_Journey to Lapland._
Linnaeus, chosen by the Royal Society of Upsal to travel in
Lapland, sets out in May 1732--Enters Lycksele Lapland--A
Lapland Beauty--Beds made of Hair-moss--Conversation of a
Curate and a Schoolmaster--The Lapland Alps--Their
Vegetation--Brief Account of the Rein-deer--Passing over the
alpine Region, he enters Norway--Again visits the
mountainous Region--Difficulties of the
Journey--Pearl-fishery--Forests set on Fire by Lightning--At
Lulea he discovers the Cause of an epidemic Distemper among
the Cattle--Returns through East Bothland--Concluding
Remarks.
Having received this appointment, he visited his friend Stobaeus at Lund,
as also his parents, who were now reconciled to him, and returned to
Upsal to prepare for his perilous enterprise.
On the 12th May 1732, he set out alone, equipped as follows:--"My
clothes," says he, in his Lachesis Lapponica, "consisted of a light coat
of West Gothland linsey-woolsey cloth without folds, lined with red
shalloon, having small cuffs and collar of shag; leather breeches; a
round wig; a green leather cap, and a pair of half-boots. I carried a
small leather bag, half an ell in length, but somewhat less in breadth,
furnished on one side with hooks and eyes, so that it could be opened
and shut at pleasure. This bag contained one shirt; two pair of false
sleeves; two half-shirts; an ink-stand, pencase, microscope, and
spying-glass; a gauze cap to protect me occasionally from the gnats; a
comb; my journal, and a parcel of paper stitched together for drying
plants, both in folio; my manuscript Ornithology, Flora Uplandica, and
Characteres Generici. I wore a hanger at my side, and carried a small
fowling-piece, as well as an octangular stick, graduated for the purpose
of measuring. My pocket-book contained a passport from the Governor of
Upsal, and a recommendation from the Academy."
Nature wore her most delightful aspect; the dandelion, the violet, and
the primrose, unfolded their blossoms to the sun; the skylark chanted
its lively song as it soared aloft in the clear sky; and the redwing
warbled its love-notes from the lofty pines. How delightful must have
been the feelings of the young naturalist, as he advanced toward the
scene of those anticipated discoveries, which were to immortalize his
name, or at least to increase the sphere of his ideas, and perhaps form
the basis of his fortune! As he advanced, "the redwing, the cuckoo, the
black-grous, and the mountain-finch, with their various notes, made a
concert in the forest, to which the lowing herds of cattle under the
shade of the trees formed a bass."
He proceeded through Helsingland, Angermanland, and West Bothland, to
Lycksele Lapland, where he embarked on a large river, during his voyage
on which he was gratified by the sight of numerous birds. But a
succession of cataracts occurring soon after, the owner of the boat,
inverting its position, placed it on his head, and "scampered away over
hills and valleys, so that the devil himself could not have overtaken
him."
By the beginning of June he found himself among swamps, torrents, and
woods, occasionally accompanied by a Laplander as guide, and now and
then incurring dangers which would have damped the ardour of a less
enthusiastic traveller. On one of these occasions, after wandering a
long time in a labyrinth of marshes, he was met by a woman, whom he
describes as presenting a very extraordinary appearance: "Her stature
was very diminutive; her face of the darkest brown, from the effects of
smoke; her eyes dark and sparkling; her eyebrows black; her
pitchy-coloured hair hung loose about her head, and on it she wore a
flat red cap. 'O thou poor man!' quoth she, 'what hard destiny can have
brought thee hither, to a place never visited by any one before? This is
the first time I ever beheld a stranger. Thou miserable creature! how
didst thou come, and whither wilt thou go?'" Linnaeus entreated her to
point out some way by which he might continue his journey. "'Nay, man,'
said she, 'thou hast only to go the same way back again; for the river
overflows so much, it is not possible for thee to proceed further in
this direction. From us thou hast no assistance to expect in the
prosecution of thy journey, as my husband, who might have helped thee,
is ill.'" The traveller begged of her something to eat, and after much
difficulty procured a small cheese. He was obliged to retrace his steps
through the marshes; and, when almost exhausted by hunger and fatigue,
at length reached the house of a poor curate, where his wants were
supplied.
The bountiful provision of nature, he remarks, is evinced in providing
mankind with bed and bedding, even in this savage wilderness. The great
hair-moss (_Polytrichum commune_), called by the Laplanders _romsi_,
grows copiously in their damp forests, and is used for this purpose.
