2 0 ROCKS BOUND GOTTENBURG. [C h d p . I .
and is still going on : it is to be ascribed to the immense concourse of
people that pass through Gottenburg, and the necessity they are under
o f taking that route. The renewal of the intercourse between Great
Britain and Russia will serve to increase this inundation o f people still
more. To travel by land from Gottenburg to Stockholm is so much
shorter than to pass through the Sound, and so much safer during the
continuance of our war with Denmark, that few persons, who consult
only their ease and safety, will take any other road.
The country round Gottenburg is the most singular which 1 ever
saw. It consists of low precipitous ridges o f rocks, running in various
directions, and quite naked. They vary from too feet above the level
o f the sea to about 300. The highest which I measured, and it was
the highest I observed, was 31 o feet high. These ridges are separated
from each other by valleys about a mile wide. These valleys afford a
tolerable soil, and are cultivated. The only crops we saw were of
rice, and big (a small barley): they were nearly ripe, but in a very
filthy state, being in many places almost choked with thistles and
other injurious weeds. Indeed the state o f agriculture in this place is
much lower than in any other part of Sweden that I have seen.
The rocks are all gneiss, interspersed with large beds o f felspar and
hornblende. But I shall enter into farther particulars respecting the
mineralogy o f this country, after having traversed the province of
West Gothland.
CHAPTER II.
JOURNEY FROM GOTTENBURG THROUGH WEST GOTHLAND.
Ancient Division of South Sweden—Method of Posting in that Kingdom—Nature of
the Country—Trees—Roads—Hedges—Agriculture—Plants on the Heaths—Swedish
Beds—Swedish Peasantry; selfish, contrasted with the Scotch—Falls of Trollhatte—
Swedish Canals—Hunneberg—Kinnekulle—Alum Work—Glass Work.
W e left Gottenburg about one o’clock on Friday, the 28th August,
in our open carriage, drawn by two Swedish horses, our black servant
seated as postillion, and the peasant boy, whose business it was to
take back the post horses, sitting beside him.
Before proceeding any farther, it will be proper to give a short
sketch of the provinces into which the kingdom o f Sweden is divided,
leaving out the northern parts, and the islands which were not visited
by us. All that part of Sweden through which we passed was formerly
divided into eleven provinces, and as these still frequently occur in
Swedish books, and are employed by all the mineralogists, it is proper
to be acquainted with them. The following are their names, beginning
with the farthest north, and going gradually to the southernmost
extremity o f Sweden:—
1 Dalarne, or Dalecarlia. 7 Dahlsland.
2 Vestmanland. 8 Vestergothland.
3 Upland. 9 Oestergothland.
4 Sodermanland. 10 Smoland.
5 Nerike. 11 Skone.
6 Vermeland.