boat over his head, 

 and thus he scampered away over hills and valleys, so 

 that the Devil himself could not have come up with 

 him.' Linnaeus made a sketch of the boat, which was 

 in 'length 12 feet, breadth 5 feet, depth 2 feet. The 

 four planks which formed each of its sides were of root 

 of spruce fir ; the two transverse seats were of branches 

 of the same tree ; the seams were secured obliquely 

 with cord as thick as a goose-quill.' He gives a 

 humorous sketch of the man running off with the boat, 

 half covered with it. ' Now and then some poplars are 

 to be seen. The forest was rendered pleasant by the 

 tender leaves of the birch, more advanced than any I had 



