MEMOIR OK LINN/EUS. V 



who withheld the testimonial, and introduced him as his private 

 pupil. 



Looking at this apparently so unfavourable a beginning of life, it 

 seems almost incredible that this backward scholar, who could not be 

 induced to learn any thing, should have, in after-life, stood in so high 

 a rank as a man of science, that his fame attracted to the out-of-way 

 kingdom of Sweden, pupils from all quarters of the world, in the same 

 way as his distinguished countryman Berzelius, the chemist, is doing 

 at the present time. One of the first enterprises of moment under- 

 taken by the young Linnaeus, was an expedition to exploit Lapland, 

 under the patronage, and at the expense, of the Royal Academy. 



On account of the season the journey could not be commenced be- 

 fore the spring ; and Linnaeus did not set out before the 13th May, 

 1732. He commenced the journey in high spirits, and in love with 

 nature ; travelled on horseback ; and carried his whole baggage on 

 his back. It may be worth while to describe his dress and implements 

 in his own words, from the narrative laid before the Academy of 

 Sciences : " My clothes consisted of a light coat of West Gothland 

 linsey-wolsey cloth, without folds, lined with red shalloon, having 

 small cuffs, and collar of shag ; leather breeches ; a round wig ; a 

 green leather cap ; and a pair of half-boots. I carried a small lea- 

 thern bag half an ell in length, but somewhat less in breadth, fur- 

 nished on one side with hooks and eyes, so that it could open and 

 shut at pleasure. This bag contained one shirt, two pair of false 

 sleeves, two half-shirts, an inkstand, pencase, microscope, and spying 

 glass ; a gauze cap, to protect me occasionally from the gnats ; a comb ; 

 my journal; and a parcel of paper, stitched together, for drawing 

 plants, both in folio ; my manuscript ornithology, Flora Uplandica, 

 and Characteres Generici. I wore a hanger at my side ; and car- 

 ried a small fowling-piece ; as well as an octangular stick, graduated 

 for the purpose of measuring. My pocket-book contained a passport 

 from the Governor of Upsala, and a recommendation from the Aca- 

 demy." During the rest of this excursion, he made use of the mode 

 of travelling which was best suited to the roads and passes, and per- 

 formed the greater part of it on foot. Many hardships were neces- 

 sarily undergone from the climate and nature of the country. His 

 life was often periled in ci'ossing rapid rivers, upon the rude boats or 

 rafts constructed by the inhabitants, and endangered in a dreary waste 

 of almost unbounded snow, where the tracts of the rein-deer, and the 

 degree of heat retained by their dung, were the only guides to the huts 

 of their masters ; and he was even once fired on, by a native on the 

 coast of Finmarck. Notwithstanding these difficulties, he has eulo- 



