u 



LAPLAND FRUITS. 



■maae on the heat, it fhould kern that the breadth of the ftream was about 

 twenty degrees ; 'and that it retains, for fo great a part of its courfe, the heat it 

 had acquired in the torrid zone: which proves the amazing velocity with 

 which it runs, Apurfuit of thefe remarks may' be of no fmall utility to navigators 

 who may have occafion to pafs this fingular current. 



ixxii. Let me not conceal that Lapland enjoys every native fruit of Great Britain ; 



the currant, the ftrawberry, the bilberry, the cranberry, and the cloudberry : 

 which put it on an equality with our own climate, before the introduftion of 

 foreign fruits among us. If we can clame the puckering floe, and crab, we have 

 not much to be proud of; while the Laplanders may boaft: their ackermurie (rubus 

 arSiicus) v/hich with its neftareous juice, and vinous flavour, fo often fupported the 

 great Linnaus in his arduous journies through the deferts of the country. They 

 may alfo exult in having given to our gardens the grateful angelica archangelica ; 

 the imouted gift of angels to men, and in Lapland the common inhabitant of the 

 banks of every rill ; the panacea and delight of the natives, and (preferved) a fre- 

 quent luxury even in our moll fumptuous deferts. 



LXKIV. In a philofophical circuit of the globe, it is eafy to obferve the exafl: pro- 



portion of neceflaries, animal or vegetable, which are allotted by the all-wife 

 Providence to the demands of" the inhabitants of the refpeitive climates. To 

 fuch part of the Europeans who were deftined to afl:ive and exploring life j to 

 the fubjeftion and civilization of diftant people, nearly unreclamed from a flate 

 of nature ; the means of conveyance, for attaining fo defirable an end, were fup" 

 plied and pointed out. In difl:ant ages, moft part of the world was on an 

 equality : the canoe ferved the navigation of the then unpolifhed Briton and Gaul.^ 

 as it does at prefent the Jfnericans of the recent difcoveries. As the light of im- 

 provement fpread over theweftern world, the application and (in the cafe of pride- 

 excited wars) the mifapplication of many of the works of nature, became the at- 

 tention of mankind. The fupple willow covered with hides, or the rude tree 

 Jiollov/ed into a floating trough, no longer contented the laudable ambition of 

 mankind ; we no longer fuffered our wants to be fupplied by the ftiips of remote 

 nations. We afpired to be our own carriers ; we applied to our forefts for the 

 means ; and for that purpofe the oak firft felt the edge of the ax. Commerce 

 and war, the confequence of wealth, increafed the demand, and ftimulated to the^ 

 utmoft improvement in naval affairs. Thefe arts fpread as far as Europe was 

 inhabited by an enlightened race ; but there is a line which feparates the ra- 

 ^oiial fiom a lefs rational part of the human creation. The brave, the intelli- 

 ■\ • gent 



