Swedish miles. English miles.
Taken up . . . . 1 6 4 ................ 1124
Fagerhult........ 14 , ................. 114
Orkeljunga . . . ; . . . 1 4 ..................... - I l f
Ostra Ljungby . . . . 14 . . . . . . . . 1 1*,
Osto rp............... 1 ................. 154
Helsingburg...... 2 ................. 134
254 1674
The country rises almost all the way to Barnarp: it is sandy. There
is a small.lake at Barnarp, and a church built in 1687. Taberg is seen
very distinctly from this place, and far over-tops all the neighbouring
eminences. Nothing can be a more striking proof o f the great flatness
of Sweden than the considerable figure which a hill only 420 feet high
makes. It is dignified with the name of mountain, and is as conspicuous
in the situation in which it is placed as some of the greatest
mountains o f Europe are in theirs.
The road was' mended with iron slag, and we saw heaps o f Taberg
ore, limestone, and slag, lying along the road. The limestone was
granular, foliated, white, and obviously primitive. On inquiry I learned
that it was brought for the smelting o f the iron ore from some distance
north, on the west side o f the Vetter, at a place which my informer
called Witta; but he could not describe its position with any thing like
precision. Perhaps the place may be Vettack, which lies on the west
side o f the Vetter, nearly opposite to Falkoping.
The country rises for about 13 miles from Ionkoping; after which it
becomes exceedingly flat, and full of small lakes. Few or no rocks are
visible in situ; but the whole country is plentifully scattered with immense
blocks and small stones, almost all gneiss or hornblende; though
I saw likewise a few specimens of mica slate.
At Tonno we cross a pretty large river, for Sweden, called Laga.
It struck me as very much of the size of the river Earn in Scotland.
Over all the Swedish, rivers bridges either of wood or of stone are
erected, and you always pay a certain sum by way of pontage on
crossing them. These are the only turnpikes in Sweden. Here the
pontage was nine stivers. The road continued for some time along the
banks of this river, and we crossed it a second time farther to the
south. I asked the name of it of the postboy, merely to discover whether
he knew it. His answer was, that he could not tell what its name
was; another proof of the little importance attached to rivers in this
country. This river falls into the Cattegat at Laholm. So that we
afterwards crossed it a third time on our way to Gottenburg. At
Tonno begins a pretty large lake, through which the Laga flows.
The eastern bank of this lake, along which we drove, is well cultivated,
and filled with very large oaks, and plenty o f birches, but very
few pines.
At one part of the forest we saw a piece o f ground in which the
trees were burnt down. It was absolutely covered with great blocks
of gneiss of various sizes. Yet we were told that this spot had been
pitched upon by a peasant in the neighbourhood, that he had burnt
down the wood, and that it was his intention to sow it with rye.
How it could be possible to plow it, or where the soil was in which
the rye was to grow, would have puzzled most farmers to determine.
At Dororp I tried the temperature o f this lake, and found it 52°. The
day was cloudy, windy, and felt rather cold. Indeed the temperature
of the air was not higher than that of the lake. This lake was surrounded
with a border of round water-worn stones about eight feet
thick: a proof that the lake had sunk so far in its dimensions.
The whole road from Dorarp to Ljungbv is through a heath, covered
with erica vulgaris, at first thick scattered with birch bushes, but afterwards
as bare as any heath in the highlands o f Scotland. This heath
for some time was flat, but as we advanced south it became very uneven,
being thick set with knolls. The road was sandy and heavy,
and the whole heath, as far as I could judge, seemed to be composed
of nothing but sand. There is, however, a good deal o f moss in the
neighbourhood; for the fuel here is peat. I saw several stacks of it
near the side of the road. This muir continued with very little interruption
to Fagerhult; the dullness of the scene being now and then a.
2 q 2