gh the city, before the House of Nobles and the King's
Palace, and over the Northern Bridge, and around the northern suburb,
and I know not where else, to the great astonishment of everybody we
met, until our stupid driver found out where he was to go. Then we took
leave of the Pole, who had engaged horses to Norrkoping, and looked
utterly disconsolate at parting; but the grave Swede showed his kind
heart at last, for--neglecting his home, from which he had been absent
seven years--he accompanied us to an hotel, engaged rooms, and saw us
safely housed.

We remained in Stockholm a week, engaged in making preparations for our
journey to the North. During this time we were very comfortably
quartered in Kahn's Hotel, the only one in the capital where one can get
both rooms and meals. The weather changed so entirely, as completely to
destroy our first impressions, and make the North, which we were
seeking, once more as distant as when we left Germany. The day after our
arrival a thaw set in, which cleared away every particle of snow and
ice, opened the harbor, freed the Malar Lake, and gave the white hills
around the city their autumnal colors of brown and dark-green. A dense
fog obscured the brief daylight, the air was close, damp, and oppressive,
everybody coughed and snuffled, and the air-tight rooms, so comfortable
in cold weather, became insufferable. My blood stagnated, my spirits
descended as the mercury rose, and I grew all impatience to have zero and
a beaten snow-track again.

We had more difficulty in preparing for this journey than I
anticipated--not so much in the way of procuring the necessary articles,
as the necessary information on the subject. I was not able to find a
man who had made the journey in winter, or who could tell me what to
expect, and what to do. The mention of my plan excited very general
surprise, but the people were too polished and courteous to say outright
that I was a fool, though I don't doubt that many of them thought so.
Even the maps are only minute enough for the traveller as far as Tornea,
and the only special maps of Lapland I could get dated from 1803. The
Government, it is true, has commenced the publication of a very
admirable map of the kingdom, in provinces, but these do not as yet
extend beyond Jemteland, about Lat. 63 deg. north. Neither is there any
work to be had, except some botanical and geological publications, which
of course contain but little practical information.