1 66 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



no barrier to travel in any direction, and the land 

 offered a smooth surface in every quarter save the actual 

 forest. 



All the Svartbacksgatan and the houses of the 

 ' SmSlandic nation ' turned out to bid good-bye to the 

 professor the adieu that sounds like I U, and the 

 ' good-day ' that sounds like ' Good dog, good dog ' 

 the white-capped students wishing that they too could 

 make the trip ; the babies kissing their little fat hands ; 

 the old crones, as one so generally sees them in Sweden, 

 with faces set in the lines of kindliness ; only the wife 

 and mother looking anxious ; and even she was not very 

 anxious this time for was not her Carl an experienced 

 traveller ? and this was a holiday jaunt. 



The street was thronged, just as the railway-stations 

 are now, when the very train is full of friends come to 

 see each other off 1 two-thirds friends to one-third 

 passengers ; so that those who have saved the train by 

 only twenty minutes fancy there is no room left for 

 them, their wraps, and the personalties necessary on 

 long Swedish railway journeys. However, the guard's 

 approach to nip the tickets removes two-thirds of the 

 crowd, and, as the remaining third alights at the next 

 station, one has the carriage to oneself all the rest of 

 the way. It would be unfair to calculate the railway 

 dividends by appearances. 



Linnaeus just names the places he passed through 



1 Not as in Spain, artfully to fill the carriages to secure more 

 space for their own friends. 



