

1TER DALECARLIUM 239 



steamy dusk of a Lapland summer night when the air 

 is still but not clear. With cautious steps he moved 

 downward to the marshes : he could not return to the 

 hut to rest, for he felt on the eve of a discovery. This 

 is what he says of what he saw as morning light helped 

 him on his search he says it later on in life, to the crowd 

 of listening students at his first lecture l as a professor : 

 ' You will scarcely believe me when I tell you that there 

 are whole mountains full of petroleum in Dalecarlia. 

 Yet doubt not. This thing, hitherto unheard of, unseen, 

 I myself saw with these eyes, and was surprised.' The 

 terrors of the frown of nature were over ; only the aspect 

 of her bounty remained. l God is always opening His 

 hand,' said Nasman, who had also come out to view the 

 scene. This, then, was the explanation of the terrific 

 explosions of last night. The great heat had kindled 

 the fire which fed upon the parched surface of the 

 peaty ground. The thunderstorm had gathered force in 

 time to prevent a vast general conflagration. 



The account of these petroleum discoveries is scarcely 

 to be read in the pale and panic-stricken writings of 

 July 17 ; on the 20th they blackened the ink down, or 

 procured some more from a priest ; and Sohlberg's nerves 

 were by this calm enough to classify his plants and cata- 

 logue the vegetable products of these parts including 

 Campanula serpyllifolia^ the Linncea borealis that graces 

 these wilds as well as to note the great size of the trees 

 forming the log-huts, those at least whose engraven runic 



1 ratio de Percgrinationum intra Patriam Necessitate. 



