94 
LINNAEUS 
How glad and satisfied was Linnaeus when he came 
up unharmed from the mine, appears from his final 
paragraph thus: 
“ Thou, great Creator and preserver of all, who 
On Lapland fells permitted us to ascend 
so high; 
In Falun mines permitted us to descend so 
deep; 
On Lapland fells showed me day without 
night; 
In Falun mines showed me night without day; 
On Lapland fells allowed me no surcease from 
cold; 
In Falun mines allowed me no surcoase from 
heat; 
On Lapland fells allowed me in one place to 
see all seasons; 
In Falun mines allowed me not one of the four 
seasons; 
In Lapland bore me unharmed through so 
many vital perils; 
In Falun bore me unharmed through so many 
perils to health. 
Praise all that Thou hast created, 
from beginning to end.” 
At the end of February, Linnaeus left Falun and 
reached Uppsala on the ist March, 1734, where his 
first work was to arrange his collection of minerals 
and rewrite his “ Systema lapidum ”; his meetings now 
constituted a series such as never had been got to¬ 
gether at Uppsala, not even in the University, so that 
his room, which served both as dwelling and museum, 
attracted no small interest. “ You should have seen 
his museum,” wrote his friend, J. Browallius, “ which 
was available for his audience, it would have struck 
you with surprise and delight. The ceiling he had 
adorned with birds’ skins, one wall with a Lapp cos¬ 
tume and other curiosities, while a second boasted 
