PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 7 



The botanist can judge for himself how wide a 

 field is here open to him, and it is no wonder that 

 Sweden is able to boast of so many well versed in 

 this science, and the study of the entomologist 

 goes hand in hand with it. But to the geologist 

 and lover of antiquarian lore Scandinavia posseses 

 still richer attractions. Judging from the fossil 

 remains preserved in the museums of the country, 

 many animals (long since outrooted from this 

 land, and some altogether extinct) in former days 

 inhabited the south of Sweden, and the bones of 

 antediluvian monsters which are occasionally dug 

 up in the turf mosses of " Skania," are evidences 

 of by-gone ages. It is easy, while gazing on 

 these interesting relics, to carry the reflective 

 mind back to the period before man appeared on 

 the face of the globe ; when, probably, the waves 

 rolled over the greater part of this continent, and 

 we can picture to the mind's eye monstrous carti- 

 laginous fishes then peopling the waters, and 

 reptiles of misshapen and hideous growth drawing 

 their slow length over the slimy oozes of the Fens. 

 Pass we on to a later day, and the whole face of 

 the country has gradually changed. The wild 

 bull tossed his mane in the then secluded forest ; 

 the wild sow farrowed in security in regions as yet 

 untrodden by the foot of man, and hundreds of 

 gigantic elk and red deer roamed at will through 



