WASTGOTA RESA ROUND LAKE VENERN 197 



strata are set on end, completely vertical, and crested 

 with firs : orchards and cottages nestle in the under- 

 cliff. Some wildly-contorted laminated strata are cut 

 through in the rock just opposite Trollhattan Station. 

 How the hills must have danced and leapt in those days 

 of battle of the heat and cold when the eruptive rocks 

 were suddenly chilled by the ice of the glacial period ! 



The scenery grows still wilder and as if something 

 prodigiously fine were hidden behind it. And there 

 is too ; only we must pass these streets of red-painted 

 houses first. Take nothing in your hand ; just pass on 

 fancy-free ; you are sure to come upon something to 

 rejoice in. Cross the bridge, or bridges, and you will 

 see what it took the great mind of LinnaBus to look 

 upon as toys. Just, now I am thankful to be smaller- 

 minded ; it seems the happier state. 



From the gallery of a house belonging to a saw- 

 mill the first recognised point of view we come to 

 shows us the grand first sweep of the river over the pre- 

 cipice ; while still a river it begins its helpless struggle 

 with fate. The broad smooth wave of water is trans- 

 formed as by some swift chemical change from green 

 glass into snow ; one waits expecting to see the volume 

 cease falling ; it looks impossible the great river should 

 empty itself over the precipice all day and all night and 

 never stop, get tired, nor be run out exhausted. But 

 no : it goes on, ever falling, raging on, with an energy 

 unquelled by four thousand years. 



' You are shut in, left alone with yourself and per- 



