rows and islands. They seldom exceed in elevation 30 or 40 feet above the level of the ground on which they rest; but the roads must wind round them as if they were mountains, it being impossible to cross them. They are a very singular and inexplicable feature of country. They are evidently very little if at all rolled, or water-worn in these long banks. The corners and edges of by far the greater part of the huge masses of single stones, are sharp and rounded. I could make out no tendency to any one direction in these accumulations; but Swedish geologists consider that they run N.W., and S.E., generally. They form many islands in the lakes, as well as heaps on the plains. The only general observation, perhaps, which can be hazarded is, that they consist of blocks of granite, gneiss, and all varieties of primary crystalline rock, without any stones of the later or mechanically aggregated formations of rocks. These long narrow ridges of accumulated stones are called aases or oses, in the two Scandinavian languages, which are, especially the Norwegian, very rich in names for all the natural features of mountain country.

In the nooks and corners of these spits of stones, the peasantry of the country - those who are small proprietors, or who are renters of small patches for payment of work seem to be principally located, and often in hamlets of several families. If their habitations and appearance give a good ground for opinion, this class in this part of Sweden, is going backwards in well-being and

comfort. Their houses, outhouses, fences, and gardens, are very generally out of order and repair, and no renovations going on. The best of these habitations of the lower class are little farm-houses, with some land-enough to keep a family in bread, potatoes, and milk, which appear to be a kind of military colonisation scattered over the country, each house having a shield affixed with the name of the occupier, his regiment, and company. These are not retreats for worn-out soldiers, the occupiers being fine young men with families.

Westeraas, June, -I determined to stop at this town for some time; as besides the traveller's usual important business with the washerwoman, I have to study the map, collect all my stray memoranda relative to Sweden, read the last part of Geyer's History which has lately appeared, and an excellent statistical account of Sweden, by Forsell, which is founded upon official tables and returns published by government. These books I bought at Orebro, where there is a considerable printing establishment, from which some of the best Swedish works have issued.

In the house to which I had been referred for my supper from the Skyds-house, I found comfortable lodging, removed my luggage immediately and am settled.

CHAPTER II.

SWEDISH, NORWEGIAN,

FINS.
BREMEN.

DANISH, LANGUAGES. QUANS OR AMAZONS. MISTAKE OF A WORD IN ADAM OF SIMILARITY BETWEEN SCOTCH AND SWEDISH. INTERCOURSE BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND SWEDEN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. TROOPS FROM SCOTLAND.

LARS.

MUSKETS.

- PED

FAMILY NAMES IN SWEDEN OF SCOTCH ORIGIN. LANGUAGE OF THE SAGA.— DOUBTS OF THEIR VALUE AS PICTURES OF THE MANNERS OF THE AGES THEY DESCRIBE. SWEDISH SOLDIERS. APPEARANCE. ACCOUTREMENTS. EVENING PARADE WITH RELIGIOUS SERVICE. -INDELDTA SYSTEM OF SUPPORTING TROOPS. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. MILITARY MOVEMENT INTRODUCED BY HIM -MILITARY EXERCISE BEFORE HIS TIME. MILITARY COLONIES INTRODUCED BY HIM.- EXPENSE OF THE SWEDISH ARMY. HOW COMPOSED. ONLY TO A LIMITED EXTENT. IN WHAT TIME COULD BE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON PARTICULAR POINTS IF THE COUNTRY WERE ATTACKED. -DEFENCELESS STATE OF THE NORTH. THE CONDITION OF THE SWEDISH SOLDIER. DISPROPORTION OF OFFICERS. FONDNESS OF TITLES AMONG THE SWEDES. FRU FRÖKEN. MADAME, MAMSELLE. -BRICK CATHEDRAL. PORT OF WESTERAAS. — VOYAGE ON THE LAKE MALERE.

AVAILABLE

SCENERY.-STOCKHOLM.

SUP.

ROYAL PALACE.

TABLE POPULATION OF

Westeraas, June. I HAD postponed my journey into this country for a summer, in order to acquire a little of the language, enough to read the newspapers, understand what is said, and travel alone. A person deaf, dumb, and unable to read, is not particularly well qualified to collect informa

tion; and the traveller ignorant of the language of a country is precisely in this state. It is no difficult task to acquire Swedish, if one is acquainted with Norwegian. Books have to be translated from the one into the other, but the vulgar tongue, the language of the peasantry in the two countries, differs not much more than broad Scotch from cockney English. The roots of words, construction, and idioms are the same in both, or have a common origin.

Many English readers have confused ideas of the limits of these northern languages. The Norse or Norwegian of the present day is the same language as the Danish, differing only in local expressions and pronunciation in different provinces, and in being called Danish in the one country, and Norse in the other. It extends from the German frontier in Schleswig, where it marches with the ancient dialect of German called Platt Deutch, through Jutland, Denmark, and Norway, and is spoken by about 2,730,000 persons. This language is the more polished of the two, having long been the language of the court and higher classes; while in Sweden, from affectation in Gustavus III.'s reign, and necessity in the present, Swedish is not the language of the higher circles. Holberg, and in the present times, Ohlenschlager have also obtained a European reputation by their works in this language.

Swedish extends from the Sound to the Kalix river at the head of the Bothnian Gulph, where it joins the Quan or Fin language of Sclavonic not of Teutonic origin, and considered to have a com

mon derivation with the Laplandic. The Swedish is spoken by about 3,100,000 people. The Fin is spoken by a very small number of Swedish subjects now; but in the northern provinces of Norway, East and West Finmark and Norland, the Fins have extended themselves as colonists. They occupy both sides of the gulph of Finland, as well as the east side of the gulph of Bothnia, and have in aucient times, extended to the mouths of the Vistula ; dialects of their language being still in use in those countries. They are an industrious, robust people, differing, morally and physically, from the Laplander as much as the grown man from the child; yet they have probably been but one race originally. The touch of civilisation has produced the difference. This race appears to have been the Fenni of Tacitus. His description of them is remarkably applicable to the habits and mode of living of the Laplanders of the present day; who are the only European people whose physical and moral condition has been scarcely improved or altered since the time of the Romans.* The Laplanders still

** "Fennis mira feritas, fœda paupertas: non arma, non equi, non Penates: victui herba, vestitui pelles, cubile humus, sola in sagittis spes, quas, inopia ferri, ossibus asperant. Idemque venatus viros pariter ac feminas alit. Passim enim comitantur, partemque prædæ petunt. Nec aliud infantibus ferarum imbriumque suffugium, quam ut in aliquo ramorum nexu contegantur: huc redeunt juvenes, hoc senum receptaculum. Sed beatius arbitrantur, quam ingemere agris, inlaborare domibus, suas alienasque fortunas spe metuque versare. Securi adversus homines, securi adversus Deos, rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset." Tacit. Ger. xlvi.