TOUR IN SKANE 273 



We, who have no such reason for desperate haste, 

 m;ty linger on the road and enjoy at our ease what is 

 really one of the most charming journeys to be made 

 in South Sweden. The most interesting portion of 

 the Gotha Canal, superior even to the grand engineer- 

 ing works by Trollhatta, lies between Norsholm and 

 Motala. Here I did not follow Linnaeus's actual path, 

 for I had travelled before through the pleasant parklike 

 scenery, by Flen, with the lilied river winding through it ; 

 the foliage diversified by beech trees feathering among 

 red-lichened rocks, and occasional oak trees, &c. with 

 bracken fronds arabesquing the ground. One seldom 

 sees oaks in Sweden so large as they are here. 



Though we in England hear a good deal about the 

 Gotha Canal, at Norrkoping no one seems to know much 

 about it. It is like asking at Paddington for a lift to 

 Bristol by the barge. People would hardly understand 

 you. The canal is a company apart ; it knows its 

 own internal arrangements, at least it does so at the 

 great termini, Stockholm and Gothenburg ; but the 

 Swedish outer world is not interested in them. One 

 must go to Norsholm and join the Gotha Canal there. 

 The train we came in was, of course, waiting there 

 for us. Norsholm is not a town, only a railway- 

 station at the junction of the Motala River with the 

 canal. At Norsholm the most sublime ignorance 

 reigns as to the movements of the boats. The fair 

 maiden at the Kanal Kontor did not gain her post by 

 competitive examination ; it was her beaux yeitx won 



VOL. II. T 



