SWEDEN. 87 



try, and the province of Dalecarlia in particular. Besides pine, birch, 

 popirir, mountain-ash, and fir, abound in them. In these forests confla- 

 grations are remarkably frequent, which consume or scorch all the 

 trees sometimes ;or an extent of severaj miles. These are to be attri- 

 buted, in pan, to the carelessness of the peasants, who kindle fires in the 

 v.-co..3 without extinguishing them; and in part to the privilege allowed 

 the peasants to make use of the timber thus damaged in the crown 

 forests, without paying the usual tax on it. 



Lakes, rivers, canals. ...The lakes of Sweden are very numerous. 

 The largest of them is the Wenner, which is about 100 English miles 

 long, and between 50 and 60 broad. It contains several islands, and 

 receives 24 rivers. The Weter is about the same length, but of un- 

 equal breadth, being from only 6 to 26 miles broad. It is reported to 

 be 200 fathoms deep, contains two islands, and receives about 40 small 

 streams. The Maelar is about 70 miles in length and 30 in breadth. 

 It contains a prodigious number of small islands ; these are reckoned 

 to be 1290; several of which are three or four miles in extent, and 

 extremely fertile. At Stockholm this lake communicates with the 

 Baltic, by two rapid currents, one of which is called the northern and 

 the other the southern stream. The Hielmar washes Sudermanland 

 and Nerike : it is about 40 miles in length, and 20 in breadth, and 

 communicates with the Mxlar. In Finland, the lake Pejend is about 

 80 miles long and 15 broad. There are also a great number of smaller 

 lakes in this counlrv. 



The principal river of Sweden is the Dahl, which rises in the moun- 

 tains that separate Sweden from Norway, and, after a course of about 

 260 miles, falls into the Guiph of Bothnia, about 10 miles to the east of 

 Gefie. Near its mouth is a celebrated cataract, scarcely inferior to that 

 of the Rhine at Shaffhausen. The breadth of the river there is about 

 a quarter of a mile, and the perpendicular height of the fall between 

 30 and 40 feet. The rivers Gotha and Motala are the outlets of the 

 lakes Wenner and Weter. The principal rivers of Finland are the 

 Ulta, the Kano, and the Kymene, which flows into the Gulph of Fin- 

 land, and constitutes the boundary of the Swedish part of Carelia. 



Inland navigation has not been entirely unattended to in Sweden. 

 The canal of Trolhaetta, lately completed, has been wrought with 

 great labour, assisted by the powerful force of gunpowder, through 

 the midst of rocks. Its object was to open a communication between 

 the North Sea and the Lake Wenner, by forming a new channel where 

 the Gotha is rendered innavigable by cataracts. The length of this 

 canal, in which there are nine locks, is nearly three miles, the width 36 

 feet, and the deph in some places above 50. " It is not easy," says a 

 iate judicious traveller, " for any one to form an idea of the difficulties 

 that were to be surmounted in the formation of this wonderful canal, 

 unless he were an eye-witness. It was undertaken and begun by 

 Charles XII ; formed part of a grand plan meditated by Gustavus Vasa, 

 and attempted by some of his successors, for joining the Baltic with 

 the North Sea, by means of a communication cut through the kingdom. 

 If a canal should be extended by the lake of Wenner, by Oerebro, to 

 the lake of Hielmar, the Swedes may then, by a conjunction of this lake 

 with that of Mselar through the sluices of Arboga, transport all kinds 

 of merchandise in the same vessel from Gothenburg to Stockholm. 

 Thus a passage would be opened between the North Sea and the Baltic; 

 and, among other advantages, the duties of the Sound would be avoid- 

 The canal of Troihsetta may justly be considered as, in some re- 



