

WASTGOTA RESA ROUND LAKE VENERN 201 



to profit in Sweden. This was the better for the coun- 

 try after all ; for now-a-days the Swedes are seldom 

 smokers, and they are the healthier therefor. 



Linnaeus left Venersborg on July 24, turning his 

 steps homeward. The sight of his beloved hills made 

 him forget the charms of the coast. He names Kinne- 

 kulle, Billingen,Mosseberg,011eberg, Halleberg, Hunne- 

 berg, and Trollhatta as the finest points he explored 

 in this journey. He was now getting weary. He says 

 his body, which in his journeys through Norway, 

 Denmark, Germany, Holland, England, and France 

 had endured many hardships, now began at times to 

 feel exhausted. This feeling would have justified his 

 taking a boat here and going up by water to Mellerud ; 

 especially as in the forenoon the Venern was agreeable, 

 and the sky clear with lovely sunshine. Nevertheless 

 he travelled on by way of Dalsland. So, likewise, on 

 went we, our well-laid plan of following him compel- 

 ling us to do the same. 



Here and there the meadows below the hills round 

 Venersborg in June look white like snow, with the 

 rush-plant in bloom of white cotton down. Leaving 

 the pleasant scenery of these parts, further on the land 

 subsides again into levels and peat bogs ; lifting by-and- 

 by into billowy moors ; then again sinking, leaving wide 

 sky-space for the most glorious sunset, of apricot-colour 

 edged with flame, above the dark firs, the green fields, 

 and the distant purple hills ; the zenith clouds above 

 these last a paler, redder purple, divided from the hills 



