A Tour in Lapland by Carolus Linnaeus

In 1732 Linnaeus, then aged 25, was commissioned by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences to journey to the far north of Sweden, (an area considered as remote as Borneo by the sophisticates of Stockholm,) and report on the plants, animals and minerals to be found there. He set out on the 12th of May and journeyed as far north as the Arctic Circle, west to the coast of Norway, and then east again to the Baltic Sea, and south along the coast of Finland to Åland before returning home on the 10th of October. The major product of this expedition was the Flora Lapponica, a detailed account of the plants of the region, in which he first made extensive use of his binominal system of plant nomenclature, which is now universal. He also kept a journal in which he included his observations on the land, the people and their customs. Translated into English, it was published in 1808 under the title Lachesis Lapponica.