142 



SCANDINAVIA. 



mining district. But, like those of Cornwall, these deposits have g-reatly fallen off, 

 and can no longer compete with those of South America and Australia. On a 

 rocky headland projecting into Lake Runnen, near Falun, stands the house, greatly 

 venerated by the Swedes, in which Gustavus Erichson, afterwards Gustavus I., 

 took refuge from the Danes in 1520. 



Farther north-west the Dalecarlian hamlets of Leksand, Orsa, Riittvik, 

 Vâmhus, and Mora, dotted round Lake Siljan, are the centres of extensive 

 communes, where on feast days the peasantry gather in thousands at the camp 

 meetings. (Mersiind, on Lake Storsjon, still farther north, is the last place 

 deserving the name of town. It is an important station between Trondhjeni and 



Fig. 72. — House of Gustavus Vasa. 



the Gulf of Bothnia, and its port is much frequented by the boats and little 

 steamers plying on the lake. Beyond it are nothing but hamlets and Lapp 

 camping grounds, the most noteworthy of which is the Qvikkjokk dale, the 

 " Paradise of Lapland," overlooked on the west by the snowy crests of Sulitelma. 

 The seaports at the river mouths north of Gefle all resemble each other in 

 their general appearance and in the nature of their trade. Soderhamn, 

 Hudiksvall, Sundsvall, Hernosand, Umeà, Skellefteâ, Piteâ, Luleâ, Raneâ, Neder 

 Kahx, ail ship tar and lumber in logs, beams, or planks, and have regidar steam 

 communication with Stockholm. The northernmost of these ports is Baparanda, 

 or - Aspenville," founded in 1809, when Tornea was ceded to Russia. Accordin^^ 



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