'LACHES IS LAPPONICA* 173 



for any human creature, and were therefore under the 

 necessity, a little further on, of crossing (in pursuit of 

 my new Lapland guide) another bog still worse than 

 the former, and a mile ' [Swedish] ' in extent. I know 

 not what I would not rather have undertaken than to 

 pass this place, especially as it blew and rained vio- 

 lently. We reposed ourselves about six in the morning, 

 wrung the water out of our clothes, while the cold 

 north wind parched us as much on one side as the fire 

 we lighted scorched us on the other, and the gnats kept 

 inflicting their stings. I had now my fill of travelling. 

 These marshes are called stygx. The Styx of the poets 

 could not exceed them in horror. We now directed 

 our steps to the desert of Lapmark, not knowing where 

 we went ' [in the diary account of his tour he calls this 

 place Olycksmyran the unlucky marsh]. 'My Lap- 

 lander, after a weary search, brought a woman of very 

 diminutive stature to see me, who addressed me in Swed- 

 ish in the following terms : "0 thou poor man ! what 

 hard destiny can have brought thee hither, to a place 

 never visited by anyone before ? This is the first time 

 I ever beheld a stranger. Thou miserable creature ! 

 How didst thou come, and whither wilt thou go ? " I 

 inquired how far it was to Sorsele. " That we do not 

 know," replied she, " but in the present state of the 

 roads it is at least seven days' journey from hence, as 

 my husband has told me.' There was no boat to be 

 had on the next river. It was not possible to proceed 

 further in this direction, and we had to return by the 



