1 LACHES IS LAP PO NIC A* 189 



elevated regions. In this part of the country the crake- 

 berry (Empetrum) serves for firing ; otherwise the most 

 common fuel is the dwarf birch and the willow, 1 with 

 white hairy leaves, so abundant on the Lapland Alps.' 



In the * Flora Lapponica ' he describes one of these 

 night journeys, when the low-focussed central light was 

 sending the long oblique shadows in dense blue bands 

 round a crimson world. l While I was walking quickly 

 along over the celebrated mountain of Vallivari, facing 

 the cold wind at midnight if I may call it night 

 when the sun was shining without setting at all I 

 perceived, as it were, the shadow of this plant (Andro- 

 meda tetragona), but did not stop to examine it, taking 

 it for the Empetrum. But after going a few steps 

 farther, an idea of its being something I was unac- 

 quainted with came across my mind, and I turned 

 back, when I should again have taken it for the 

 Empetrum had not its greater height caused me to 

 consider it with more attention. I know not what it 

 is that so deceives the sight in our Alps during the 

 night as to render objects far less distinct than in 

 the middle of the day, although the sun shines equally 

 bright. The sun, being near the horizon, spreads its 

 rays in such a horizontal direction that a hat can 

 scarcely protect our eyes ; besides, the shadows of the 

 plants are so infinitely extended, and so confounded 

 with each other from the tremulous agitation caused 

 by the blustering wind, that objects very different in 

 1 Salix Laj) 2 onum. 



