LUND UNIVERSITY 61 



fondness would reserve, and Wexio, which is mild as any 

 part of Sweden. He already felt traveller enough to in- 

 stitute comparisons. What ! pine and spruce-clad rocky 

 hills again ! From above it looked all one blue ocean 

 of meadowland. He stands on another shelf of native 

 gneiss rock, beyond the limits of the great moraine, 

 which forms a shield to the fertile Scanian level. The 

 boulders of the moraine are chiefly granite, the under- 

 lying native rock is either gneiss or limestone. The 

 granite has a good smooth fracture which adapts it for 

 walls, bridges, and the cyclopean foundations of the 

 houses. 



It is softer, prettier country now, with fine rich earth 

 too, and pigs in plenty and brown cows, and beech as 

 well as birch woods at Tjorna.rp a sign to Linnaeus that 

 he had come far south, for the beech was rare up in his 

 country and a foliage-fringed lake. The lakes run 

 through Sweden like necklaces of pearls : no sooner is 

 one rounded than another rises ready on the string. 



Up hill and now down again among blue flowers. 

 There is still much moorland scenery, with rugged 

 wastes of heather and purling streams, and some un- 

 awakened water in still pools, and wheat just springing 

 in the well-sheltered patches of cultivation. Up and 

 down hill in reiterating succession, in long stretches 

 of both sorts, for this landscape comprises half a pro- 

 vince. Here it resembles some lowland Scotch or York- 

 shire scenery, a wild sierra region with beech and birch 

 woods intermingled with rushy swamps spangled with 



