CHAPTEE XXIII. 



The Skai-gdrd. — Wild Scenery. — Inhabitants. — Aquatic Birds. — The Gieat 

 Black-backed Gull.— The Common Gull.— The Caspian Tern.— The 

 Black Tern.— The Mallard.— Tlie Long-tailed Hareld.— Love has 

 its jjains. — The Eider Duck. 



ASKABGABD, or belt of islands, girds, in many 

 parts, both the eastern and western coasts of 

 Scandinavia. Such is the case both to the north and 

 south of the port of Gothenburg. Several of the 

 islands are pretty large, but by far the greater portion 

 inconsiderable in size ; for the most part, indeed, mere 

 Skiir, or naked rocks (hence tbe term " Skargiird") rising 

 but little above the surface of the water, and frequently 

 so diminutive as, in the distance, to look like the backs 

 of whales, or other monsters of the deep. Islands and 

 " skiir " together, they are as the sands of the sea in 

 number. "In places, large tunnels have been formed by 

 the waves in the dark fronts of the rocks, through which 

 the sea, during storms, rushes to and fro with a monoto- 

 nous and sullen roar, harmonizing well with the shrill cry 

 of the sea-mew, the sole requiem of the unburied bones 

 of the shipwrecked mariner, scattered along the coast, and 



