Dalecarlia and Geftrike, is as agreeable as any parts we have
traverfed in Sweden, being richly diverfified with an alternate
fucceffion of forefts, rocks, hills and dales, uplands and plains,
pafture and arable land, lakes and rivers. But the beauty of the
landfcapes was more particularly heightened by the Dahl, the
fineft river in Sweden, which we eroded feveral times, and
coafted its banks, as it flows through a rich and fertile plain.
Gefle, the fartheft northern point in Sweden to which we
puihed our journey, lies in tire 63d degree of north latitude, and
in the 17th degree of longitude, eaft from Greenwich. The town
is waihed by three branches of the river Gefle, which begins
here to be navigable for veffels drawing nine or ten feet of water,
and falls in a ihort diilance into a bay of the Baltic. Many of
the houfes are conftru&ed of brick or itone plaillered white,
and have a neat appearance. The remainder, as is ufual in this
country, are of wood. Gefle is the moft commercial town-
in thefe northern parts of Sweden. Its exports are principally
iron, pitch and tar, and planks.
A few miles from Gefle, we ferried over the Dahl to Efcarleby,
and walked to the celebrated cataraft formed by that river, well
defcribed by Mr. Wraxall in his Northern Tower. The Dahl
flows for fome way in a broad and tranquil ftream, until its
courfe is interrupted by a ridge of rock and a high ifland about
a quarter of a mile in circumference, which feparates its waters
into three principal parts, as they dafh with unceafing fury, and
form a cataraft fcarcely inferior to the fall of the Rhine at
I SchafFhaufen.
SchafFhaufen. The ifland divides the cataraft into two principal C HA P,
falls, of which the eaftern fall is the fineft. -•— '
In winter, or when the river is fwoln with violent rains, the
waters of the eaftern fall cover the whole ridge from the extremity
of the ifland to the banks, and muft be much lefs pic-
turefque than as we law it, broken into different falls by numerous
crags which ftart up in the midft of the defcending deluge.
The breadth of the river from ihore to ihore is near a quarter
of a mile, and the perpendicular height of the fall between
thirty and forty feet.
The river rufhes at the bottom in a narrow channel fcarcely
a hundred feet broad, ftruggling for vent with unceafing fury,
and foaming at the foot of the ifland, covered with pines, which
overhang the abyfs, “ filent and aftoniihed fpedtators of the glorious
fcene
Words muft be always deficient in endeavouring to defcribe a
large river, pouring its flood of waters from the rocks, roaring
with the noife of thunder, and fcattering its foam on the impending
woods: neither the pencil or poetry are adequate to the
defoription.
The next morning we arrived at Loeffta, the feat of Baron
Geer, and remarkable for the iron founderies belonging to that
nobleman. The houfe, with the numerous buildings furround-
ing it, appears like a royal palace, while the uniform rows of
• Wraxall’s Northern Tour, p. 158.
D d 2 brick