is covered with rocks, peats or moss, and gravelly plains. There are a few tracts of soil tolerably good in the southern parts.

Vegetable Kingdom.] As to fruits, they are by no means plentiful in Sweden; and beyond Gefle, no fruit-trees appear. Farther north, the beech disappears; oaks become scarce; and firs, pines, junipers, and birches, are the only trees which endure the cold. Even these, at a higher latitude, become stunted; till the dwarf birch, the hardiest of all, disappears in the Alpine region of Lapland, a little below the line of perpetual snow. Sweden is, however, by no means deficient in forests; and excels Norway in the variety, number, and size of leafy trees, particularly in Wermeland, and the south, where are vast forests of oak, beech, elm, and other deciduous trees; but these are still less common than firs and lofty pines. Aspens, limes, pears, and poplars, are only found in Schonen. The comparatively low situation of the whole tract to the south and east of Wener Lake, when contrasted with the lofty plains of Norway, is the cause of this superior abundance of leafy trees. The botany of Sweden has been ably illustrated by the learned Linnæus, the celebrated father of that science. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, pease, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, flax, hemp, hops, and tobacco, are greatly cultivated in Sweden. The fir is the most common tree in this country. The vegetable productions of Lapland are not numerous, but more various than might be expected. Wahlenberg enumerates and describes 1087 species of plants in Lapland. Fruit-trees are not indigenous; but a variety of berries are spontaneously produced, namely, black currants, raspberries, crawberries, juniper berries, bilberries, and the Norwegian mulberry, which grows upon a creeping plant, and is greatly esteemed as an antiscorbutic. The most useful native vegetables are sorrel, noted for its antiscorbutic properties; angelica arcangelica, highly relished as an article of food; and the lichen rangiferinous, or reindeer lichen, the chief food of that animal during winter, and which the Laplanders frequently boil in broth for their own use.5 Of the indigenous fruits, the most delicious is the berry of the rubus arcticus, which, when fully ripe, is said to be superior in fragrance and flavour to the finest strawberries. A small plateful fills an apartment with a more exquisite scent than the sweetest perfume, and it is preserved in Sweden as one of the finest sweatmeats. No agriculture is pursued in Lapland, except in a few sheltered vallies, and on the banks of the rivers in the southern districts. In some places, a plough of a peculiar construction is used in preparing the soil for the seed, on ground full of large stones; but generally the ground is dug by the labourer. The grain which grows best, and is chiefly sown in Lapland, is barley, or rather bigg; and oats have been raised on the high level of Enontekis. It is found that no grain will ripen in any district, where the average heat of the three summer months does not reach to 473° of Fahrenheit. From the commencement of the seedtime, to the end of harvest, seldom more than sixty days elapse, or from the end of May to the end of July. So rapid is the growth during the summer-season in Lapland, that Acerbi affirms himself to have seen, at Enontekis, the tobacco plant increase generally more than an inch in twenty-four hours.6

Hi Lichene obsiti campi, quos terram damnatam diceret peregrinus, hi sunt Lapponum agri, hæc prata eorum fertilissima, adeo ut felicem se prædicet possessor provinciæ talis sterilissimæ, atque Lichene obsitæ."-Flor. Lapp. p. 332. Amst. 1737.

The Finnish colonists in Lapland sow considerable quantities of turnip-seed, which frequently succeeds. The Finns have even introduced the cultivation of grain

Animals.] The Swedish zoology presents nothing remarkable. Beyond the 63d parallel, the common domestic animals of Europe cannot endure the climate, and the physical growth of man himself appears checked by the cold. Linnæus enumerates 1,400 species of organized beings in Sweden. The horses, like those of Norway, are generally small, but spirited. Those of Angermannland possess the utmost symmetry of limb and form. The cattle and sheep present nothing peculiar. The wool is pretty good, but the attempts to improve the breed have not succeeded. The rein-deer will be described under the article Norway. There are a few stags and roes, besides bears, foxes, lynxes, badgers, and lemmings. The increase of wolves throughout Sweden and Finland of late years, is one of the most remarkable events in the history of the country. The blue-throated warbler, or motacilla svecica of Lapland, is said to surpass the nightingale in the variety, harmony, and sweetness of its modulations and cadences. The snow ripa ptarmigan is very abundant in the northern districts. Several species of wild fowl which haunt the lakes are said to be peculiar to Sweden. Bees are found in the south districts. The plague of the northern districts is the swarms of flies and gadflies, which torment man and beast.

