198 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



fection of water,' to muse, and gaze, and listen to this 

 song without words, this symphony of the vast con- 

 tinuous wave. There were sawmills here in Linnaeus's 

 day, so the aspect of the place is virtually unchanged 

 for us. Then move lower down alongside the hysteric, 

 broken, trembling river to the Toppo Island, which is a 

 good point for viewing the great Gullo Fall. 



There is a slender bridge leading across to the Toppo 

 Island, which was not here in Linnasus's time or he 

 might have changed his mind about Trollhatta. It is 

 a grand point of view, this island centre of an eternity 

 of foam. What a leak it is to the Venern, the melan- 

 choly Venern, ever weeping at Trollhatta ! It is a 

 mighty cistern that can stand such a drain unperceived ; 

 though of course its falling does not increase its volume 

 a river is a river whether tumbling or still. Seeing 

 this huge waste-pipe to the Venern only makes it the 

 more surprising that the livelier circulation of the 

 Vettern can be kept up by the Motala Eiver only. 



Below the tall spire of the picturesque, high-seated, 

 high-gabled Gothic church is a black cleft, through 

 which descends hissing and vanishing the Polhem's 

 Sluss, a true waterfall (the larger ones are cataracts, not 

 waterfalls), of small size but great power as a picture ; 

 and beyond the church, winding ever gently down- 

 wards, the way lies through delicious woods to many 

 points of view, each lovelier, it seems as we meet each 

 varying mass of moving crystal, than the last. 



But the gem of the whole region is the tiny { Fairy 



