Rock-Carvings of Boluislan 37 



recording history breaking over the lands of tlie north. 

 Arid, strange to say, in the above-qnoted passage our 

 author places on record one of the things by which the 

 north was destined to make itself most famous in the 

 history of the world. These Suiones (Swedes) were, we 

 see, already a seafaring people ' rich in ships.' ISTay, we 

 have other independent proof that, for as many as five 

 hundred years before Christ, six hundred years before 

 Tacitus put on record what he had gathered concerning 

 Scandinavia, there was an art of shipbuilding known 

 in these countries. Let the traveller who has leisure, 

 and desires in his travels to see all kinds of Scandi- 

 navian scenery, if he has begun his tour by going first 

 to Sweden, and has explored its placid beauties before 

 turning to the more exciting ones of Norway, turn 

 aside to visit one of the countries in the southern bulge 

 of Sweden, just that part which escapes the notice of 

 the great majority of travellers. This is Bohusliin, 

 which lies between Gotteborg and Christiania, and is 

 passed by the steamers which ply between these ports. 

 The country is flat and tame, but it is not unsought by 

 the Scandinavians themselves, who think that there is 

 something specially salubrious in the air of this coast. 

 The flat scenery and the many windmills of this region 

 remind one somewhat of Holland. To the historian the 

 most interestinf'- things in Bohuslan are the remains 

 which lie scattered up and down it of a very remote 

 antiquity. There are many Stone-Age chambered 

 tombs in this region ; and more interesting than all 

 remains of this kind are certain carvings on rocks 

 which the northern antiquaries pronounce to date from 

 an age not less remote than B.C. 500. The majority ol' 



