276 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



between rich fields and woods set with gentlemen's 

 houses a fertile, gentle landscape, very different to 

 most parts of Sweden. 



The dinner ration of the sailors on the canal-Loats 

 is plentiful and wholesome : beef, a large bowl of 

 potatoes divided among them, fish, rye-bread, and a 

 bowl of milk apiece ; all served with forks and fingers. 

 The views increase in beauty as the canal emerges on 

 the clear blue Lake Boren with its fir-clad fringe of 

 peninsulas, after which the canal enters the Motala 

 Eiver, passing the busy factories of Motala Werkstad 

 and the fine country seats lining its banks thence to 

 Motala, a town of 2,000 inhabitants. Here we are on 

 Linnseus's track. 



No horse was ready, so Linnaeus took a boat at 

 Yadstena, at no great distance from Motala. A fair fresh 

 breeze promised to carry our hero more swiftly homeward 

 if he sailed up the Vettern than if he kept the road. 

 It was chilly ; the Celsius thermometer stood at eight. 

 Swallows, gathering together in preparation for migrat- 

 ing southward, skimmed very low on the clear green 

 water of the Motala. 1 The highly sensitive surface of 

 Lake Vettern was rough with white billows cresting the 

 fresh beautiful blue waves, the foam floating off the tall 

 waves in rainbows so long as the sun shone, and the 

 vessel made a wide tack which carried him out, as it did 

 ourselves, among the islets off Vadstena. 



1 The greenness of the Motala River, flowing between the very 

 blue waters of Lakes Boren and Vettern, is remarkable. 



