76 WESTBOTHLAN]>. 



grew more and more narrow and bad, so 

 that my horse went stumbhng along, at al- 

 most every step, among stones, at the hazard 

 of my life. My path was so narrow and 

 intricate, along so many by-ways, that 

 nothing human could have followed my 

 track. In this dreary wilderness I began 

 to feel very solitary, and to long earnestly 

 for a companion. The mere exercise of a 

 trotting horse in a good road, to set the 

 heart and spirits at liberty, would have 

 been preferable to the slow and tedious 

 mode of travellino; which I was doomed to 

 experience. The few inhabitants I met 

 with had a foreign accent, and always con- 

 cluded their sentences with an adjective. 

 Throughout this whole day^s journey no- 

 thing occurred to my observation worth 

 notice, except a fine kind of sand by the 

 rivulet at Gubbele near Brattby, which 

 would be excellent for the purpose of mak- 

 mg moulds for casting metal. 



Not far from Spoland I caught on a wil- 

 low a small insect of the beetle tribe, of a 