They choose the starry-headed plants, out of the tufts of which they cut
a surface as large as they please for a bed or bolster, separating it
from the earth beneath; and, although the shoots are scarcely branched,
they are, nevertheless, so entangled at the roots as not to be separable
from each other. This mossy cushion is very soft and elastic, not
growing hard by pressure; and if a similar portion of it be made to
serve as a coverlet, nothing can be more warm and comfortable. They fold
this bed together, tying it up into a roll that may be grasped by a
man's arms, which, if necessary, they carry with them to the place where
they mean to sleep the following night. If it becomes too dry and
compressed, its former elasticity is restored by a little moisture.
Leaving the town of Lulen, on the 25th June, he embarked on the river,
which he continued to navigate for several days and nights in a
comfortable boat. At a place called Quickjock he was presented by the
"famous wife of the curate, Mr Grot," with provisions sufficient to last
a week. At Jockmock, the schoolmaster and the priest tormented him "with
their consummate and most pertinacious ignorance." The latter began his
conversation with remarks on the clouds, showing how they strike the
mountains in their passage over the country, carrying off stones, trees,
and cattle. "I ventured," says Linnaeus, "to suggest that such accidents
were rather to be attributed to the force of the wind, for that the
clouds could not of themselves lift or carry away any thing. He laughed
at me, saying, surely I had never seen any clouds. I replied, that
whenever the weather is foggy I walk in clouds, and when the fog is
condensed, and no longer supported in the air, it immediately rains. To
all such reasoning, being above his comprehension, he only returned a
sardonic smile. Still less was he satisfied with my explanation how
watery bubbles may be lifted up into the air, as he told me the clouds
were solid bodies. On my denying this, he reinforced his assertion with
a text of Scripture, silencing me by authority, and then laughing at my
ignorance. He next condescended to inform me, that after rain a phlegm
is always to be found on the mountains, where the clouds have touched
them. Upon my replying that this phlegm is a vegetable called nostoc, I
was, like St Paul, judged to be mad, and that too much learning had
turned my brain.
"The other, the pedagogue, lamented that people should bestow so much
attention upon temporal vanities, and consequently, alas! neglect their
spiritual good; and he remarked that many a one had been ruined by too
great application to study. Both these wise men concurred in one thing:
They could not conceal their wonder that the Royal Academy should have
expressly appointed a mere student for the purposes on which I was sent,
without considering that there were already as competent individuals
resident in the country, who would have undertaken the business. They
declared they would either of them have been ready to accept the charge.
In my opinion, however, they would but have exhibited a fresh
illustration of the proverb of the ass and the lyre."
On the 1st July, the traveller obtained a glimpse of the Lapland Alps,
which resembled a range of white clouds rising from the horizon.
Arriving in the evening at a place named Riomitis, he saw the sun set
apparently on the summit of a high mountain,--a spectacle which,
although common enough in hilly countries, was so new to him as to
excite his utmost surprise, and to induce him to exclaim, "O Lord, how
wonderful are thy works!"
Towards the close of day, July 6, accompanied by a native, who acted as
his servant and interpreter, he ascended the heights of Wallavari, the
first of the range. Here he found himself as in a new world. The forests
had disappeared; mountains upon mountains, covered with snow, presented
themselves on all sides; no traces of human habitations were to be seen;
the plants of the lower districts had ceased, and a vegetation of a
peculiar kind occupied their place, presenting such a profusion of new
forms to the delighted eye of the naturalist, that he was overcome with
astonishment. He observed the silken-leaved alpine lady's-mantle, the
deep-green sibbaldia, the little purple-flowered azalea, the diapensia
lapponica, the beautiful saxifraga stellaris, rivularis, and
oppositifolia, the succulent rose-root, the red lychnis, several
ranunculi, and a variety of other species, most of which are found
towards the summits of our own Grampians. The more elevated parts were
composed of slaty rocks; and from the snow with which they were covered
the water was running in copious streams. He caught a young ptarmigan,
upon which the parent bird ran so close to him that he might have taken
her also. "She kept continually jumping round and round me," says he;
"but I thought it a pity to deprive the tender brood of their mother,
neither would my compassion for the mother allow me long to detain her
offspring, which I restored to her in safety."
About the evening of the following day, they reached a secluded spot
where a Laplander had pitched his tent. Immediately after their arrival,
the herd of reindeer, consisting of seven or eight hundred, came home to
be milked. Some of the milk was boiled for the stranger, but it proved
rather rich for his stomach. His host furnished him with his own spoon,
usually carried in his tobacco-bag, and which he washed by squirting a
mouthful of water upon it.
