Travels through Norway and Lapland during the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808

Leopold von Buch (1774–1853) was a German scientist who travelled to Scandinavia in 1806–1808 to research the region's mineralogy and the arctic climate. He first published this detailed account of his travels and observations in Berlin in 1810; the English translation reissued here appeared in 1813.

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In Travels Through Norway and Lapland, Leopold von Buch (1774–1853), a German geologist and palaeontologist, recounts his expedition to Scandinavia in 1806–1808. This book, originally published in Berlin in 1810, and in this English translation in 1813, describes these large, sparsely populated regions at the turn of the nineteenth century. The translator's preface provides an important geo-political backdrop – the possibility of war in Norway and the machinations of Sweden, Russia and Great Britain over the future of this territory. Von Buch's observations, however, are firmly engaged with the scientific. He writes that his motivation for the expedition was to find out how the harsh climate influenced the land, and he records detailed information about the weather and the region's mineralogy and geological structure. He also describes the local population, providing a wide-ranging account of life in the remote reaches of Northern Europe.