Ten Tears in Sweden. 308 



sportsmen, and tourists will refer, and find stores of well-digested 

 information, which bears evident marks of having been conscien- 

 tiously collated and honestly given forth. 



The season for visiting Sweden has now come. During the 

 winter, with its short days and long dark nights, few travellers 

 would wish themselves in a country not adapted to outdoor amuse- 

 ments, and which can only be tolerable to those who have oppor- 

 tunities of enjoying the hospitalities of its domestic life. In the 

 northern parts the allowance of daylight becomes microscopic, and 

 in the middle the " Old Bushman" describes the winter as dull and 

 monotonous, " eighteen hours dark to six hours daylight, and it is 

 often impossible to get into the forest for weeks, on account of the 

 snow ; and if you can, there is scarcely anything to shoot." If the 

 weather is propitious, "the sledging is first-rate," and country 

 houses are scenes of social gathering and festivity. In May a 

 sudden change comes on. "A few dull, misty days, with warm wind 

 and rain, and the whole face of the country changes, as if by magic. 

 The green rye appears as the snow rapidly melts away," the wood 

 anemone puts forth its blossoms, and trees suddenly burst into leaf. 

 " Now all again is activity and bustle out of doors ; animal as well 

 as vegetable life, all at once wake up from their winter slumber, and 

 for six months the farmer, sportsman, and naturalist have not a day 

 to spare." 



It must not, however, be supposed that the winter is an idle time 

 for the natives. As soon as the ground becomes frozen in the 

 autumn, the men of a forest district are off to their work. Their 

 first proceeding is to dig a hole in the ground about ten feet deep, 

 which has a cover built over, leaving a smoke-hole. This is the 

 forester's hut, in which he lives, dining on herrings, cheese, and 

 meal, which he brings with him. On Sundays he goes home, and on 

 other days he fells the trees, and when the snow is hardened, and 

 the ice on the lakes will bear weight, the timber is dragged along to 

 the nearest stream capable of floating it down when the warm weather 

 returns. The management of the forests is described as very waste- 

 ful, and in cutting the trees the woodman uses an axe, stands upright 

 as he works, and strikes about four feet from the ground, so that 

 much valuable timber is lost. The birch thrives well with the fir. 

 It makes its appearance when the fir woods are cut down, and in 

 young plantations it is valuable on account of its faster growth. At 

 the age of ten it is hard enough for firewood, and at fifty it attains full 

 growth. " As the birch trees are cut down, the more valuable trees 

 are left. The birch thus pays for planting and pruning the better 

 trees, which fatten the land, while the birch when planted alone 

 impoverishes it." The pine takes a longer time to reach maturity, 

 varying, according to the district, from 180 to 300 years. The 

 " Old Bushman" supplies some curious facts and estimates concern- 

 ing the age and dimensions of these trees. Thus, up the Tornea 

 River — ~N. lat. 66° 40' — a pine with a diameter of 7 1 inches is 

 reckoned to be about 100 years old ; 11 inches, 150 ; and 13J-, 200. 

 " So, according to these proportions, it appears that in this latitude 

 a pine grows one inch in diameter in every ten years during the first 



