an uniform Icene o f iinall eminences o f black rock, where nature
cannot by any power o f art be forced to produce vegetation. The
harbour exhibits a fimilar confuiion o f rocks not more pleaiing to
the eye, and dome little craggy iiles o f a rugged and forbidding
afpeft. As to the interior o f the town, it refembles in jfome re-
Ipedls the towns o f Holland, having canals, with rows o f trees
along their margins, regularly cut op clipped in the Dutch faihion.
T he inhabitants o f this place are in a ftate o f conftant emulation
with thofe o f the capital, in commerce as well as in their mode
o f life, their falhions, and every fpecies o f luxury. I have been
allured by feyeral perfons that one may live more agreeably .at
Gothenburg than at Stockholm. T o a ftranger who delights in
lociety, it certainly affords opportunities o f following his inclination
without formality or reftraint. The ladies o f Gothen-
burg are celebrated for their amiable difpofitions, their beauty,
their fociability, and their accomplilhments. The y employ much
o f their time in the cultivation o f languages and the arts, parti»
cularly that o f mufic. They poflels in a very high degree aj)
the qualifications that form an amiable, accomplilhed, and inte-
refting woman. The population o f this town is about fifteen
thoufand. T he fuburhs are fituated on riling ground, and are
occupied principally by leafaring people belonging to merchantj
men, the Eaft India Company, and feveral lhips o f war llationed
in the harbour, There is an holpital at Gothenburg, founded by
an individual, Mr. Sahlgren, the annual revenue of, vyhich amounts
to fifteen hundred fix dollars. It contains thirty beds, o f which
two are appropriated for the delivery o f pregnant women : but
when occafion requires, a greater number is allotted for this benevolent
purpole, fometimes as many as seven. Any woman,
whoever ihe may be, when her time approaches, on ringing a bell
at any hour during day or night,'is inftantly admitted gratis, and
without being alked any queftions. ■ The y alfo receive foundling
children, and at times maintain no lefs than forty or fifty o f them;
T h e commerce o f Gothenburg is very confiderable, and comprehends
perhaps more than the feventh part o f the exports, and
about a fourth o f the imports o f the whole kingdom. T h e Eaft
India Company, in which the city o f Antwerp and the town o f
Oftend have a large ihare, fends from one to two or three lhips
annually to China. Though their charter empowers them to
trade with India, it is but rarely, and to no confiderable extent,
thdt'they avail themfelves o f that privilege. T he number o f
trading veffels belonging to Gothenburg is about two hundred and
fifty. About eight hundred foreign lhips enter the harbour annually,'
and about five hundred Swedilh. One o f the principal
fources o f profperity to Gothenburg is the herring filhery. Six hundred
thoufand barrels of falted herrings have been known to be fold
in one year, and thirty thoufand barrels o f oil. T o one barrel o f
oil there is reckoned a proportion o f ten or twelve barrels o f herrings.
Every fuch barrel contains from a thoufand to fourteen
hundred herrings. T he filhing begins in Odtober, and lafts till
February, and fometimes till March. T h e herrings are partly confirmed