and Public Libraries of Copenhagen. 125 



complete collection of even the most fugitive German and foreign 

 publications connected with these depavtments, than is any where 

 else to be met with. This HIirarv possesses a yearly revenue of 

 four thousand rix dollars ; vviiich is more tlian that of the Great 

 Library, and indeed than that of most of tlie public libraries of 

 Europe. 



In Copenhagen therefore there is no want of assistance from 

 books; and in this point of view it is worthy of the capital of 

 an extensive state. 



That the town is in general beautiful and well built, all travel- 

 lers are unanimous in stating; and of this we become soon con- 

 vinced. After every fire, which has consumed whole streets, 

 they have been always rebuilt more beautiful and \vide, and alto- 

 gether on a more convenient plan, so that the town bears in 

 many places no resemblance to what it was before 1728, 1794, 

 and 1S07. Another species of magnificence cannot fail to strike 

 the inhabitant of a flat country, which is little noticed in the 

 descriptions of Copenhagen. The streets are almost everywhere 

 at the sides paved vvitli large oblong granite flags, and many of 

 the canals are wholly lined with flags of a monstrous size. I 

 conjectured at first, that they had been brought from some quarry 

 in Norway; but I was assured by M. Wad that this inmiense 

 quantity was all derived from large masses on the coast of Zea- 

 land. This is a remarkable circumstance, and deserving of at- 

 tention. If so many large blocks are found in Zealand, they 

 must necessarily have made tlieir way over the sea ; for there 

 are no granite mountains in Zealand. In whatever manner 

 these blocks may have been driven over to Zealand, we may 

 easily conceive that they have been brought in the same manner 

 to Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Brandenburg. Large granite 

 and gneiss blocks are even seen on the smaller islands ; for in- 

 stance, there are many on Femoe at Laaland. These are still 

 further proofs that all the granite of the plains in the north of 

 Germany, however great the distance, has Ijeen torn from the 

 northern mountains, and not from the hills of Saxony or Si- 

 lesia. We are not in possession of facts sufficient to enable us 

 to develope the wonderful revolutions of nature, bv which this 

 may have been elfected ; but every observation brings us nearer 

 to the causes, and in a few years perhaps they may be disco- 

 vered. 



The Gymnasium in Christiania, wliich liears the modest ap- 

 pellation of school, may be mentioned with distinction as a public 

 establishment for education. Its merits are proved by the abili- 

 ties of the teachers, and the progress made by the scholars. It 

 nupplics to a certain extent the want of a university in Norway, 

 which has been so often vvarnily, but, however reasonably, always 



fruitlesaly. 