Minerals.] Sweden may be pronounced the parent country of modern mineralogy, having produced a number of illustrious names in that science; as Bergman, Cronstedt, Wallerius, Berzelius, and others. First in dignity, though not in profit, are the gold mines of Adelfors, in Smaland; but these mines are now nearly exhausted, the little they produce scarcely covering the expense. Gold also occasionally presents itself in beds of hornblende, in the mine of Basna, in the vicinity of Ryddarhytte. Native gold is also found at Swappavara, in Torneo Lapmark. Silver mines exist in several parts of Sweden; but the quantity of this metal furnished by Sweden is inferior to that produced by Norway. The annual produce of silver from the mines of Sala is about 1700 lbs. It is for her mines of copper and iron that Sweden is chiefly famed. At one time, Sweden supplied almost the whole world with iron; but English iron, though of inferior quality, is now more universally used. The superiority of the Swedish iron arises from its being prepared with charcoal, in place of coal, as in England, as well as from the natural quality of the ore, which is a pure protoxide, so nearly in the metallic state as to be highly magnetic with polarity. The chief copper mines are in Dalarn or Dalecarlia. That of Falun is probably the most ancient mine in Europe, having been worked, it is said, upwards of a thousand years. The mines of Sala and Norberg yield lead and galena; the former pure antimony, and the latter molybdena. Cobalt is found at Basma; but in the richness and profusion of this article, Sweden is much behind Norway; while, on the contrary, it much exceeds Norway in the purity of the alum yielded by the works of Andrarum, in Schonen. Sweden is deficient in salt and coal. In Schonen, indeed, a mine of the latter mineral was discovered at the close of the last century, but nowhere else have indications of it been found. Green sand has also been found in Schonen. At Elfdalen, a village in Dalecarlia, 65 miles N. N. W. of Falun, very valuable quarries of porphyry were discovered in 1786, and have been wrought, ever since that period, on the same plan as the marble quarries in Italy. This porphyry, in point into the district of Alten, in Western Finmark, which may be considered as the most northern cultivation in the world.

of colour, is the finest that is known. Porphyry also appears in the mountain of Swukkhu.

CHAP. III-AGRICULTURE-MANUFACTURES-COMMERCEMONIES.

Rural Industry.] The surface of Sweden may be divided into three districts, viz. Northern, Middle, and Southern Sweden. The first of these possesses little or no agriculture,the scanty crop of barley and rye which is reared in it hardly supplying one half of the consumption. Here the peasants are obliged to mix their meal with a flour prepared from the bark of the pina sylvestris, or the roots of the cala palustris. Potatoes are cultivated in great quantities throughout Sweden, and used as a substitute for bread. Wine is manufactured from currants and gooseberries. In the southern and northern districts, a great quantity of cattle is reared. The fisheries afford a considerable source of wealth to Sweden. The cultivation of forest-timber employs a great many hands. If we reflect on the history of Sweden for the last three centuries, and the present state of property in that country, we cannot be surprised, that manufactures, agriculture, and trade, do not flourish there. The landed property is nearly all in the hands of the nobility: the generality of whom have neither industry, patriotism, nor enterprise, sufficient to induce them to struggle with the difficulties attending the infancy of improvement. In addition to this, there is also a great deficiency of capital for such improvements. Sweden is, however, rich in some products. Its exports in timber, wrought and unwrought, pitch, and oil, are very considerable; and its mines are very valuable.

