178 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN&US 



shepherding being to take the long crook and haul the 

 sheep along by the legs when we want them to come. 

 The water in the small Hojentorp Lake is so sharp that 

 it turns linen washed in it yellow, and makes it so tender 

 that it falls to pieces. It is therefore not fit to wash 

 sheep in. Linnaeus catalogues the sheep-grasses : he also 

 describes the Chinese pigs kept here, and investigates 

 the swine diseases. He tells the result of various ex- 

 periments he made, and catalogues the plants he found, 

 noticing his favourite Andromeda growing in the marshes. 

 All this ground he seems to have ranged on foot, know- 

 ing full well the truth of what a modern explorer says, 

 1 A man can usually travel over rough mountain tracks 

 as fast as a mule ; but if the man be a botanist, and the 

 track lies among new and rare plants, it is quite certain 

 he will not do so.' * 



We travelled,' says Linnaeus this may be the 

 editorial ' we,' though he seems to have found companions, 

 ' towards the Kirchdorfe Berg, took the north side of 

 the Billingen Kange, and the east side hence to Skofde, 

 where are to be found the curious passage graves, called 

 giants' houses by the common people.' This province of 

 Westgothland is richest in relics of the Stone Age. 



The first part of this journey was through land quite 

 other than one is used to see in Sweden cultivated 

 levels with no boulders, but with garden flowers in 

 abundance, narcissus, tulips, and lilacs in bud. The 

 masses of lilacs when nearly in full bloom in the most 

 1 Sir J. Hooker. 



