viii Publisher's Preface^ and 



The country looks gloomy enough to make one shudder — gloomy 

 pine woods and snow-covered plains j but I saw two swans yester- 

 day, and as the reindeer are getting very restless, and the Laps are 

 moving up to the fells, spring will soon break upon us." 



The result of this visit was, on the whole, very satisfactory. " I 

 have collected," he writes (Quickiock, Aug. 4, 1862), ''550 bird- 

 skins, 800 eggs, 1000 lemmings, and above 1000 insects, and a I0I 

 of other odds and ends — not bad work for two of us in less than 

 four months." 



Among the scientific facts worked out during the journey, the 

 same letter above quoted contains the following : " Contrary to all 

 our naturalists' dicta, the lesser European sparrow owl (Strix 

 passerina, Linn.) does breed here, and I have got the eggs. More- 

 over, I shot three flyers the other day, one of which I have saved 

 for you." 



The life of a working naturalist within the Arctic circle, is not, 

 however, all pleasure — for a little further on he remarks : " I long 

 to be back once more among my books, for my life now is that of 

 a savage. I have never seen a book for four months — nothing but 

 the slavery of, day after day, first shooting and then skinning." We 

 in England do not sufBciently value specimens obtained by such 

 personal sacrifice as this. 



In 1864 the '•' Old Bushman" brought out his largest and most im- 

 portant work, entitled "TenYearsin Sweden," a thick octavo volume,* 

 llie first half of the work consists of a description of the habits and 

 customs of the Swedes, their agriculture, universities, nobles, clergy, 

 &:c. J and also contains the fullest instructions to those who wish to 

 enjoy the sports of the field, loch, and river in that country. The re- 

 mainder of the work is a valuable compilation of the vertebrate fauna 

 of Scandinavia, interspersed here and there with original remarks. 

 * London : Groombrid^e and Sons. 



