TAKES HIS DOCTOR'S DEGREE IN HOLLAND 261 



and investigated the iron-mines, which had a special 

 interest for him after his mining studies in Dalecarlia. 

 This celebrated iron-mountain, with a few others found 

 in Lapland, are the only ones in Europe where the ore 

 is broken or blasted above ground. Taberg was doubt- 

 less the attraction that determined his route to Holland 

 this way ; and also the wish to revisit his home, to 

 which his memory always affectionately clung. 



He travelled on southward by way of Eckersholm 

 and Lindefors, following down the Laga stream to 

 Wernano, where it expands itself into the fiord-like 

 lake of Widastern. Wernano, on account of its well- 

 attended annual fair, has good roads leading to it from 

 all four quarters; but to ease his walking Linnaeus 

 took a boat down the Widastern beyond Berga, where 

 the lake contracts as far as Ljungby. Here a walk of ten 

 English miles through a familiar country brought him 

 to Lake Mockeln, where he was at home, and where 

 any fisherboy would gladly give him a lift to Stenbro- 

 hult. 



His father was a lonely man now, being a widower ; 

 his two elder sisters were married, and his brother 

 Samuel was away studying for the ministry. For all 

 his mother's careful wish that he should not enter the 

 garden, husbandry and natural science remained ever 

 Samuel's favourite lore. He shone later as an author and 

 one learned in entomology, which, he flattered his con- 

 science, was a branch of farming, in his heart classify- 

 ing farming as a branch of entomology. Carl felt a 



