dom. It stands on an arm of the sea at the point of union of four great valleys. The streets are wide and regular, and the houses mostly of wood. It exports iron, timber and fish. It is the residence of a bishop, and has a magnificent cathedral in which the ancient kings of Norway were crowned. Pop. 12,000.

Kongsberg, is a considerable mining town. Pop. 10,000.

Stavanger and Drammen are seaports with some trade. The little town of Hammerfest, on the island of Hvaloe near the North cape, is remarkable for

being the most northerly town in Europe. It is the capital of the province of Finmark, yet contains but 77 inhabitants.

15. AGRICULTURE. The soil of Norway is often so shallow as not to admit of being ploughed, yet vegetation is amazingly quick; corn is sown and reaped within 6 or 7 weeks; and is raised under the 70th parallel of latitude; both the soil and climate however are unfavorable to agriculture, and no part of the country yields sufficient grain for the inhabitants.

16. COMMERCE. The exports are wood, fish, iron, copper, glass, alum, marble, kelp, dyeing lichens, pickled meat, hides, furs, feathers, oil, tar, and pitch. The imports are grain, wine, spirits, salt, and dry goods.

17. FISHERIES. These are largely carried on, and are very productive. They employ 80,000 men, and produce yearly 1,500,000 dollars. Vaage is the central point of the Northern fisheries. The herring fishery is not so productive as formerly.

18. DIVISIONS, POPULATION, &c. Norway is divided into 4 Bailiwicks, Aggerhuus, Christiansand, Bergen and Drontheim. The population by the census of 1827, was 1,052,132. The revenue is 1,597,217 dollars. The military force is about 12,000 men.

is

19. INHABITANTS, MANNERS, &c. The inhabitants of Norway are hardy and robust, and the women, like those of Sweden, are many of them beautiful. The dress is plain, and generally of a stone color, with white metal buttons and red buttonholes. Furs are much worn in winter. The language has an affinity with the Danish and Swedish. The usual food of the peasants milk, cheese, and fish. Flesh and oat-bread, made hard as in Sweden, are more rare. In times of scarcity the bark of fir trees is mixed with the oat meal. A common soup is made of oat meal or barley meal, seasoned with a pickled herring or salted mackerel. The Norwegians, like the Swedes, are much addicted to the use of spirits, though without suffering the injurious effects produced by intemperance, in warmer climates. The use of tobacco is general. The people are far more sprightly than the Danes, and it would not be easy to find a nation more cheerful than the Norwegians. They are

brave, energetic, and patriotic. The peasants are frank and hospitable, and have great independence. Their mode of salutation, even to superiors, is by shaking hands, and this is the way also in which they return thanks for a favor.

The Norwegians have some of the amusements common in Sweden, and they delight also in recounting tales of their ancestors, which in their social meetings they often do, by turns.

Skating upon the snow is a practice very common in this country. The skates are made of wood and are very large. The snow is frozen so hard that the skaters pass over it as swiftly as upon ice. At Drontheim is a regiment of soldiers called skate-runners. They carry a rifle, sword and a long climb

ing staff, shod with iron. They go two or three hundred paces apart, and move so swiftly that no cavalry can approach them.

Without a great many establishments for education, the people nevertheless are not illiterate, and there are few peasants who cannot read and write. There are two seminaries for the instruction of teachers. There are many itinerant schoolmasters, who stay in a hamlet about two weeks at a time. There is not much national literature; and mathematics is the favorite study.

The religion is Protestant, and there are some vestiges of paganism. At funerals a violin is played at the head of the coffin, and questions, as in various countries, are addressed to the corpse, the best part of which is to ask pardon for having injured or offended the deceased during life.

20. GOVERNMENT. Norway is united to the Swedish crown, and gov erned by a viceroy. It is however so far independent that the finances, legislation, and administration, are distinct. The Stoerthing is the representative assembly. The press is entirely free.

21. HISTORY. The early inhabitants of Norway were probably a tribe of the Finns, the ancestors of the modern Laplanders, who were conquered and driven out by the Goths. In the 9th century the country was divided into ten or twelve small states, which were formed into one nation by Harold Har fager. It was repeatedly conquered by the Swedes and Danes in the 10th, 11th and 13th centuries. In 1380 it became, by marriage of the king, an appendage to the crown of Denmark, in which state it remained up to the present century. It was arbitrarily wrested from Denmark by the allied pow ers and transferred to Sweden in 1814, as a reward to that power for joining the confederacy against France.

