neither sufficiently frozen to bear them, nor open enough to be navigated; so they are under the necessity of wading frequently up to their arms, and are half dead with cold and fatigue by the time they get to church. They must either undergo this hardship, or be fined ten silver dollars and do penance for three Sundays; which surely is too severe[36].
This day I found the very hairy variety of the Purple Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) mentioned by Plukenet (t. 212, f. 2). The plants were of the last year's
growth, and their hairiness the more conspicuous; but it is a mere variety.
The Laplanders never eat but twice a day, often only once, and that towards evening.
On the banks of the river, where fragments are to be found of all the productions of the mountains, I met with silver ore.
The insects which fell under my observation this day were the great Black Humble-bee (Apis terrestris), the Wasp, the Gnat (Culex pipiens), and the Flesh Fly (Musca carnaria).
[35] Linnæus's words are "to wash down the water."
[36] This is no new instance of contrariety between the tyranny of man and the gospel of Christ, whose "yoke is easy and his burthen light." If these innocent people were to complain of it to their spiritual guides, they might be told, as on another occasion, see p. [130], that "it was a trifle not worth thinking about." We cannot here say with Pope,
"The devil and the king divide the prize,"
but we may presume that the fine is considered as no less indispensable an atonement than the penance.—Pity that such tractable sheep should not be better worth shearing!