GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS. 9 



owing to the nature of the country j the environs of many 

 are picturesque in the extreme. 



The Swedish villages are generally ugly, and never built 

 with any regularity. As everything must be kept under 

 cover during winter, we never in the middle or north of the 

 country see a well-filled stack-yard or a good straw-yard. 

 The farm-houses are stuck here, there, and every where 

 without any regularity, the outhouses often in a dilapidated 

 condition, and so many buildings attached to each farm-house 

 that two or three will almost form a small village of them- 

 selves. The churches, generally large, often standing far 

 from the village, are usually painted clean white : and in 

 the winter when the whole landscape is buried beneath a 

 sheet of snow, a northern village has a most chilling ap- 

 pearance. 



Some of the wooden churches are very curious, and 

 the old belfry with its single bell (or clock as they call it 

 here) is often detached. In each northern burial ground is 

 a dead-house, where, during the winter all the corpses are 

 deposited till they can break the ground to dig the graves 

 in the spring. 



Sweden is divided into three great lands and twenty- 

 four provinces : 



Swedish 

 square miles. 



1 . Swea Eike, or Middle Sweden, with an 



area of 954 



2. Gota Land, or South Sweden . . 844 



3. Norrland, or North Sweden . . . 2070 



3868 



Swea Rihe is divided into six provinces Upland, Loder- 

 manland, Westmanland, Nerike, Wermland, and Dalecarlia. 

 This is the richest land in Sweden both for iron and timber. 

 The scenery of this district is magnificent. 



Gota Land is divided into ten provinces Eastern Gotland, 

 Western Gotland, Smaland, Blekinge, Skane, Halland, Bohus 

 Land, Dalsland and the Islands of Aland and Gothland. 