Iron Mines, Manufactures, &c.] Iron is the principal mineral of Sweden. The chief mines are at Dannemora, and consist of 12 excavations. They were discovered in 1488, and furnish that iron so much valued in Britain, which is used in the manufacture of steel, and known by the name of Oregrund iron, because exported from Oregrund, a port near the junction of the Bothnian Gulf and the Baltic Sea. These mines have no subterranean galleries, but are worked in the open air, like gravel-pits. The whole extent of these twelve pits, collectively, is 760 feet in length, by 500 feet in depth. The gangart of the ore is a rich calcareous earth, containing very little sulphur, and yielding from 30 to 80, and even 90 per cent. and annually, 150,000 ship-pounds, or 60,000,000 lbs. The mines belong to thirteen proprietors, who maintain 1,579 workmen. In Wermeland and Nericia are numerous other iron mines; and the noted mountain of Taberg, in Smaaland, is one entire mass of rich iron ore, 400 feet high, and 3 British miles in circumference, and has been worked for upwards of 200 years back. Yet wondrous as this mass is, it is rivalled by a mountain near Tornea, wholly composed of iron. The fact is, that rich iron ores form the chief treasures of Lapland, but have hitherto turned to little account, as the ore must be conveyed by a land carriage of 46 English miles, with rein-deer, and in small Laplandish pulkers, and the furnaces cannot be erected near the mines for want of fuel. Even in the exportation of iron, which is here of superior quality, a considerable stagnation has taken place, in consequence of the extension of the iron works of England, where the abundance of coal, and the command of inland navigation, form more than a counterpoise to the cheap labour and

the wood fuel of Sweden. In 1815, the number of miners employed throughout the kingdom was 14,000. After iron, the other manufactures of Sweden are almost too inconsiderable to be mentioned. A little alum is exported to the harbours in the south of the Baltic, but the pottery, glass-works, silk-works, woollen manufactures, sugar-refineries, snuff and tobacco-works, are merely sufficient to meet the home-consumption In this, as in other poor countries, it is still common for the peasantry to make at home the clothing and utensils required for their family use. Copper Mine of Falun.] In 1650, when the produce of the Falun mine was highest, it yielded 2,500 tons, or upwards of 5,000,000 lbs. of copper. The annual average produce is now from 4000 to 5000 ship pounds, or from 1,425,000 to 1,500,000 lbs. copper. In the year 1817, the produce was 6,090 ship-pounds, or 2,314,200 lbs. The other copper The works produce 1,200 ship-pounds, or 456,000 lbs. of that metal. atmosphere of the town of Falun is almost intolerable to a stranger; and the timber of the buildings here are, in the course of a few years, found to be highly impregnated with copper,

Commerce.] Sweden, lying between two seas, is favourably situated for commerce. The Swedes are active and enterprising sailors, and conduct the greater part of their commerce themselves, besides being extensively employed in the mercantile navigation of other nations. The internal commerce is much impeded by the distance between their manufacturing towns. In general, commerce is concentrated in the metropolis, and the 23 harbours of the kingdom. The external commerce presents a real balance against Sweden. In 1816, the amount of imports was treble that of exports, so that ready money nearly disappeared from circulation. This occasioned a rigorous prohibition of almost every article of foreign produce. But the new system entirely failed in producing the beneficial effects expected to flow from it, and the result-as was to be expected-has only been to promote an importation of prohibited articles in an illegal manner: depriving the government of the benefit that might have arisen from a small duty, disseminating to a great extent the pernicious habit of smuggling, compelling the people to purchase the forbidden articles at an enhanced price, and putting the government to a great expense in supporting a coast-guard around the whole shores of the kingdom, The commerce of Sweden extended to Britain, Portugal, the Baltic, German and Mediterranean countries, the West Indies, North America, and China; but of later years most of the foreign companies have been dissolved, and only one, the East India Company, which sends a couple of ships annually to China, now remains.

