BOOK words trace its principal characters. We have already CXLVIII. seen that gneiss and granite predominate in the mountains, which we consider as forming the Scandinavian range. Wherever these two sorts of rock are seen, they alternately change places, the one passing insensibly into the other, as if they had been formed at the same time; but the first always occupies an extent much more considerable than the second. Granite, however, appears chiefly by itself on the banks of the Muonio, on the coasts of the Baltic to the north of Calmar, and in the provinces of Upland, of Westmania, Rocks, &c. and of East and West Gothland. Gneiss incloses the richest veins of iron, copper, and led mixed with silver, that are worked in Sweden; this rock contains a much greater number of strata of other rocks than is to be found elsewhere; in the mountains these strata dip from north-east to south-west. The oldest earths containing organic remains are, in Sweden, much more extended in proportion to their thickness, than in the other countries of Europe: we there see succeeding each other compact calcareous strata enclosing the spoils of those marine animals, called orthoceratites, argillaceous schisti containing the small organized bodies which were first named by Linnaeus graptolothi, and belonging to the same family as the preceding; lastly, sandstone and different sorts of rocks formed of various agglomerated substances. Dalecarlia, Jempteland, Nericia, and East Gothland are covered with these ancient deposits. In Scania we see formations less ancient, comprehending carbonized earths and limestone composed of shells of the ancient sea, the muschelkalk of the Germans, to which succeed, in the order of their formation, gravelly and calcareous strata, as well as thick beds of chalk. In this province, rocks which bear the marks of an igneous original, cross the different earths, and appear on the surface of the soil. On the soil of this province, one of our savanst has recognised in the vast transported earths, (terrains de transport) com Trans ported earths. See the Introduction to the Mineralogical Geography of Sweden, by M. Hisenger, translated into German by Dr Wochler. + M. Al. Brongniart. See his Notice sur les bloes de roches des terrains de transport in Suède. Ann. des Sciences Naturelles,' tome xiv. posed of sand, rounded pebbles, and enormous masses of BOOK granite rocks, (the accumulation of which forms here and CXLVIII. there, in the environs of Upsal, on the borders of Lake Wener, and as far as the Sound, those hills called ose in Swedish,) the origin of the deposits of the same nature which cover the dutchy of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and the Russian Provinces, as far as the mouth of the Neva. Thus, from Norway and Sweden have come down, dragged along by the vast currents of water, those remains (debris) which one is astonished to find on both sides of the Baltic, and which undoubtedly were there when that sea had no existence, or, when the country, more covered with forests than at present, and consequently colder, beheld the Sound and other straits covered with ice, and presenting during the rigours of winter, a road quite open to these eruptions. In conclusion, one word will suffice to give an idea of the mineral riches of the Swedish iron mines. They are wrought in the open air like stone quarries, and it is calculated, that they will scarcely be exhausted in fifteen centuries. From the similarity of climate, it is to be expected, that Ani mals. the animals which are found in Norway, will also be found in Sweden, and, accordingly, this is the case. The bear and the wolf have their abode in Sweden, as well as in Norway, and the latter especially is destructive, attacking not only the feebler animals, but sometimes man himself. The elk has become a rare animal, but is still met with; and the rein-deer exists in abundance, in the northern parts of the country, especially among the Laplanders. The domestic animals are in general small, but strong and useful, Fish in great variety and abundance are to be found in all the waters. The eagle and falcon are frequent in the northern. and more inaccessible parts; and domestic fowls, and the smaller birds, are to be met with, as in Great Britain. tion. What we have said of the vegetation of Norway, applies Vegetato that of Sweden. We will add, however, after the researches of a learned botanist,* that the primrose (primula elatior), which flourishes in our woods in the early days of M. Fries, author of a memoir, entitled, Excursions Botanique dans quelques Provinces de la Suède.' BOOK spring, is common in Scania; that the common maple (acer CXLVIII. campestre), the smallest of this species, grows by the side of Agricul ture. Climate. some of our forest trees; that the humble asarabacca (asarum Europeum) is found creeping on the surface of the ground in sandy soils; that the hypericum (St John's-wort) shows itself with its yellow flower in the sands of Bleking; that the almond-leaved willow (salix amygdalina), with its flexible branches, abounds in moist grounds, and sees growing at its feet the lively mouse-ear, with flowers of the most beautiful blue. About the 62d or 63d degree of latitude, fruit-trees cease to prosper; the cherry-tree becomes a sorry shrub; but nature has multiplied beyond this latitude, and even to the northern extremities of Sweden, along with several wild small fruits known to the rest of Europe, two species, whose delicious fruits would be tasted with pleasure, even in our own climates. The one is the rubus arcticus; its refreshing berry, sweet and aromatic, holds a place between the strawberry and the raspberry. It has been in vain attempted to cultivate it throughout