information, but of specimens. Plants or insects were for many years continually sent from France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, and even Sweden, as well as from America, for comparison with the authentic originals named by the hand of Linnæus. The time and labour devoted to this task have been richly compensated, by the acquisition of various novelties, and of much instruction, as well as by the pleasure of so extensive an intercourse with persons occupied in the same favourite and delightful pursuit, and by

the acknowledgements with which most of them have overpaid the trouble.

The manuscripts of Linnæus were no less freely consulted; but great was our disappointment to find the Lachesis Lapponica written in Swedish. For a long time therefore it remained unexplored. At length Mr. Charles Troilius, a young gentleman in the mercantile line, resident in London, undertook the task of translating it. The manuscript proved to be the identical journal written on the spot during the tour, which certainly rendered it the more interesting; but the difficulty of decyphering it proved from that very circumstance unexpectedly great. The bulk of the composition is Swedish, but so inter

mixed with Latin, even in half sentences, that the translator, not being much acquainted with this language, found it necessary to leave frequent blanks, giving a literal version only of what he was able to read. The whole abounds also with frequent cyphers and abbreviations, sometimes referring to the publications or opinions of the day, and intended as memorandums for subsequent consideration. It is, in short, such a journal as a man would write for his own use, without the slightest thought of its ever being seen by any other person. The composition is entirely artless and unaffected, giving a most amiable idea of the writer's mind and temper; and it cannot but be considered as highly curious, to contemplate in these pages the development of such a mind as that of

Linnæus. As not a word throughout the whole was written for the use of any person but the author, the reader may perhaps be disappointed at not meeting with any thing like a professed description of Lapland, or even a regular detail of the route of the traveller. What was familiar to Linnæus, either in books or in his own mind, is omitted. By the brilliant sketches he has left us in his Flora Lapponica, published a few years after his return, we see what he might have written had he here undertaken to communicate his own knowledge or remarks to others; and the same may be said of such of his dissertations, in the Amœnitates Academicæ, as professedly treat of subjects belonging to Lapland. The curious and learned reader will, however, here and

there, meet with the first traces of ideas, opinions or discoveries, which scarcely acquired a shape, even in the mind of the writer, till some time afterwards. If on the one hand the Journal may seem defective in communicating information, the occasional quotations, references and allusions, the familiar and sufficiently correct use of the Latin language, and the general accuracy of the whole, give a very high idea of the author's accomplishments. The extemporaneous journals of the most illustrious travellers, made without a single book to refer to, or a companion to consult, would few of them perhaps stand the test of criticism so well.

To render the translation fit for the public view, the editor found himself

under the necessity of writing the whole over; but in doing this, though often obliged to supply the forms of whole sentences, of which only hints or cyphers exist in the manuscript, he has been careful to give as literal a translation of the rest as the materials would allow. This principle ever kept in view, and the difficulty of the undertaking, which, small as the book is, has taken up much of his time for seven years past, must apologize for any inelegancies of composition. Yet in many parts the original displays a natural and striking eloquence, of which the translation may possibly fall short. Such passages, when they occurred, repaid the labour and perplexity of studying for hours to decypher some obscure mark, or some ill-written Swedish or

Latin word, which the original translator had given up in despair.

The sketches with a pen, that occur plentifully in the manuscript, are not the least curious part of the whole. They are often necessary to explain descriptive passages in the work, and about sixty of them have been selected to illustrate the book. These have been cut in wood, with such admirable precision, that every stroke of the pen, even the most casual, is retained, and it is but justice to the artist, Mr. R. T. Austin, to record his name. Several plants, but rudely sketched in this manuscript, being more completely represented in the Flora Lapponica, it was thought unnecessary to publish such figures, except a few, for the sake of curiosity, or of particular illustration.

The notes are entirely supplied by the editor. Every name or remark that he has added to the text, is scrupulously inserted between crotchets; nor is there, throughout the whole, any one passage or word of the original author's so inclosed.

The "Brief Narrative," subjoined to the Journal, having been drawn up by Linnæus himself, to lay before the Academy of Sciences at Upsal, could not with propriety be omitted. Part of it throws great light on the body of the work; and though there are some repetitions, there is little that can be thought superfluous.

Norwich, April, 1811.

JOURNEY
TO
LAPLAND.

Having been appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences to travel through Lapland, for the purpose of investigating the three kingdoms of Nature in that country, I prepared my wearing apparel and other necessaries for the journey as follows.

My clothes consisted of a light coat of Westgothland 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 inkstand, 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.

May 12, 1732, old style.

I set out alone from the city of Upsal on Friday May 12, 1732, at eleven o'clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age.

At this season Nature wore her most cheerful and delightful aspect, and Flora celebrated her nuptials with Phœbus.