gz Sweden. 



to cover a surface of 360 English square miles. It lies about i$o 

 feet higher than the sea, is fed by twenty-four tributary streams, 

 although its only outlet is through the Gotha, a river not so wide 

 as the Thames at Kingston. Its greatest depth is 360 feet, and 

 ships of a fair tonnage ply on its surface in the summer, bringing 

 down from the northern districts of Wermland and the Dalecar- 

 lian forests iron, timber, and corn to Gothenburg for export. The 

 Wsnern lies also on the summer high road from Gothenburg to 

 Stockholm, and at this season a line of communication is open 

 through the middle of Sweden by means of lakes and canals, and 

 travellers may run from one town to the other in about four days, 

 passing through a picturesque and beautiful country in small 

 steamers, which, for appointments, cleanliness, and cheapness are 

 second to none in the world ; their captains, being all " old salts," 

 speak and understand English well, so that on such an excursion 

 the tourist may dispense with the nuisance and charge of a courier. 

 The small but remarkably neat town of Wenersborg lies at the 

 southern extremity of the Wenern, and the clean, well-built little 

 town of Carlstad at the north ; and here the Clar, one of the 

 largest rivers in the middle of Sweden, empties itself into the 

 Wenern. The Clar rises far up in the Norwegian fells, and runs 

 through the wild forest districts of Dalecarlia and North Wermland. 

 A little distance to the north-east of Carlstad is another smaller 

 town Christineham ; Mariestad and Lidkoping stand on its 

 eastern shores, and Amal on its western. At any one of these 

 towns cheap and good accommodation may be had; but, as a 

 fishing station, I should recommend Christineham or Amal. In 

 addition to these towns, the margin of the lake is studded with 

 small villages and farms, while gentlemen's seats, peeping out of 

 avenues of lime and birch extending down to the very margin of 

 the lake, form pretty objects for the traveller's eye as he glides 

 over the glassy waters of the Wenern on a fine summer's morning. 

 As is always the case in the north, the land just round the lake is 

 of a far better quality than elsewhere ; and if it was only made the 

 most of, the farmers round the Wenern might soon be rich men j 