Sweden: they say that it has been given to northern Bothnia, to indemnify it for the fruit-trees it wants. The other, more widely diffused, the rubus chamaemorus, descends to the 60th degree. It supplies the Swedes with a kind of lemonade both pleasant and wholesome. The abundance of these berries, and the benefit derived from them, have prodigiously increased their use. Every part of Sweden, lying between the Sound and the course of the Dala, has made within the last twenty years great progress in agriculture; producing wheat, rye, barley, oats, and farinaceous vegetables, in sufficiently great abundance. In Dalecarlia, in Jemteland, and in Angermania, they cultivate everywhere flax, hemp, and potatoes; but to the north of these provinces, the insufficiency of crops compells the inhabitants to mix with their grain the bark of the pinus silvestris (Scotch fir), to procure a greater supply of food. The climate of Sweden, generally less severe than that of Norway, is always a subject of astonishment to a stranger. In Gothland, the mildness of the temperature, and the fertility of the soil, have favoured reproduction, that although this province is scarcely equal to a fourth of the BOOK whole kingdom, its population forms nearly two-thirds of CXLVIII. it. At Stockholm, the German does not find those fogs, which extend over a great part of Germany; the Frenchman does not regret the climate of the north of France; he does not even feel those rough and frequent changes, which lessen the pleasure of an abode at Paris. In the capital of the kingdom, the longest days and nights are eighteen hours and a half. At Calix, near the northern frontier, the winter lasts nine months, and the summer Seasons. three, which terminate with the month of September; the sun never quits the horizon during the period of the longest days, and never shows himself during that of the shortest. In general the air of Sweden is pure, and the ravages of contagious diseases are never experienced. The beauty of a warm and dry summer, which, during its short duration, sees the frost disappear all at once, and almost instantaneously the vegetation adorned with leaves and flowers, makes it a matter of forgetfulness that spring is there unknown. Southern Europe, it may be said with justice, knows nothing of that mild clearness of a Northern morning or evening, that soft disappearance of the rays of the sun reflected in an ocean of purple clouds, and nights which are embellished by the feeble light of twilight, to the moment when the dawn of morning shows itself in the east. Let us now survey Sweden in all its extent; let us visit its cities, and sketch the manners of its principal provinces ; and when, after having arrived at the southern extremity of the Scandinavian peninsula, we have examined its institutions, its industry, and its commerce, the reader will be prepared to appreciate the Swedish monarchy, under all its relations. The cities of Sweden are in general thinly peopled; nor Cities and ought this to astonish us. That crowd of idle people, who tous. spend in the heart of towns their pensions, or the revenue of their lands, is unknown in Sweden. The proprietors of land, and even the nobility, enjoy in the country, and in the bosom of their family, all the sweets of domestic life and rural occupations, abandoning the towns and sea-ports to manufacturers and merchants. Lulea, or Luleo, in North- Lulea. BOOK ern Bothnia, is a small city of 4000 inhabitants or more, CXLVIII. whose port, at the mouth of the river of the same name, carries on some trade with the Laplanders. The alluvions of this river have led to the abandoning of the ancient Pilea is of still Lulea, now too far distant from the sea. Umea, in Wester Bothnia, less importance than Lulea. with 1100 inhabitants, supports a society of agriculture and a school; like the two preceding towns, it lies at the mouth of a river, whose name it bears. Umea. Manners of the Laplanders. Northern Northern Sweden, whose three principal towns we have just enumerated, is peopled by Laplanders and Swedes. Of the Laplanders there are distinguished four classes; mountaineers, inhabitants of the forests, fishermen, and beggars. The first live by the produce of their herds of rein-deer; they spend the summer upon the mountains, and the winter in the plains; their nomadic life obliges them to transport with them their families, their animals, and their huts. The Laplanders of the second class are stationary; their herds of rein-deer are less numerous than the former; they lead them into the forests, or otherwise suffer them to feed at their liberty, while they themselves are occupied with the cultivation of their lands. The Lapland fishermen have still fewer animals than the preceding; they intrust them to their countrymen of the forests; or otherwise, while themselves are employed in fishing in the different lakes, they send their wives and children to take care of the herds on the mountains. The begging Laplanders live, as their name indicates, by begging, or by hiring themselves out to the Swedish peasantry. Some of them, after having witnessed the destruction of their flocks by the attacks of wolves, or other untoward events, employ themselves in making wicker panniers and baskets. The rigour of the climate, the misery which the Laplanders frequently suffer, and the unfruitfulness of their wives, prevent the increase of their population. The Westro-Bothnian, and the Swedish inhabitants of the same regions, animated by the love of labour, and united in the most friendly cordiality, live happy in their families, where order and neatness reign. Their women heighten their natural charms by a certain elegance in their dress. These northern provinces contain |