verity of the weather; this is fo particularly defcribed by Linn;eu*5 in his Flor. Lappon. that we fhall tranflate it for 

 fuch of our readers as may not have an opportunity of confulting the original, now become very icarce. 



'• u Thou wilt wonder* perhaps, curious reader, in what manner human beings are capable of preferving life during 

 ** the intenfe feverity of a winter's froft in Lapland, a part of the world deferted on the approach of winter by almoft 

 * ' every kind of bird and beaft. 



," The inhabitants of this inhofpitable climate are obliged to wander with their Rhendeer flocks continually in the 

 66 woods ; not only in the day-time, but through the longeft winter nights, their cattle are never houfed, nor do they 

 " eat any other food than Liverwort, hence the herdfmen ; to fecure them from wild beafts, and other accidents, are 

 " of neceffity kept perpetually with them. The darknefs of their nights is in a great degree overcome and rendered 

 ** more tolerable by the light of the ftars reflected from the fhow, and the Aurora Borealis, which in a thoufand fan- 

 u taftic forms nightly illumines their hemifphere. The cold is intenfe, fufficient to frighten and drive us foreigners 

 " from their happy woods. No part of our bodies are fo liable to be deltroyed by cold as the extremities, which 

 " are fituated fartheft from the heart; the chilblains of the hands and feet, fo frequent with us in Sweden, fufficiently 

 " indicate this. In no part of Lapland do we find the inhabitants affected with chilblains, though in refpecl to 

 " country one would expect them to be peculiarly fubjecl: to this difeafe, efpecially as they wear no ftockings, while 

 " we cloath ourfelves in one, two, and even three pair. 



" A Laplander preferves himfelf from the violence of cold in the following manner; he wears breeches, or rather 

 « 6 trowfers, made of the rough fkin of the Rhendeer, which reach to his ankles, and fhoes made of the fame ma- 

 " terial, the hair turned outward ; this grafs, cut down in the fummer, dried, rubbed betwixt the hands, and after- 

 * e wards combed or carded, he puts into his fhoes, fo as not only wholly to enwrap his feet, but the lower part of 

 " his legs alfo, which, thus defended, never fuffer from the fevereft cold; with this grafs he alfo fills his hairy 

 *' gloves to preferve his hands, and thus are thofe hardy people enabled to bear the froft. 



' As this grafs in the winter drives away cold, fo in the fummer it checks the perfpiration of the feet, and pre- 

 " ferves them from being injured by ftones, &c. in travelling, for their fhoes are extremely thin, being made of un- 

 " tanned Ikins. It is difficult to learn, on enquiry, what the particular fpecies of grafs is which is thus in requefl 

 " with thefe people, as fome ufe one fort, fome another. It is, however, always fome fpecies of Carex, and we 

 " underftood chiefly this." 



It is no lefs difficult to underftand what fpecies Linn^us himfelf means : he quotes Morlforis figure, which is 

 our /yhatica; yet, fays that theCarex grows in paludibus limo plenis, which that plant never does with us, it is moft 

 likely, in our opinion, to be one or all of the three common fpecies here figured. 



