394 LTNN.EUS IN 1734 AND I735. 



We have to add by way of conclusion, that Linn.«,us with his- 

 travelling companion left this city (Hamburgh) with great satisfaftion, 

 having had an opportunity of seeing and examining the public library, 

 in which he perused with great eagerne&s the Danubius Marsillii, 

 also the principal cabinets of natural history, the botanical gardens 

 and the private libraries, in one of which he was^ much pleased at 

 findiiig the botanical work, of Ray, which he had so long wished to 

 see. He above all thought himself extremely happy, in obtaining 

 a sight of the seven- headed Hydra^ which the celebrated Seba 2X Am^ 

 sterdam inserted in his Thesaurus^ as- a curiosity at Hamburgh. To 

 a naturalist of his experience, who had never seen such a phenomenon, 

 its existence appeared at first an utter impossibility. But having 

 viewed this monster, at the house of a merchant where it laid deposited 

 in a box about an ell and an half long and embalmed in a perfeftman* 

 ner, he could not sufficiently admire and examine it, till after the most 

 scrupulous and minute examination, he finally discovered in the wide 

 gaping mouths of the heads of this Hydra, which had been a littlic 

 shrivelled and worn by the edge o-f time, that its teeth bore a strong 

 resemblance to those of the weasels. A person w-orthy of being depen^ 

 dedon, also informed him, that this rare master-piece of nature had for- 

 merly been exhibited on an altar, in a catholic church at Prague, whence 

 it had been first removed by the Swedish Count of Koenicsmark, afte-r 

 the last capture of that city ; that the Count made a present of it to a 

 Nobleman of the name of Bielken, whose heirs sent it some years 

 after to be sold at Hamburgh.. They affixed so high a price to it, that its 

 acquisition was even refused Frederick IV. King of Denmark, who 

 bid 30,000 rix-dollarsj andit is probable that it will after all become the- 

 3 property 



