THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OF SWEDEN. 13 



inches. As Mr. Strom is perfectly acquainted with the average rate of growth of 

 the oak in different kinds of soil in this country^ and has cnt down some in the neigh- 



Fig. 8. 



a. The fishing-house. b. The lower oak. c. Ancient site of the small cabin for fishing-tackle. 



rf. The Husar Wiken. 



bouring grounds which could be shown by their rings of annual increase to be more 

 than six hundred years old, I consider his opinion as worthy of full confidence. This 

 gentleman showed me an ancient plan in which the Fiskartorp and both the oaks 

 were laid down ; as also a small cabin, which, in the time of Charles XL, who died 

 in 1697, was placed between the lower oak and the lake. It was not a boat-house, 

 but had been merely used for preserving the oars and fishing-tackle. Being in a 

 state of great decay in 1824, it was removed by Mr. Strom. Now it is improbable 

 from what is known of the habits of the oak in this country, that the lower oak grew 

 close to the water's edge originally ; and if its base be now only eight feet above the 

 mean level of the lake, it is clear that the rise in each century must have been very 

 slight, although it may undoubtedly have amounted to ten inches in a hundred years, 

 which would accord with the estimate of the best-informed scientific men in Swe- 

 den, in regard to the gradual rate of the rise of land at Stockholm. Professor John- 

 ston appears to have confounded the cabin, which has been removed, with the Fiskar- 

 torp, which is still standing, the latter having been frequently repaired, as a memo- 

 rial of Charles XI. ; for Mr. Johnston states, that " the fishing-hut formerly stood 

 close by the deep water, though no longer near any spot where the favourite amuse- 

 ment of the monarch can be enjoyed*." 



Even the lower cabin did not stand near deep water so lately as a century and a half 

 ago, but appears by the ancient plans to have been nearly as remote as now from the 

 shallow Husar Wiken. I fully agree, however, with Professor Johnston, that it ap- 

 pears clear from ancient documents and tradition, that the three lakes Husar, Ladu, 

 and Uggel, which together formed, in the time of Charles XI., what was called the 

 Gulf of Fiskartorp, have since grown much shallower, and have been in part con- 

 verted into land ; a change which may perhaps have been due, in part at least, to a 

 slight general upheaving of the whole country. But although I do not dissent from 

 Mr. Johnston's general proposition, I ought to mention here that I consider another 

 of his proofs derived from the neighbourhood of Stockholm as altogether untenable. 

 Speaking of the Bruns Wiken, a beautiful lake in the northern suburbs of the city 

 which skirts the woods and pleasure-grounds of the palace of Haga, (see Map, fig.7-j) 



* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. 29.. p. 39. 



