b o o k . f o r t jie admiffion o f veffels o f more than 40 tons burden;
¿ 4 ^ and it frequently happened that even thefe could not pafs
■whenever there was either too much or too little water. In
relief o f thefe difficulties another iluice, called, in honour of
the prefent king, the fluice o f Guftavus, was completed in
1768. This fuperb work is a cut o f 400 feet, (half of
which was perforated through the folid rock), and confifts
o f two locks, each 200 feet in length, and 36 in breadth:
the fides are ftrongly faced with brick and ftone. The greateft
depth o f water is 13, the loweft 6 feet. The ufual veffels
which navigate this canal are o f 80 tons burden; but when
the water is high, larger may pafs: in x 7 7 7 one o f 13 3 tons
worked its way through.
From theendof this canal to the village o f Trolhaetta, which
includes a fpace o f about five miles, the navigation o f the
river is uninterrupted : it flows in a gentle current; varies
in its breadth from 300 yards to a mile ; and is, in a few
parts, prettily fprinkled with iflands, fome whereof are barren
rock, others tufted with wood and covered with arable
foil.N
ear Trolhaetta two ridges o f mountains, which on each
fide run at a fmall diftance from the river, approach its banks,
and confine its ftream in a narrow channel. In this fpot it
is about 400 feet in breadth, as fmooth as a lake, and without
any vifible ftream : a fine contrail to the roaring o f the
torrent below. This fmoothnefs o f the water continues till
it burfts at once into the cataracts o f Trolhaetta, called the
Gulfs of Hell, which render all farther navigation impoffible.
The bed of the river is folid rock; the banks are perpendicular
; and, at the beginning o f the fall, feveral granite
iflands, thinly ftrewed with underwood, junipers, and ftubbed
pines,