282 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



strong rams, laid up out of use beneath the Seamen's 

 Home, close by where are now the fine hotels built on 

 green pedestals of hillocks, where the sheaf of light- 

 green bronze spires tower above the tall and narrow 

 warehouses at Altona. The ship sails down the broad 

 Elbe, past the fine suburb of Blankenese, where the 

 merchant princes dwell, and out to sea by Heligoland. 

 During this voyage Carl says ' he was exposed to great 

 peril ' ; in other words, he had a rough passage. Stress 

 of weather caused them to run in to Emden to avoid 

 being driven on the shoals that are so numerous between 

 the outer islands and the coast. 



Emden is a pretty, picturesque town, and the ' Weis- 

 sen Haus Inn ' gives a good view of the town-hall, the 

 river and bridges, and the prettily grouped and coloured 

 houses. Emden is a thoroughly German place, where 

 they know nothing whatever of English people. The beds 

 are a droll experience. The top sheet, buttoned on the 

 quilt, is only meant to reach halfway down ; one sheet cut 

 in two makes a pair. The rest of the bed is ultra-German 

 in its manifold discomforts ; but it is all so soft and downy 

 that it feels like going to bed in a batter pudding. 



At Amsterdam Linnaeus stayed eight days, and saw 

 all the splendour and expense bestowed on that city. 1 

 He then went by sea to Harderwyk, one of the dead cities 

 of the Zuyder Zee, where, having undergone the requi- 

 site preliminary examinations and defended his inaugural 

 thesis on the ' Causes of the Cold Intermittent Fever,' 

 1 Diary. 



