JOURNEY TO SKANE 
209 
student in acquiring a knowledge of Sweden gleaned 
from the country folk in the middle of the eighteenth 
century. The complete relation of his travels was 
received with warm approval. But a slight misunder¬ 
standing arose between him and his patron, Baron 
Harleman, as to the account given of paring and 
burning the turf, which led to the cancelling of one 
of the printed leaves, and the substitution of a 
modified statement, an occurrence which 4 vexed 
Linnaeus. 
Fresh work and new progress soon dissipated this 
vexation, but although the Riksdag desired him to 
investigate other parts, he did not undertake any 
similar task again. “ Often have I ventured on the 
sea to fetch gold from Ophir; I have come back with 
broken powers, wrecked ship, and torn sails, and were 
I to venture out again, I might easily be lost ” was his 
expression in a letter to Wargentin, the secretary of 
the Academy of Science. 
o 
