35 
JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 
Baeck, ££ must be a faithful lover of Flora who suffers so much in 
<£ her service, and is contented with a favourable smile of his beloved 
{£ one, as Linn^us was with a plant growing on the brink of some steep 
££ waterfall, to which he climbed up in danger of his life, or with some 
££ unknown moss concealed in profound caverns or clefts.” 
The journey through Lapland was the first and most difficult of the 
six different travels of Linnaeus. He spoke himself of it afterwards, 
when he assumed the fun&ions of his academical office in the year 1741, 
in the following expressions : ££ There is no important nor considerable 
« province of Sweden through which I have not roamed with great fa- 
t£ tigue and bodily exertion. My journey through Lapland wasparticu- 
K larly toilsome : and I own that I was obliged to sustain more hardships 
« and dangers in this sole peregrination through the frontier of our 
« northern world, than in all the travels which I undertook in other 
« parts, though not without fatigue and weariness. But having once sus- 
£{ tained the toils of travelling, I buried in the oblivion of Lethe , all the 
« dangers and difficulties which I had suffered. The invaluable fruits 
« which I reaped from these excursions, compensated for every toil*.” 
The best comparative image of the Alps of Lapland , is presented by 
those of Switzerland. But how many excellencies and prerogatives 
* Nulla facile est ttobilior Sueche Provirtcia, quam ego non perreptavi, perluslram, etsi 
non sine corporis miriumque defatigatione eximia. Iter qttidem Lapponicum maxi mi mihi con- 
stitit laboris ; et fat ear, necessum mihi fuisse, plus devorare molestix ac pcnculi, vagando per 
unam hanc mundi nostri arcioi oram, quam per reliquas omnes, quas unquam gentium cont'tgit 
mihi obire terras in extern orbe, nec tamen et ipsas absque delassatiene ■viriumque jaflura a me 
calcalas. Sed —exatlantis itineribus, mox omnis defuncli discriminis ac molestice me quasi 
Letbeea cepit oblivio, compensante hate omnia fruflu inestimabile , quern ex his viarum errori- 
tus report avi. Linn. Amoenitat. Acad. Vd. II. 
F 2 
have 
