472 



s \v.\X RIVER SWEDEN AND NOR \\.-\\. 



enemy, except the eagle, and in its battles with 

 this antagonist often comes off victorious. The 

 American wild swan breeds and passes the summer 

 in the Arctic regions, but on the approach of win- 

 ter, migrates to temperate climates. In the Atlantic- 

 states, it is hardly known east of the Chesapeake, 

 which seems to be a favourite resort during the 

 winter season. 



SWAN RIVER; a British colony, on the 

 \\i--tiTii coast of New Holland, established in 1829. 

 It is situated on Swan river, so called from the 

 great number of black swans seen upon it, which 

 empties into the ocean in lat. 32 16' S., Ion. 115 

 l i E. Several settlements have been formed, and 

 the soil is represented as fertile. Swan river was 

 explored for nearly sixty miles from its mouth, by 

 M. Bailly, mineralogist to the expedition of Baudin, 

 who found it to flow over calcareous rocks, through 

 a country covered with thick forests of gum trees. 

 At the point where his examination ceased, the 

 river was a third of a mile in width, with a slow 

 current. A group of islands opposite the mouth of 

 the river offers some roadsteads with safe anchorage 

 for large vessels. 



SWEABORG. See Sueaborg. 



SWEAT. See Perspiration. 



SWEATING SICKNESS, in medicine; a feb- 

 rile epidemic disease, of extraordinary malignity, 

 which prevailed in England, at different periods, 

 towards the end of the fifteenth century and the 

 beginning of the sixteenth, and spread very exten- 

 sively in the neighbouring countries, and on the 

 continent. It appears to have spared no age nor 

 condition, but to have attacked more particularly 

 persons in high health, of middle age, and of the 

 better class. Its attack was very sudden, produc- 

 ing a sensation of intense beat in some particular 

 part, which afterwards overspread the whole body, 

 and was followed by profuse sweating, attended 

 with insatiable thirst, restlessness, head-ache, deli- 

 rium, nausea, and an irresistible propensity to sleep, 

 together with great prostration of strength. The 

 patient was frequently carried off in one, two or 

 three hours from the eruption of the sweat. It 

 seems to have first appeared in the army of the earl 

 of Richmond, upon his landing at Milford haven, in 

 1485, and soon spread to London. This body of 

 troops had been much crowded in transport vessels, 

 and was described by Philip de Comines as the most 

 wretched that he had ever beheld, collected proba- 

 bly from jails and hospitals, and buried in filth. It 

 broke out in England four times after this, in 1306, 

 1517, 1528, and 1551. The process eventually 

 adopted for its cure, was to promote perspiration, 

 and carefully avoid exposure to cold. The violence 

 of the attack generally subsided in fifteen hours ; 

 yet the patient was not out of danger under twenty- 

 four hours. 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY, or, as the united 

 kingdoms are sometimes styled, even in official pa- 

 pers, SCANDINAVIA, form the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula, which is connected with the continent of 

 Europe by Lapland, and comprises 295,468, or, ac- 

 cording to some, 291,224 square miles. It extends 

 beyond the Arctic circle, stretching from 55 22' to 

 70 IT 30' N. lat., and is bounded by the North 

 sea and the Cattegat on the west and south-west ; 

 by the Baltic and the gulf of Bothnia on the east 

 and south-east ; its northern boundary is the Frozen 

 ocean; on the north-east, Norwegian and Swedish 

 Lapland border on Russian Lapland. The Paes, 

 and (since 1809) the Torneo and Muonio, here form i 



the separating line between Russia and Sweden. A 

 chain of mountains forms a natural division between 

 Norway and Sweden ; the highest summits are the 

 Syltop, 6079 feet high, and the Schneehiittan, 8337 

 feet high, in Sweden; and the Folgesonde, 5432 

 feet high, in Norway. The northern part forms the 

 Kjol or Kiel mountains, and southern, the Seve 

 mountains. The former terminates in the North 

 cape, the extreme northern point of Europe; the 

 latter is nearer the western than the eastern store, 

 whence the main streams are on the eastern decli- 

 vity, and flow partly into the gulf of Bothnia, and 

 partly into the Cattegat. It divides into three 

 branches; the Long Eja'lls (Langfield and Dofre- 

 h'eld), extending to cape Lindesness (Lindeniis), on 

 the North sea ; a second branch separating the Nor- 

 wegian basin of the Glommen from the Swedish 

 basin of the Gotha-Elf, and sinking down to the 

 Cattegat ; and a third dividing the sources of the 

 Clara, which, after flowing through lake Wener 

 (1100 square miles in extent), in Sweden, takes 

 the name of Gotha-Elf, from those of the Dal-Elt, 

 and stretching between lakes Wener and Wetter, 

 to the sound. The summits of the Scandinavian 

 mountains, from 67 to 70 N. lat., are masses of 

 barren rocks (Fjalls), covered, at the height of from 

 3900 to 2700 feet, with perpetual snow, and abound- 

 ing with steep precipices, frightful clefts, lakes, and 

 rapid torrents. The declivity towards the North 

 sea is extremely precipitous, and full of abrupt 

 crags and awful chasms. Nearer the eastern coast 

 lies lake Malar, fifty-five miles long, and from 

 twenty-three to twenty-seven miles broad, containing 

 1300 islands, whose waters are emptied into the 

 Baltic : lake Hielmar is connected with it. Lake 

 Wetter receives forty rivers, and empties itself 

 through the Motala into the Baltic. To Sweden 

 belong (Eland and Gothland, two fertile islands in 

 the Baltic. The Aland group, at the mouth of 

 the gulf of Bothnia, was ceded to Russia in 1809. 

 The coast, broken by numerous indentures (Fiords), 

 forms numerous holms or rocky islets (Stockholm, 

 for instance), and safe harbours, especially on the 

 shores of Norway ; on which the Saltstrom, a dan- 

 gerous strait, and the Maelstrom, a whirlpool, are 

 particularly remarkable. The climate of Sweden 

 and Norway, owing to the nature and elevation of 

 the country, is, with the exception of the southern 

 and western shores, dry and cold. Among the pro- 

 ductions are orchard fruit, corn (in inadequate 

 quantity, so that, in many places, the people mix 

 powdered fir-bark or moss with their corn meal ; in 

 the south of Sweden, however, the cultivation of 

 corn is increasing), potatoes, flax, hemp, hops, and 

 tobacco, which, however, thrive only in the south- 

 ern regions. In the north, the country is an almost 

 impenetrable forest of pines and firs, and dwarf- 

 birches, and abounds in deer, hares, elk, bears, and 

 wolves. Berries and reindeer moss only grow here. 

 Gluttons, lynxes, foxes, marmots, tame and wild 

 birds, are also found. The poverty of the pasturage 

 renders the horned cattle, goats, swine and sheep 

 small; though the breed of the latter has been 

 improved, since 1715, by the introduction of 

 English and Spanish rams. The reindeer is a 

 native of the north. (See Deer, and Lapland.') 

 The climate of Sweden is, on the whole, warmer 

 than that of Norway. On the coast, particularly 

 on the Cattegat, the herring fishery was, a short 

 time ago, of considerable importance. Seals, dol- 

 phins, and other fishes, are taken in plenty. The 

 mineral kingdom is rich. Gold occurs only in small 



