WASTGOTA RESA ROUND LAKE VENERN 175 



are. all stone-built and mostly faced with boards (for 

 the sake of warmth). The market in the new town is 

 the most considerable in the whole kingdom.' 



Thus it was in Linnaeus's time busy Lidkoping, 

 with its cobweb of telephones binding its houses and 

 wharfs, its old and new towns together. It seems as it 

 all the life of these Scandinavian towns were concentred 

 in the telephone-offices. 



'In 1736 a spring burst out on the north-east side 

 of the market, taking its course by the south side and 

 running into the lake. This spring was over two 

 Swedish inches broad, and ran under a great tree in 

 the market which it so loosened that it fell. Many 

 believed that an earthquake caused the flow of this 

 spring. 1 The Lida River has lately grown much wider 

 than formerly. The Venern is not each year the same 

 height. The wind blows the shore-sand deeply into the 

 town. This sand is of light quartz with black grains 

 intermixed.' They fence off the encroachments of the 

 sand now with reeds and willows ; still one's chief 

 impression is one of grit. Shun of all things a windy 

 day at Lidkoping. 



On the long breakwater leading to the lighthouse 

 the young men of the place amuse themselves by fishing 

 in the ' melancholy Venern ' ; neither they nor the sport 



1 There is no record that the Lisbon earthquake nineteen years 

 later (1755) caused a fresh flow of this spring, though the Mjosen 

 Lake in Norway at that time rose suddenly twenty feet and fell 

 back again almost instantly to its level. 



