Sweden. 7 



general reader can then be enabled to form an idea of the character 

 of this wide-stretched land of " flood and fell." 



Scarcely another country in Europe possesses so many attractions 

 to the naturalist as this ; for the varied nature of the landscape, 

 with so few inhabitants scattered over its surface, mark it as a fitting 

 home for such of the rarer species of quadruped and bird as delight 

 in solitude and retirement j whilst its vast extent of coast, its mag- 

 nificent rivers, and innumerable inland lakes, must render it one of 

 the greatest interest to the ichthyologist. Most of the larger and 

 wilder species of the European mammalia are to be met with in one 

 part or another of this immense continent. The elk finds shelter 

 in the midland forests, the reindeer on the northern fells j the bear, 

 the lynx, the glutton, and the wolf are no strangers in the northern 

 and midland districts -, and the marten-cat, the fox, and the squirrel 

 abound in every part of the country. Unfortunately the beaver is 

 now nearly extinct, and the only memento we have of this interest- 

 ing animal consists in an occasional deserted beaver-dam in some of 

 the wildest of the northern forests. Strange to say, the wild cat 

 is unknown here. 



It is on account of the country having so wide and varied a sur- 

 face that we find so manifest a difference in its fauna ; and this is 

 still further supported when we consider the nature of the land 

 open downs, deep forests, sandy flats, ironbound rocks, and, in the 

 very north, snow-covered fells. These last must exercise a great in- 

 fluence on the fauna of the north, for every species of animal must 

 have its limit from the region of perpetual snow. Nilsson, with his 

 usual acumen, divides Scandinavia into separate regions for different 

 animals and plants. Beginning from the very top of the fells, and 

 following by degrees in a southerly direction the tracts which lie 

 below them, we shall find that certain species of animal as well as 

 plant are only to be met with on the highest fells, among perpetua 

 snow-drifts j 'and also that other species are met with only in those 

 tracts far removed from the fells themselves j and this will hold 

 good whether we divide these regions in a vertical or horizontal 

 direction with this difference, that the regions in the latter are 