He was here joined by another guide, and after refreshing themselves by
sleep they proceeded on their journey. On the sides of the hills were
observed in abundance the holes of the lemming-rat; and the alpine hare
occasionally presented itself. Scarcely any other fish occurs in the
lakes than the char, a beautiful species of trout, with the belly of a
bright-red colour. In the evening they sought in vain for one of the
native dwellings. Linnaeus had walked so much that he could hardly stand;
and, being ready to faint with fatigue, lay down, resolving rather to
endure the cold and boisterous wind than proceed any farther. But his
companions at length found some reindeer-dung, which by smelling they
discovered to be fresh; and, perceiving a track in the snow, they
advanced till they came to a hut, where they remained all next day, it
being Sunday.
It is mentioned that the reindeer of those mountains are innumerable.
The herds are brought home night and morning to be milked, and are so
tractable as to be easily conducted by a single driver and a dog. The
head is of a grayish colour, black about the eyes; the mouth whitish;
the tail short and white; the feet encompassed with the same colour
above the hoofs. The whole body is gray, darker when the new pile comes
on, and lighter before it falls. The hair, like that of some other
species of deer, is brittle and easily broken. The horns of the female
are upright, or slightly bent backward, furnished with one or two
branches in front near the base, the summit sometimes undivided,
sometimes cleft. Those of the male are often two feet and a half long,
and their points are as far distant from each other. They are variously
branched. These animals cast their horns every year; the males about the
end of November, the females in May; at first they are hairy, but the
pile disappears before Michaelmas.
As the reindeer walks, a crackling noise proceeds from its feet, which
is produced by the hooflets striking against each other. When these
animals are driven to the place where they are accustomed to be milked,
they all lie down, panting violently, and chewing the cud all the while.
One of the attendants takes a small rope, and, making a noose, throws it
over their heads in succession. The cord is then twisted round the
horns, and the other end fastened to a stick thrust into the ground. If
the milk does not come readily the udder is beaten sharply with the
hand. The nipples are four, very rarely six, and all yield the fluid.
After the process was finished, he observed the maid-servant taking up
some of the dung, which she kneaded with her hands and put into a
vessel. This was for the purpose of smearing the teats, to prevent the
fawns from sucking too much.
He remained a few days among the Laplanders, who were occupied in
feeding their flocks along the valleys, during which time he had an
opportunity of observing their manners. He then proceeded over the range
westward.
At length the mountains began to present rocks uncovered by snow, a
glimpse of the ocean was obtained, and soon after the scene entirely
changed. Arriving upon the abrupt edge of this elevated region, he
beheld a vast expanse of forest stretching towards the sea, and
presenting the semblance of cultivated fields. As he descended, the
alpine plants gradually disappeared, the climate improved, and on
reaching the margin of the plain, he sat down to regale himself with
wild strawberries. He was struck with the circumstance, that the two
natives who accompanied him showed no symptoms of fatigue. He attributes
their superiority as walkers to their wearing no heels on their boots,
to their being accustomed to running from their infancy, to their
exemption from hard labour, to the habitual exercise of their muscles,
to their chiefly using animal food, to their not overloading their
stomachs, and to their being of small stature. Their continued health he
imagines to be owing to the extreme purity of the air, to their eating
their meat cold, to the excellence of the water, to their tranquillity
of mind, to the absence of spirituous liquors, and to their being inured
to cold from their earliest days.
Nothing could be more delightful to the feelings of our traveller than
this transition from the severity of winter to the warmth of summer. He
now approached the coast, and next day proceeded by sea, examining the
various objects that presented themselves. In the evening he arrived at
the house of Mr Rask, the pastor of Torfjorden, who received him with
much kindness. When day dawned he proceeded on his voyage, but was
obliged by a contrary wind to put about and return to the place from
which he had sailed. On the following morning, having climbed one of the
neighbouring heights, he was resting on its side, when he heard the
report of a gun, the ball from which struck a stone quite near him. It
was fired by a native, whose intention, it would appear, had been to
murder him, although, as he presently took to flight, no information
could be obtained respecting his motives.
On the 15th of July he set out on his return from the low grounds of
Norway, and began to ascend the snowy mountains, accompanied by an
interpreter. He directed his course towards the Alps of Tornea, which
were described as about forty miles distant; but having for several days
endured the greatest fatigue and privation, he doubted the expediency of
advancing farther, especially as he made few discoveries in natural
history. He therefore, on the 23d, took leave of the mountainous part of
Lapland, and returned by water towards Lulea. In this tract he had
abundant opportunities of observing the peculiar characters and manners
of the inhabitants, which he cursorily details in his journal. On the
26th he reached a place called Purkijaur, where he in vain attempted to
procure a boat to descend the river. His attendants and he were
therefore obliged to make a raft, on which they embarked; but they had
not proceeded half a mile when the force of the current separated 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 pearl-mussel 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, Linnaeus proceeded to Kimi, where
there was a great salmon-fishery, 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.