LULEAN LATLAND. 103 



At sun-set we reached Purkijaur, where 

 we ill vain attempted to procure a boat. 

 We had no resource but to make ourselves 

 a float or raft, on which we committed our 

 persons and aU our property to the guidance 

 of the current of the river. The night 

 proved very dark in consequence of a thick 

 fog, insomuch that we could not see before 

 us to the distance of three fathoms. After 

 a while we found ourselves in the middle of 

 the stream, and it was not long before the 

 force of the water separated the timbers of 

 our raft, and we were in imminent danger 

 of our lives. At length however, with the 

 greatest difficulty, we reached a house si- 

 tuated on an island, after a voyage of half 

 a mile from where we embarked*. 



* Linnaeus records this misfortune in his Flora 

 Lapponica, at n. 42, see ed. 2. p. 27, where, in speak- 

 ing of Arundo Caiamagrostis, he says he " presumes 

 the synonyms are rightly applied, though he had no 

 opportunity of comparing his plant with books and 

 descriptions, having lost the specimen, with various 

 other natural productions, by being cast away as he 



