136 SCANDINAVIA. 



Stockholm, capital of the kingdom and the largest city in the p9ninsula, takes a 

 privileged place amongst the Swedish Baltic towns. It occupies both sides of a 

 channel connecting an inlet of the sea with the great Lake Millar, which ramifies 

 into numerous hays for about 60 miles inland, is navigable throughout for 

 lio-ht craft, and waters one of the most fertile districts in the country. Here are 

 vast forests of fine timber, rich iron and other mineral deposits, and excellent 

 sites for the construction of trading towns. In the early days of Scandinavian 

 history other sites besides Stockholm had been chosen as the capitals of the Svear 

 kingdom, and all had flourished. The first, Bjorko, formerly Birka, built on an 

 island in the lake some 2i miles west of Stockholm, is still a vast necropolis. 

 Of its two thousand graves many have been found to contain coins of the eighth 

 to the eleventh century, Byzantine and Kufic pieces, and even African cowries, 

 all indicating extensive foreign relations. To Bjorko succeeded Sigtuna, Upsala, 

 and other places, still important cities. But towards the middle of the thirteenth 

 century Birger Jarl, Begent of Sweden, wearied of the piratical incursions pene- 

 trating to the interior of the lake, planned the fortification of the fishing islet in 

 the middle of the channel communicating seawards. On this unique site rose 

 Stockholm, unrivalled for five centuries in the peninsula, and one of the most 

 picturesque cities in Europe. 



The projecting seaboard where the lake drains to the Baltic is a natural centre 

 for all Sweden ; hence, as from the focus of a semicircle, radiate all highways, 

 followed at all times by migrations and armies marching inland. Of these 

 historic routes the chief is that which follows the depression of the great lakes 

 from Malar to the mouths of the Gota. Through it Stockholm commands the 

 ports of the Kattegat, and even in winter, when the Baltic is ice-bound, it can thus 

 keep up its commercial relations with the open Atlantic. The very form of the 

 Baltic secures to the capital great advantages as a maritime city, forming as it 

 does off this coast a sort of crossway leading northwards through the Gulf 

 of Bothnia, sovithwards to Germany by the main basin, south-eastwards by 

 the Gulf of Riga to Curland and Livonia, eastwards by the Gulf of Finland 

 direct to the great Bussian lakes. Stockholm has retained and developed all 

 its commercial advantages, but its strategical importance has been completely 

 neutralised since the foundation of the new Russian cupital at the mouth of the 

 Neva. 



The Swedish capital is one of the fairest cities in the world, viewed especially 

 of a summer evening when the setting sun gilds the façades of its palaces, and 

 casts a long and quivering streak of fire across its flowing waters. Its buildings 

 are raised and its quays developed on so many islands and peninsulas, that it 

 presents fresh aspects with every varying view ; but it remains still beautiful, 

 thanks to the wooded hills fringing the horizon, the long water vistas crowded 

 with shipping, or alive with craft disappearing in the distance, on the one side 

 seawards, on the other in the direction of Lake Malar. In the centre the old city 

 is mirrored in the waters of the channel ; but the narrow isle where once stood 

 Birger Jarl's stronghold has long ceased to hold the overflowing population. 



