Linnaeus thanks Henning Adolph Gyllenborg and his son [Carl Johan Gyllenborg] for the letter [this letter has not come down to us] and for the books. Linnaeus writes that when the universities receive such young gentlemen as the young Gyllenborg they regard them as gifts from God that are welcomed to the fields that never yield grain without the blessing of the Gods. Linnaeus comments that the sciences would never have had protection unless they had received such favours from highly placed persons.
Linnaeus says that it would give him great pleasure to lead the most noble of Swedish youths to the lecturer’s chair [Gyllenborg presumably expected of his son to study for Linnaeus] but fears that the right time has not yet arrived.
Linnaeus then replies to a question or a remark [probably made by Gyllenborg in his letter] concerning the Balsberg rock, saying that it is the most remarkable in Sweden and that nothing is more interesting. [Balsberg is a huge rock in the province Skåne with long and broad tunnels with e.g. petrified sea mussels]. Gyllenborg can find there all the rocks he needs to obtain the specimens for description. Linnaeus had mentioned Balsberg in his forthcoming travelreport [Skånska resa], which is now being printed, but there is sufficient for several books. If Linnaeus had known about this earlier [referring to the remark made by Gyllenborg] he would not have mentioned a word about it in the travel-report, but what was written there was so little of what could and should be said that it was absolutely nothing.