Lachesis Lapponica,
OR A
TOUR IN LAPLAND,

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED
FROM THE
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL
OF THE CELEBRATED
LINNÆUS;

BY

JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M. D. F. R. S. etc.
PRESIDENT OF THE LINNÆAN SOCIETY.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

"Ulterius nihil est, nisi non habitabile frigus."
      Ovid.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WHITE AND COCHRANE, HORACE'S HEAD,
FLEET-STREET,
BY RICHARD TAYLOR AND CO., SHOE-LANE.

1811.

TO

THOMAS FURLY FORSTER, Esq.

FELLOW OF THE LINNÆAN SOCIETY.

My dear Sir,

Among the various consultations and communications which have taken place between us in the course of our long and uninterrupted friendship, I recollect that one object of your anxious curiosity has always been the Lachesis Lapponica of Linnæus, so often alluded to by himself and his pupils, and the original Swedish manuscript of which came

into my hands with the rest of his collection. Of this I now present you with an English translation; and I offer it to you with the more satisfaction, because you are, amongst all my Linnæan acquaintance, one of the most capable of entering into every feeling of the original writer. His love of truth and of nature were not more ardent than your own, nor was his mental profit more. You, who have so deeply studied the works he prepared for the public, will with no less pleasure listen with me to his familiar conversation.

the awful preceptor of the learned world in his professorial chair, but a youthful inexperienced student, full of ardour and curiosity, such as we ourselves have been, recording his ideas and observations for his own use, not delivering them forth for the instruction of others; and while we admire his perseverance and acuteness, we can sympathize with his embarrassments, and readily pardon his very inconsiderable mistakes. Happy are those who, like you, can equally sympathize in his pious and benevolent affections, his disdain of hypocrisy and oppression,

and his never-ceasing desire to turn his scientific acquisitions to practical utility!

Be pleased, my dear Sir, to accept, with your usual favour, this sincere tribute of respect and esteem, from

Your very faithful friend,

J. E. Smith.

PREFACE

BY THE EDITOR.

The biographers of Linnæus have often mentioned the Journal of his Lapland Tour, to which he himself has frequently adverted, in various parts of his voluminous works, under the title of Lachesis Lapponica. The publication of this Journal has been anxiously desired; and so valuable was the manuscript considered, that on his whole collection and library being sold, after the death of his son, it was remarked that these papers at least ought to have been retained in Sweden, as a national pro

perty; the journey which they record having been undertaken at the public expense, and the objects illustrated thereby being, necessarily, more important to the author's countrymen than to any other people. This remark, however, was not made till long after the manuscript, with all the treasures which accompanied it, had escaped, by land and by sea, the pursuit instituted by the Swedish monarch to recover them, and had reached England in safety. It became a duty for their fortunate possessor to render them useful. To place the authority of this collection, as far as possible, out of the reach of accident, he has made it his chief object to extend any information to be derived from it, not only to his own countrymen, but to his fellow-labourers in

every quarter of the globe. The Banksian herbarium was, in the course of seven months, compared with that of Linnæus throughout, to their mutual advantage, by a copious interchange, not only of