the timbers, and with great difficulty they reached a house situated on an island.

Here he hired a man to show him the manner of fishing for pearls. This person made a raft of five logs, two fathoms in length, which he furnished with a stone anchor, a cable of birch-rope, a pole, and a pair of wooden pincers. When he reached a part which he wished to examine, he dropped the anchor, lay down at full length, looked over the edge of the raft, and on perceiving a pearlmussel laid hold of it with the instrument. This shell is common in many of our own rivers, such as the Tay, the Ythan, the Dee, and the Don; but the pearls which it yields, although frequently large, are inferior in brilliancy to those of the true pearl-oyster, which is a marine, not a fresh-water production.

The forests having been set on fire by lightning, the flames raged with great violence, owing to the drought of the season; hence he and his guide, in crossing a part of the woods, experienced no small danger. The wind beginning to blow, a sudden noise arose, and the travellers, imagining it best to hasten forward, ran with all their might to reach the open ground. Sometimes the fall of a huge tree was so sudden that they looked aghast, not knowing which way to turn; and in one instance a large trunk fell between them, while the space by which they were separated did not exceed six feet. However, they at length effected their escape.

Visiting the Laxholms, or Salmon Islands, in this vicinity, he made observations on the fish, for the taking of which an establishment had been formed. He remarked, that the individuals of which the

lower jaw was bent inwards and attenuated, were invariably males. On the 30th July he reached the old town of Lulea, where he was detained a day by a violent storm of thunder and rain; and on the 3d of August arrived at Tornea, which stands on a small island, or rather peninsula, with a swamp for its isthmus. At this place every body was talking of a distemper to which the cattle were subject, and which attacked them principally in spring. On walking to examine the meadows to which they are first turned out, he found them covered with a profusion of the water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa), to which he attributed the malady. "The slightest observation," he says, "teaches us that brute animals distinguish, by natural instinct, such plants as are wholesome to them from such as are poisonous. The cattle, therefore, do not eat this hemlock in summer or autumn, whence few of them perish at those seasons, and such only as devour the herb in question incautiously, or from an inordinate appetite. But when they are first let out in the spring, partly from their eagerness for fresh herbage, partly from their long fasting and starvation, they seize with avidity whatever comes within their reach. The grass is then but short, and insufficient to satisfy them," and they eat up whatever comes in the way. The proper remedy was pointed out by the visiter; and, as from 50 to 100 of their cattle perished annually, the matter was of great importance to the inhabitants.

In the church he saw a memorial of King Charles the Eleventh's zeal for astronomical science. That prince having visited Tornea, on the 14th June 1694 saw from the belfry the solar orb at midnight,

and the following year sent Professors Bilberg and Spole to repeat the observation.

Leaving that town on the 9th August, Linnæus proceeded to Kimi, where there was a great salmonfishery, and continued his journey through East Bothland; but finding that the Finlanders did not, or would not, understand him, he was obliged to return. He next directed his steps to Calix, and made several excursions in the neighbourhood, noting the Finnish names of articles which he might want at the inns, and again ventured to enter East Bothland. He then pursued his way along the east coast, through that district and Finland, visiting Ulea, Brabestadt, Carleby, Christina, and Abo. In the latter place he found one of his class-fellows, Mennander, who was afterwards archbishop of Upsal, and who furnished him with some money as a recompense for instructions in natural history. He then went by the post-yacht to Aland, crossed the sea of that name, and on the 10th October reached Upsal.

The whole extent of the journey was about 3800 English miles. It is quite unnecessary for us to expatiate on the dangers of such an expedition, to extol the courage and perseverance of him who accomplished it, or even to dilate on the important results. "My journey through Lapland," he says in a subsequent notice, "was the most toilsome; and I confess, that I was obliged to sustain more hardship and danger in wandering through this single tract of our northern world, than in all the travels which I undertook in other parts, though these were certainly not without fatigue. But when my journeys were over, I quickly forgot all their dangers and

difficulties, which were compensated by the invaluable fruits obtained on these excursions."

If he turned to such advantage the observations which he had made in a region but scantily supplied with the forms of animal and vegetable life, how much more profitable, it may be thought, would it have been for himself and for the world, had it been his lot to travel in some equinoctial country, teeming with the wonders of creation! Yet, perhaps the multiplicity of objects which would have forced themselves upon his notice in that richer scene, in an age when natural history was only beginning to emerge from its pristine chaos, would have bewildered the most comprehensive mind; whereas the less abundant stores of Lapland and Sweden presented themselves to him in such a way as to afford time to examine each individually, and to note the common and distinctive characters. It seems indeed more than probable, that if he had been a native of one of the warmer regions of the globe, he would not have attained such distinguished merit as a reformer of science.

SECTION III.

Studies, Adventures, and Travels of Linnæus, from 1733 to 1738.

Linnæus returns to Upsal-Is prevented from lecturing by Rosen, whom he attempts to assassinate-Accompanies some young Men on an Excursion to Fahlun, where he is introduced to the Governor of the Province, with whose Sons he travels to Norway-Returning to Fahlun, he delivers Lectures, falls in Love, is furnished with Money by his Mistress, and prepares to go Abroad for his Degree-He visits Hamburg, detects an Imposture there, and is obliged to make his Escape-Obtains his Degree at Harderwyk-Proceeds to Leyden, where he publishes his Systema Naturæ, and waits upon Boerhaave-Goes to Amsterdam, is kindly received by Burmann, and lodges with himIs employed by Cliffort, publishes various Botanical WorksGoes to England, visits Sir Hans Sloane, Miller, and Dillenius -Returns to Holland, publishes several Works-Goes to Leyden, and resides with Van Royen-Publishes the Ichthyologia of Artedi, who was drowned in Amsterdam-Becomes melancholy, and falls into a violent Fever-On his Recovery goes to Paris, where he is kindly received by the Jussieus-Returns to Sweden after an Absence of Three Years and a Half.

ON returning to Upsal, Linnæus was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences; but this distinction was the only reward which he obtained for having undergone so many fatigues, excepting a small bursary, of which he was soon deprived. Now, however, he expected a more favourable reception in society, and in 1733 began to give public lectures on botany, chemistry, and mineralogy. Unfortunately for his success, he had not yet taken his degree, a circumstance which legally disquali