CHAPTER LXXXII. — SWEDEN.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Sweden is bounded northwest by Norway, east by Russia, the gulf of Bothnia, and the Baltic, south by the Baltic, and west by Norway and the Cattegat. It lies between 56° and 70° N. lat. and 10 and 19 E. lon. Its greatest length is 1,200 miles; and its greatest breadth 350. It contains 172,189 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The principal mountains are found in the chain which separates Sweden from Norway. Mount Swucku is the highest of this chain. Kinekulle, on the banks of the lake Wener, consists of a number of terraces rising one above another. Raetrik, another mountain, is estimated to be 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. One of the highest glaciers in Sweden occurs in the southern part of Lulea Lapmark, and has been long regarded by the superstitious natives with awe, being denominated in the Lapponean language, Sulitelma, or the Hill of God.' It forms three peaks of the respective altitudes of 5,760, 5,870 and 6,178 feet.

3. RIVERS. The principal river is the Dahl, which rises in the mountains between Sweden and Norway, and, after a course of 260 miles, falls into the gulf of Bothnia. The rivers Göta and Motala are the outlets of the lakes Wener and Wetter. The other rivers are the Tornea, the Kalix, the Lula, Piteä, Umeä and Angermanna.

4. LAKES. The largest lake is the Wener, which is 100 miles long and 60 broad. It contains several islands, and receives 24 rivers. The Wetter is about the same length, but nowhere exceeds 25 miles in breadth. It receives about 40 small streams. If the communication between the Wetter and Wener, now in progress, be executed, the German Ocean and the Baltic will be united, and the dangerous navigation through the Sound avoided. The Malar is 60 miles in length, by 18 in breadth, and contains a great number of small islands. The Hielmar is about 40 miles in length and 20 in breadth. 5. ISLANDS AND SEAS. Gothland, on the southeast coast of Sweden, forms, with some small islands surrounding it, a province, containing 766 square The island of Ocland in the Baltic is 70 miles in length, and 6 in breadth. It is almost barren, but has some large forests, which abound in deer, hares, and wild boars. Sweden is washed by two seas, the German Ocean, and the Baltic. The Baltic forms in the northwest the gulf of Bothnia.

miles.

6. CLIMATE. The cold of the winter in Sweden is intense. The spring is a rapid and constant alternation of rain, snow, and frost. The summer is short, but dry and pleasant; though from the great length of the days, and

the reflection of the sunbeams from the rocks and mountains, the heat is sometimes excessive. Autumn is the finest season.

7. SOIL. The soil is in general very bad, though there are some fertile spots. The greater part of Swedish Lapland is sterile, and covered with rocks, peats, or moss, and gravelly plains. There are a few tracts of soil tolerably good in the southern parts.

8. GEOLOGY. Most of the mountains are composed of granite, calcareous stone, and slate. The basis of the majority is granite, which is frequently found in large separate masses, rising to a considerable height.

9. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. The fir is the most common. Vast forests of pine, birch, poplar, and mountain-ash overspread many parts. The oak, beech, and elm flourish in the south. Fruit trees are not indigenous; but a variety of berries are produced, the most delicious of which is the rubus arcticus, which, when ripe, is superior in fragrance and flavor to the finest strawberries.

10. MINERAL SPRINGS. There are about 360 mineral springs in Sweden, among which the baths of Medevi, and the wells of Lokä Later, Rambösa, and Rottenby, are the most celebrated.

11. MINERALS. The mines of silver, copper, lead, and especially iron, constitute the chief wealth of this country. In 1738 a gold mine was discovered near Adelfors; but it is now nearly exhausted. The principal copper mines are in Dalecarlia. That of Falun has been worked upwards of 1,000 years; and produces from 1,425,000 to 1,500,000 lbs. copper annually. The iron mines at Dannemora, in Smaaland, produce the best iron in the world. They were discovered in 1438, and have no subterranean galleries, but are worked

in the open air like gravel pits. They consist of 12 excavations, the whole extent of which collectively is 760 feet in length, by 500 feet in depth. The mines belong to thirteen proprietors, who maintain 1,579 workmen. The noted mountain of Taberg, in Smaaland, is one entire mass of rich iron ore, 400 feet high, and 3 miles in circumference; and has been worked 200 years. There are rich mines of iron in other parts, which owing to the difficulties of transportation are not worked. Sweden likewise produces porphyry, rockcrystal, cobalt, alum and antimony.

