LINN^US'S TRAVELS IN LAPLAND. 389 



« He has now another work in hand, to which he gives the name of 

 <« Lachesis Lapponica. He will give a proper description in it of the 

 " oeconbmy of the Laplanders, of the causes of their longevity, and not 

 « only contradiB: Scheffer and other writers on Lapland, but make 

 *< plain truth the charafteristic of his narrative. Linn Tuscan boast of 

 « being the first who travelled in summer through the mountains of Lap- 

 " land. He says : that he generally found a very great similarity be- 

 " tween those mountains and the Alps, even with regard to the plants. 

 " Their summits are generally of so very sandy a nature that no plants 

 " can grow upon them. He further adds : that in the province of 



Lapmark^ the soil is every where so very sterile on account of the 

 *' cold northern winds which constantly blow from the monntains, 

 « that no corn will grow, except on the banks of the rivers, and that 

 " hardly one hundred inhabitants are to be found in the whole distri6t." 

 " He observes, however, that he discovered in that province and in 

 " Finnemark a kind of wild corn, which shoots forth from the dry sand, 

 " and bears the most rigorous cold blasts which prevail in Lapland, 

 " even in summer, without the least prejudice to its growth." 



LINNiEUS'S 



