Sweden. 32 



but the land of course lies low, and as the farmers are as slovenly 

 with their dyking and banking as they are with their other farm 

 operations, thousands of acres of land are wasted, and thousands of 

 bushels of corn lost by sudden rises of the Wenern, though they 

 might be all saved by a little management and judicious applica- 

 tion of capital. The edges of the lake are bounded with large 

 flats of coarse meadow land, beyond which rocky forests, rising all 

 around, form a grand natural panorama. Just out of Wenersborg, 

 to the right, are two singular mountains, Halle and Hunneberg, 

 rich in old Scandinavian lore, while half way up the Wenern the 

 beautiful mountain of Kinnekulle, rising about 800 feet above the 

 surface of the lake, forms an imposing object in the distant land- 

 scape. In many places the Wenern is studded with little rocky 

 isles, some of them well timbered, which, as well as the extensive 

 reed-beds on the sides of the lake, afford safe and undisturbed 

 haunts for the numerous waterfowl that visit these regions in the 

 spring for the purpose of breeding. We have said that the Wenern 

 is considerably higher . than the sea, and at Trolhattan, about six 

 English miles below Wenersborg, the Gotha dashes over a pre- 

 cipice about 1 20 feet high, divided into five falls, through a narrow 

 channel between the massy rocks which beetle over the foaming 

 waters of the falls themselves, and the dark pools that lie at the 

 bottom of each. Of course these falls proved a stopper to the 

 navigation of the Wenern ; but the difficulty was at length sur- 

 mounted, and a canal was hewed out of the solid rock parallel 

 with the river, and fitted with sluices, up which the ships gradually 

 " walk " from the bottom to the top, and vice versa. The scenery 

 around the falls is picturesque in the extreme, but I have no doubt 

 we have much grander falls in the north than these. The canal 

 is, however, a stupendous undertaking, and a great triumph of art 

 over nature. Of course not even the gamest salmon can come up 

 the Trolhattan falls, consequently we never take a real sea-salmon 

 (Salmo salar) in the Wenern, although the sea-salmon, as well as 

 the bull-trout (S. Eriox) and the salmon trout (S. Trutta), all 

 come up from the sea to the very bottom of the falls. A few 



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