clear traniparency o f their waters reflefting every object on tlieir
banks, and prefenting the animated picture o f ikiffs, oars, and
fmall fails, are now turned into a place o f rendezvous for men
and children mingling in one throng. The y walk, Aide, fly about
in fledges> or glide along on fmall fkates. In the exercife o f
fkating they difplay great dexterity and addrefs, and arnufe the
fpectators with the eafe and quicknefs o f their various movements
; darting forward with the fpeed o f arrows ; turning and
returning, and balancing their bodies according to inclination
and circumftances, in fuch a manner that it is fometimes difficult
to imagine what can be their principle o f motion. There
is no part o f this great mafs o f water that is not arrefted arid
fubdued by the froll, except the current under the north bridge,
and on the fouth near the king’s ftables. Here the water, which
during the keeneft froft daihes and foams with great noife
through the arches o f the bridge, fends up majeftic clouds o f vapour
to a confiderable height in the atmofphere; where, in the
extreme rigour o f winter, being converted by the intenfenels of
the cold into folid particles, they are precipitated down through
their weight, and prefenting their furface to the fun, aflume the
appearance o f a ihower o f fllver land, reflecting the folar .rays, and
adorned with all manner o f colours. In the interior o f Stockholm,
throughout all its different quarters, every thing in w'inter,
in like manner undergoes a fudden change. T he fnow that begins
to fall in the latter w7eeks o f autumn covers and hides the
ftreets for the fpace of fix months; and renders them more pleafant
fant attd convenient than they are in fummer or autumn ; at
which fcafons, partly on account o f the pavement, and partly on
account o f the dirt, they are often almoft impaflable. One layer
o f fnow on another, hardened by the froit, forms a ffirface more
equal and agreeable to walk on, which is iometimes railed more
than a yard above the ftones o f the ftreet. You are no longer
ftuUned by the irkfome nôife o f carriage-wheels ; but this is
exchanged for the tinkling o f little bells, with which they deck
their horfes before the fledges. T h e only wheels now to be feen
in Stockholm are thofe o f fmall carts, employed by men fer-
vants o f families to fetch water from the pump in a calk. This
compound o f cart and calk always ftruck me as a very curious
and extraordinary object; infomuch, that I once took the trouble
o f following it, in order to have a nearer view o f the whimfical
robe in which the froft had inverted it, and particularly o f the
variegated and fantaftical drapery in which the wheels were covered
and adorned. This vehicle, with all its appertenances,
afforded to a native o f Italy a very Angular Ipectacle. T h e horfe
was wrapped up, as it feemed, in a mantle o f white dowri, which
under his breaft and belly was fringed with points and tufts o f ice.
Stalactical ornaments o f the lame kind, fome o f them to the
length o f a foot, were alfo attached to his noie and mouth. The
fervant that attended the cart had on a frock, which was en-
cruftèd with a folid mats o f ice. His eye-brows and hair jingled
with icicles, which were formed by the adtion o f the froft on his
breath and perlpiration. Sometimes the water in the pump was
V o l . I. G frozen,