94 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



But before visiting Sweden, he must make up his mind to 

 moderate sport and to work hard for that. Considering the 

 wild nature of the country except right up in Lapland (and 

 my " Spring and Summer in Lapland" will tell him all about 

 the fauna and sporting capabilities of that land), Sweden is 

 very badly stocked with game, and this is solely owing to 

 the game laws being treated quite as nonentities, and there 

 being no regular gamekeepers to look after the game, except 

 just in the duck and snipe season. I never made what I call 

 a heavy bag in the country, others, however, I know have 

 done much more than myself. 



I will then suppose a man to have landed in Gothen- 

 burg without a friend, and without knowing a word of the 

 language. If he is a married man, and thinks of eventually 

 settling, let him by all means leave his wife and family at 

 home till he has taken one trip over by himself to recon- 

 noitre the land. He will get on well enough in Gothenburg, 

 where about every third man speaks English, nor will he 

 require any assistance till he conies right up into the country. 

 It will be very little use for him to remain in Gothenburg, 

 where living is as dear as in England, and very little sport 

 to be obtained at the present day, except by the residents 

 who have now all the shooting in their own hands, and are 

 exceedingly jealous of strangers. There is very little trout 

 fishing in the south of Sweden, and there are only two or 

 three salmon streams along the whole range of the southern 

 and south-eastern coast, and it is quite as difficult to get 

 leave to fish them as in England, so don't let the English 

 traveller fancy that he will be able to procure salmon fishing 

 in every part of Sweden. I refer him to my chapter on 

 Swedish sporting for further information on this point. 

 There certainly used to be, and perhaps, at times, still 

 is, fair duck and snipe shooting in the Gothenburg reed 

 beds, but now the shooting there is very strictly pre- 

 served by a kind of club ; besides, when an Englishman 

 leaves home he does not travel to meet Englishmen ; and I 

 think no town so undesirable a residence for an English- 

 man as a second-rate foreign one, where English customs 



