84 Prof. Hausmann 07i the Physiognomy of Scandinavia. 



Some low-lying parts of Sweden are not much better than the 

 above desert tracts, viz. certain districts in Smaland. This pro- 

 vince, which is of pretty considerable extent, consists partly of 

 hills formed of boulder stones ; these no doubt have been borne 

 along and heaped up there by means of floods, and perhaps with 

 the aid of ice. They oppose vegetation in a great degree. Scots- 

 firs, spruce-firs, and birches, of inconsiderable growth, press 

 themselves forward, here and there, between the masses of rock. 

 But not a blade of grass can thrive on account of the want of 

 soil. When the industrious peasant of Smaland wishes to cul- 

 tivate for himself a field, this often can only be done by means 

 of the sacrifice which he makes of his timber. He cuts down 

 the woods, and burns the branches, or even the trunks likewise, 

 that he may afterwards sow among the ashes. This produces 

 for him, twice in succession, a tolerably rich harvest, after which 

 he resigns the desert spot to kind nature again, which gradually 

 sows it with birches *. 



If both Sweden and Norway, especially in their high northern 

 latitudes, possess wide tracts, in which Nature loses all her 

 charms, still, however, this want is much counterbalanced by 

 the great attractions of the remaining parts of those countries. 

 It can be justly asserted that northern Europe, no less than the 

 southern parts of the same, affords us much occasion to admire 

 the varied beauties with which the Creator has clothed our earth. 

 The vesture of the north is in general indeed simple ; but it is 

 from this very circumstance that its peculiar physiognomy is 

 given to it, the most prominent features of which are severity 

 and^dignity. 



• This practice, so wasteful of timber, and which can be employed only in 

 a land which is so blessed with forests, is found in other parts, especially in 

 the more northern regions of Sweden, as well as here and there in Norway. 

 A field which is thus cultivated — over which the corn does not grow equally, 

 but rather in heaps, where the ashes have been collected between blocks of 

 stone — is called in Sweden Svedjelandy and the operation by means of which 

 this waste land is cultivated, is called Svedjande. 



