Sweden, j 5 



tion, and towering over the pine forests which skirt their sides, are 

 tAe home of some few of the very rarer and wilder species, whose 

 habits are but httle known to us. 



Having now given a short description of the landscape and 

 general features of the country, we will say a few words on the 

 climate, natural products, agriculture, and field-sports of Scandinavia. 

 It is easy to guess that, from the causes above-named, the tempera- 

 ture of this country is subject to great variations — so much so, in 

 fact, that a man may here reside in three climates. It will not be 

 within our present limits to enter upon any description of Lapland ; 

 suffice it to say, that in the far north, where the Laplander leads a 

 wandering life, the reindeer are his only riches, and the culture of 

 the soil is not heeded. 



We may perhaps take the province of Norbotten, lying in 65° N. 

 latitude, as our northern agricultural limit, and here the farmer has 

 just three months to prepare his ground, sow his corn, let it grow, 

 and gather it into his barn. The summer here is of short duration y 

 but there is no night, and everything springs up by magic, as if to 

 make up for the long winter sleep. The best barley, however, 

 grows up at Calix, in 66° N., and the celebrated alsike clover comes 

 from a parish of that name near Upsala. The real Swedish turnip, 

 or, as it is called here, *^ Rotabaga," from a place in Dalecarlia, is 

 principally grown here in gardens for culinary purposes. Turnip- 

 growing for agriculture is as yet in its infancy here, and the prin- 

 cipal sorts which are grown for the cattle are the old-fashioned 

 white globe and yellow bullock ; but they are neither by any 

 means extensively cultivated. Of course in a country of such 

 extent and diversity of landscape we may expect as much change in 

 the climate as in the scenery 3 and the south, the middle, and the 

 north of Sweden have each a climate peculiar to itself. In the very 

 south it diifers little from that of the north of Scotland 3 the cold is 

 rarely very severe in winter ; the spring comes on at least a month 

 earlier than in the midland districts, and by the beginning of April 

 all the spring sowing is finished. The country is generally open, 

 and the woods have a true English character. The soil is often 



