CHAPTER XIV 

 A RUNIC MEMORIAL 



THE life of Thorild Wulff was so motley and adventurous 

 that he himself was not always quite clear as to the 

 sequence of the incidents in which he had such an astonish- 

 ing knack of finding himself playing a part wherever he hap- 

 pened to be in the world. Often during our journey I asked 

 him to give me a complete survey of his life's work and experi- 

 ence, but he always shook his head and said smilingly that he 

 was only able to relate by sections the story of the forty years 

 of his life if he had to live them over again in memory. A 

 connected survey he would only be able to give me when he got 

 home and had time to look up his diaries and notes. 



No man possessed to the same degree that great restlessness 

 which created action ; but, unfortunately for himself and for 

 us, he lacked the ability of finding that peace of mind which 

 expresses itself in steady work with books and reports. Few 

 men possessed such all-embracing knowledge and such excellent 

 training in readiness for the use of a supreme brain ; never have 

 I met a man who so literally and personally had taken possession 

 of the earth, and therefore we his friends, who knew the 

 amount of matter which perished with him, mourn the fact 

 that he has left no great production behind him. But he 

 himself probably found that he did not need it, and a glance at 

 the different data of his life fully substantiates the view that he 

 had no need to erect a verbal memorial for himself. 



Thorild Wulff was born in Gothenburg on the 1st of April, 

 1877, matriculated in 1894, and studied botany in Lund. In 

 1899 he made his first great journey as a member of a Swedo- 

 Russian Expedition for the measurement of degrees, during 



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