States Bank.] The States bank of Stockholm owes its origin to Palmshut, a private merchant of considerable property. It was instituted for

The number of workmen at Falun is usually 1,200; one half of these being employed under ground as miners, the other half are at work above ground, roasting and smelting the ore, and making charcoal. The opening of the mine is extremely large, perhaps the largest in the world, being 1,200 feet in diameter, or near threefourths of an English mile in circumference; an immense chasm, gradually enlarged to its present state by successive excavations and frequent downfalls of the superincumbent rock. The chasm is descended by several flights of wooden stairs, to the entrance of the first subterraneous gallery. The descent thence is extremely commodious; not by ladders, as is usual in mines, but by steps cut in the rock, and sloping The so gently as to be practicable for the horses employed in bringing up the ore. galleries are from six to ten feet high, and sufficiently spacious. The perpendicular depth of the mine, from the top of the chasm to the first subterranean gallery, is 1,020 feet; and from thence to the bottom, which is full of water, 720 feet more; total depth, 1,740 feet.

the double purpose of lending and exchanging money. The bank was put under the direction of the States in 1688. In a short time, the credit and the wealth of the concern increased so much, that, before the conclusion of the century, the interest of loans was reduced to six per cent. and afterwards, in succession, to four and to three per cent. The interest upon borrowed money, in the meantime, fell from six per cent. to four and a half, three, and two per cent. During the reign of Adolphus Frederic, the number of notes which had been issued was very great; and the kingdom, at the same time, was so much drained of its coin, that the bank found it impossible to exchange its notes in any other way, than by copper money. To prevent a failure in 1766, the States voted a loan of £750,000. The bank is divided into two branches, or departments, called the Laene, or loan bank, and the Wexel, or exchange bank. These keep their accounts entirely separate from each other, but supply each other's wants when necessary. The loan bank issues money to individuals on mortgages or pledges. For gold and silver in block, or in the state of bullion, for copper, brass, and certificates of having lent money to the bank, the proprietors receive the full value, for which an annual interest is paid of three per cent. For iron, the proprietors receive threefourths of its value, at the same interest. When houses or lands are mortgaged, six per cent. is paid on the sum borrowed; of this four per cent. is considered as the interest, and the remaining two per cent. is applied to the gradual reduction of the debt. Jewels, which were formerly received as pledges, are now refused, not only because the bank is liable to be imposed upon by counterfeits, but because the value of such articles is continually fluctuating. The bank of exchange issues banknotes, and exchanges them, discounts bills, receives the money deposited for interest or security, and discharges an interest of two per cent. on all deposites.

Monies.] Payments are made in dollars, schillings, and stivers; but in Sweden and Norway the value of the two latter coins is very different. In Norway a schilling is the lowest coin, and answers to our half-penny; a stiver is equal to a penny In Sweden, schillings answer to our pence, and stivers, to our farthings. All small sums are reckoned in stivers, and instead of saying e. g. 'four schillings,' they would say, 'sixteen stivers. A silver dollar equals eight-pence; and there are 6 in a rix-dollar note. The only gold coin is the ducat, which is equal to 2 rix-dollars. The whole amount of copper money in circulation, and which forms almost the only medium, is estimated at 500,000 rix-dollars. The paper money has only a very precarious credit. The amount in circulation in 1817 was estimated at 30,000,000 of rix-dollars. Measures.] The Swedish ell, which is divided into 2 feet or 24 inches, is equal to 23.36 English miles. The Swedish mile comprehends 18,000 ells, or 36,000 English feet nearly, being 10 to a degree.

CHAP. IV.-INHABITANTS-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

Swedes.] I. SWEDEN is inhabited by three nations, viz. The Swedes, who form the majority of the inhabitants, and are the descendants of a Germano-celtic tribe, related to the Normans and Danes, but divided into three other tribes, viz. Swedes, Eastrogoths, and Westrogoths. Their language is a Germano-Gothic dialect, which bears considerable