12. ANIMALS. The wild animals of Sweden are wolves, bears, beavers, elks, reindeers, foxes, hares, and squirrels. The Swedish wolves are not so fierce as those which infest the southern parts of Europe. In winter the foxes and squirrels become gray, and the hares as white as snow. About 300 species of birds are found in the country. The rivers and lakes abound in fish.

13. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. Sweden is intersected with numerous marshes, hills, and lakes; and beyond the 60th degree appear vast tracts of wild and uninhabited land, approximating as we proceed northwards to the sterility and bleak aspect of the polar districts. Nature in various places presents the wildest and most sublime features; but in general the scenery is uniform. The coasts surrounding the Bothnian gulf and the Baltic are bold and rugged, indented with numerous bays, and stretching out into imposing promontories.

14. DIVISIONS. Sweden may be divided into three parts, viz. northern, southern, and middle Sweden; which are subdivided into 26 laens. The ancient divisions were Gothland, Lapland, Norland, and Sweden Proper Northern Sweden is also divided into districts called Lapmarks.

15. CANALS. The canal of Trollhatta opens a communication between the North Sea and Lake Wener, by forming a new channel where the Gōta is rendered innavigable by cataracts. Lake Mälar is united with the Hielmar by the canal of Arboga, with the Bars by the canal of Stromsholm, and with the Baltic by the canal of Sodertelge.

16. Towns. Stockholm, the capital, is situated at the junction of the lake Mälar with an inlet of the Baltic. It stands upon seven small rocky islands, beside two peninsulas, and is built upon piles. A variety of picturesque views are formed by numberless rocks of granite rising boldly from the surface of the water, partly bare and craggy, partly dotted with houses, or adorned with gardens and trees. The central island is bordered by a stately row of buildings, the residences of the principal merchants. It contains the palace and other public buildings; but the houses being high, and the streets narrow, its appearance is somewhat gloomy. The number of bridges, great and small, in this capital, is 13. At a short distance from the royal palace stands a fine statue of Gustavus III. in bronze, on a pedestal of polished porphyry. The city has likewise an arsenal, a mint, an exchange, and two theatres. The harbor is deep and capacious, though difficult of access; a thousand sail of shipping may lie here in safety, and the largest vessels can approach close to the quay. Pop. 78,000.

Upsala, formerly the metropolis of Sweden, is situated on an extensive plain, upon the small stream Fyrisa. In the centre is a square, from which the streets extend in straight lines. This town is famous for its beautiful cathedral and for its university, which has a library of 40,009 volumes. Pop. 5,000.

Gothenburg or Gottenburg, near the mouth of the river Göta, has a circumference of three miles. It is regularly fortified, and in the upper part of the town, the streets rise above each other like an amphitheatre. Some of the modern buildings are of brick, but the greater number are of wood, and painted red. The harbor is spacious and the commerce considerable. Pop. 25,000.

and

Carlscrona, on a bay of the Baltic, is the station of the Swedish navy, has a harbor which is defended at its entrance by two strong forts. It is celebrated for its docks, which are separated from the town by a high wall, and one of which is cut out of the solid rock. Pop. 13,800.

Oerebro, at the western extremity of lake Hielmar, carries on an extensive iron trade. Pop. 3,400.

Malmoe, exactly opposite Copenhagen, contains about 5,000 inhabitants, and possesses some commerce, though the harbor is bad.

Falun, 160 miles north of Stockholm, is remarkable for its extensive cop per mines. The number of forges here give the town a very sombre appear. ance. Pop. 4,700.

Gefle, on the gulf of Bothnia, is a well built town, with some foreign com merce. Pop. 10,000.

17. AGRICULTURE. Much attention has been paid to agriculture, and the peasants are very industrious; but owing to the deficiency of the soil, they are hardly able to raise enough grain for home consumption. Corn, rye, oats,