UPSALA 93 



cine and natural history ; and, regardless of the fact of 

 his bread depending on the name he might win in the 

 regular line of study, he revelled in all the gratifica- 

 tions of intellectual luxury. Life was one sparkling 

 delight. 



His was a ( bright, healthy, loving nature, enjoying 

 ordinary innocent things so much that vice had no 

 temptation for him.' Chief among his enjoyments 

 we know it from his remarks in after life was to sail 

 up and down the river to the Almare Staket, where an 

 arm of Lake Malar narrows itself into a more river- 

 like branch, until it actually becomes the Fyrisa" River, 

 flowing through Upsala. 1 The Malar resembles a great 

 sea-anemone, with arms in all directions, only that 

 these arms have other arms, and so ad infinitum : a 

 deeply pinnate fern-leaf is a more exact comparison. 

 To sail through the Malar is like seeing theatrical 

 scenery unfolding as the capes and islands retire and 

 disclose other islands, and beauties of lake and shore. 



The Almare Island, with the ruined castle of St. 

 Erik's Borg, stands in the middle of the strait or Staket, 

 where a swing-bridge lets the boat pass into the long 

 and sleepy Skarfven, as this arm of the lake is called ; 

 the shores are lined with gambrel-roofed cottages set 

 in foliage ; boats, fishing-nets, and good agriculture 

 enliven the soft and soothing landscape. Then comes 

 the red-roofed town of Sigtuna, which has gone so com- 

 pletely to sleep these last seven hundred years, that 

 1 There are no lakes immediately by Upsala. 



