172 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



Umea 1 River, turning off to the right at the Juita 

 branch. Here I found crake-berries, 1 as large as the 

 black bilberry, and herb Paris. But what most sur- 

 prised and pleased me was the little round-leaved 

 yellow violet 2 described by Morrison, which had not 

 before been observed in Sweden. 



' I shall not dwell on the inconveniences I had to 

 undergo every time we had to seek for any of* the 

 Laplanders, while I was quite destitute of provisions. 

 These poor people themselves had at this season no- 

 thing but fish to eat, as they had not yet begun to 

 slaughter their reindeer nor to go a-fowling ; neither 

 had they as yet milked any of their reindeer. 



' June 2. We were obliged to leave our boat ; the 

 river being so rapid, and so much impeded by falls, 

 that we were obliged to undertake a walk of a few 

 miles ' [Swedish] ' further, which I was told would bring 

 us to a more navigable stream. A fen or marsh lay 

 before us, seemingly half a mile ' [Swedish] ' broad, 

 which we had to to cross. At every step the water was 

 above our knees, and ice was at the bottom. Where the 

 frost was quite gone we often sunk still deeper, some- 

 times to the waist. If we thought to find footing on 

 some grassy tuft it proved treacherous and only sunk 

 us lower. Sometimes we came where no bottom was 

 to be felt, and had to measure back our weary steps. 

 Our half-boots were filled with the coldest water. 

 When we had traversed this marsh we sought in vain 

 1 Empetrum nigrum. * Viola Uflora. 



