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THE AMERIC AN-SC ANDIN A VI AN REVIEW 
Dalarne and Varmland are among Sweden’s most popular tourist 
grounds, yet their mining districts proper are not often visited, though 
they richly deserve to be. Narke and Vastmanland, on the other hand, 
receive little attention from the tourist, despite their many attractions 
and easy means of travel. Presumably the average tourist is always 
looking for the places where thrills are certain, where impressions are 
immediate and unmistakable. A mighty waterfall, a landscape with 
high ranges and deep valleys, a lake walled with mountains, a sea shin¬ 
ing with rocks and islets—all of these the average tourist gazes upon 
with enthusiasm, but it requires a more searching sympathy and an eye 
keenly observant of details to enjoy the more intimate countryside 
and to understand its significance in the nation’s history. Yet such 
study of a locality brings rich reward, and through such study alone 
can one get into the right mood for the atmosphere of history and nature 
poetry which hangs over Bergslagen, whether one sees it clad in the 
green of summer, or trails some winter day through silent snow-laden 
woods, to emerge suddenly into a clearing and discover the warm light 
of a charcoal kiln, wreathed in gray smoke. Dark figures move about 
the kiln; they are the charcoal burners who tend the fires now as 
they have done since time immemorial. And this lone kiln, hidden 
deep in the forest beneath the sparkling sky of a winter night, becomes, 
as it were, a symbol of the spirit which has permeated Bergslagen since 
time out of mind and lives there to this very day. 
Night 
By Erik Blomberg 
Now falleth star-dew out of dusky space, 
And night enfoldeth softly with her cloak 
Earth's shoulder . 
’Tis now that men let fall 
Their heavy robes of sorrow and of care, 
Silently sinking 
To dreamy lethargy , 
Breast laid to breast , 
Heart against heart . 
