i8z THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



places by the rain. It was sown on May 25 or 26, 

 as at UmeS. 



' " Alone I crossed the Hyperborean tracts of ice, 

 the snowy Tanais, and fields never free from Riphaean 

 frosts." ' Virgil, ' Georgics,' iv. 517. [Linngeus quotes 

 the passage.] 



' After several days' travelling, on the evening of 

 July 6 I ascended Vallivari, the first mountain of the 

 Alps on this side. On my first ascending these wild alps 

 I felt as if in a new world. I saw few birds, except some 

 ptarmigans running with their young along the vales. 

 The declining sun never disappeared sufficiently to 

 allow any cooling shade. The midnight sun, deep red, 

 glowing like a fierce charcoal fire, tinged everything with 

 roseate hue, most magical upon the snow, bewildering 

 the brain, and producing a drowsy effect. 1 



The peak of Sulitelma is 6,326 feet high. The blue 

 glaciers hereabout are magnificent. Du Chaillu says 

 he never lost sight of the blue outline of Sulitelma, 

 but the peak was mostly hidden from view. 2 Linnaeus 

 specifies no peak as Sulitelma, but only speaks of the 

 mass as Vallivari. When at length he was able to turn 



1 Often was I seized with an indescribable feeling of loneliness, 

 and at the same time a desire to wander farther away. Du 

 CHAILLU. 



2 As the sun shone upon the ice its hue was simply marvellous ; 

 it seemed in many places like a huge mass of sparkling topaz ; its 

 extent was enormous, and patches of snow were scattered over its 

 surface. There were only two breaks of dark rock visible in the 

 frozen mass ; and towering above all was Sulitelma, dark and 

 gloomy, looking down upon the sea of ice. Du CHAILLU. 



