194 
TRAVELS 
CHAPTER XIL 
An Account of the Ifles of Aland—Their Situation, Name, and Hif- 
tory — Far'flies and Civil Regulations—Soil and Produce—The 
Inhabitants ; their Manners and Cuftoms — Natural Hiftory : 
Quadrupeds, Birds, amphibious Animals, Flflies, Infe61s, Plants , 
and Minerals, 
HE ifle of Aland, with its dependant iflands, to the number 
of eighty, moft of them fmall, but inhabited, are fituated 
between the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, in latitude 5Q degrees 
47 minutes, to Oof degrees north, and longitude 36 degrees 
57 minutes, to 39 degrees and 47 minutes.* In refpe£t to its ex¬ 
tent, Aland conftitutes the fmalleft of the poffeffions belonging to 
the crown of Sweden, containing only eleven fquare Swedifh 
miles, or about feventy-feven Englifh, being in length about 
twenty Englifli miles, and in breadth about fixteen. 
The name of Aland feems to be derived from the ancient 
Gothic A, which fignifies water, and the word land ; fo that 
Aland together is the fame in meaning as ifland. This appears 
to be the moft natural etymology, though various writers have 
* From the meridian of Ferro. Reckoning from the meridian of London, the 
longitude would be from 19 degrees r? minutes, to 22 degrees 7 minutes eaft. 
indulged 
