1 88 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



the precipices that came in my way ! Sometimes we 

 were enveloped with clouds ' [the greatest danger in 

 Lapland travel, because of the unseen precipices], 'some- 

 times rivers impeded our course and obliged us to choose 

 a very circuitous path, or to wade naked through the 

 snow-cold water. 



' Without the fresh snow-water, our only drink, we 

 should never have been able to encounter the excessive 

 heat of the weather. 1 



c Having nearly reached the Lapland village of Cai- 

 tuma, the inhabitants of which seemed perfectly wild, 

 running away from their huts as soon as they perceived 

 us approaching from a considerable distance, I began to 

 be tired of advancing further up into this inhospitable 

 country. "We had not tasted bread for several days, our 

 stock being exhausted, and the rich milk of the reindeer 

 is too luscious to be eaten without bread. I was de- 

 sirous of having my linen washed, but the people under- 

 stood my request as little as if I had spoken Hebrew, not 

 a single article of their own apparel being made of 

 linen. 



' The dwarf birch bears very small leaves in those 



1 Du Chaillu records his experience on the same line of travel : 

 ' Of all the bleak landscapes I had seen on the journey this seemed 

 the most dreary ; it was absolutely grand in its desolation. There 

 was an indescribable charm in the loneliness and utter silence ; bare 

 mountains of granite and gneiss formed the setting of the picture, 

 and all around were stones of all sizes and shapes, piled in heaps. 

 Over these we had to wind our way for hours, jumping from one to 

 another almost continuously. All the hard pedestrian exercise I had 

 ever taken was as nothing compared to this.' 



