GLAND AND GOTHLAND 97 



but the ride was varied by several bowery oak woods. 

 ( hi May '2 1 they entered Sm&land, where the land became 

 more and more flowery; and they saw the swallow- 

 tailed butterfly, the finest and largest of all the Swedish 

 butterflies. They noted a runic stone standing on a 

 hill, close by the road, one and a half-quarter mile 

 (Swedish) on the left from Ba'rga. 



At 8 P.M. they came to Ekesjo, ' not a large town, 

 and built without any magnificence.' Here, on the 

 22nd, they attended Divine service, as it was a fast day, 

 leaving Ekesjo at one o'clock. c The swallows flew 

 high in the air after the insects, showing us that for all 

 the white clouds we had no rain to fear to-day.' 



Towards evening, after a hard day's work at botany, 

 they came to Hwitlanda, where they slept from eleven 

 till two in the morning, and were on horseback soon 

 after 2 A.M., going eastwards to see the Sm&land gold- 

 mine, which lay one mile and three-quarters (Swedish) 

 from Hwitlanda. Altogether they had a long day at 

 the mines, seeing the washing, smelting, &c., travelling 

 over the finest and best land between that place and 

 Stockholm, on their way to the gold-mines, where they 

 arrived at 6 A.M. A runic stone by the way was so over- 

 grown with lichen that they could not make out the 

 letters, and another in the churchyard was too ruinous 

 to decipher. They seem to have thought more of these 

 things, and of an adder that they met with on the way, 

 than of the gold-mine. Perhaps they were right : no 



VOL. II. H 



