A country that can boast of such advantages in re gard to internal communication possesses great fa cilities for general amelioration. At least without such advantages few steps can be taken in the ca reer of improvement. Nor can it be denied that Sweden has availed herself in an eminent degree of the facilities she enjoys. The soil, in general, is not propitious; not more than a 20th part is arable, and not more than the half of that portion has ac tually been cultivated. But agriculture has done what could be effected under such circumstances. Husbandry in Sweden has been pronounced superior to what prevails in Denmark and even in Germany, and it is daily making rapid progress, as the quan tity of corn raised is still not equal to the demand. A considerable quantity of corn, however, is made use of in the distillation of malt spirits : Hence they not only import from other countries, but it is not unusual with the poorer classes, in order to sup ply the deficiency, to mix with their flour or meal the inner rhind of the fir tree or the roots of certain bog plants. But the alternative will not long be necessary; for the southern and middle provinces, where agriculture has been very assiduously attend ed to, and where it has been brought to great per fection, produce wheat, rye, oats, hops, beans and pease, hemp, flax, in considerahle luxuriance. The cultivation of potatoes having of late been introdu ced, that root is rapidly supplying the deficiency occasioned by the limited quantity of corn. It has been stated that during the space of ten successive years, one harvest fails, two are scanty, five are mo derate, and two are abundant; a proportion not much inferior to that of more southern countries, and of milder climates. The wheat and rye are sown in the middle of August, and are reaped in the same month of the following year. Barley and oats are consigned to the ground in spring, immediate ly on the melting of the snow : the former is cut down towards the end of August; the latter about the middle of September.
Among the various vegetable productions of Sweden, those of its forest are by far the most pro minent and important. No less than one-third of the superficial extent of the whole country is cover ed with wood. These forests contain birch, poplar, mountain-ash, alder, pine, and fir. Dalecarlia, now called Falun, abounds more with such forests than any other province; and the numerous lakes are skirted with wood even to the margin of the water. Timber, as may be inferred, is one of the chief ex ports of Sweden; though by far the greater part of the houses, of the middle and lower classes, are composed wholly or chiefly of wood, and the same article is almost used throughout the whole king dom for fuel. The wood and plants of Sweden dif fer in truth very little from those used in Britain, except some trees, as mentioned under the head cli mate, do not succeed in the former country beyond a certain degree of latitude; a remark which is ap plicable also to some plants, such as broom, firs, the walnut-tree, Etc. Some indeed of the plants found in Sweden are not unknown in central Europe : the lichen of Lapland is frequently found on the plains at the 54th degree. The lichen rangifcrinus, or rein-deer lichen or white moss abounds throughout the whole extent of Lapland, the chief support of the animal whose name it bears. The sagacious animal discovers it when covered with snow by the peculiar acuteness of its smell.
A remark, similar to that just made respecting the vegetable productions of Sweden, is applicable to the animals of that country; namely, that they differ extremely little from those of Britain. Horses, oxen, cows, sheep, differ only in this, that in Swe den they arc of considerably inferior size; the con sequence, it is likely, of poorer pastures, and of the comparative want of skill, and deficiency of capital on the part of the agriculturists. Goats and pigs are not very abundant. hares and foxes seem equal ly common in the two countries referred to. There
are, however, various animals, such as the lynx, the wolf, the beaver, the glutton, that are unknown in Britain. Of these the rein-deer is the most remark able and celebrated. This animal resembles a stag, hut is stronger; its antlers are stronger and more branched than those of the latter animal, and they also decorate the brows of the female. It is the camel of the north, the deep division of its hoofs being calculated for travelling over a snowy surface. The sledge, drawn by this animal, is extremely light, and covered underneath with deer-skin, in order to slide easily on the frozen snow. They easily ac complish 30 miles without halting, at the rate of 4 miles an hour; they can travel this distance without food; but they occasionally moisten their mouth in the snow as they proceed. This mode of convey ance, it is evident, can be performed only in winter when the snow is glazed over with ice. In the birds of Sweden there is little or nothing peculiar; nearly the same species abounds here that obtains in our own island. A similar observation is applicable to fish, which is very abundant, both along the sea coast, and in the rivers and lakes. Leeches are pe culiarly abundant, and form an article of export to this country. On the coast of the Baltic the stxm ming is found, a species of herring peculiar to that sea.
In nothing is Sweden more celebrated than for its mines and mineral productions, including gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, marble, cobalt, zinc, coal, alum, and several precious stones. The average produce of the principal metals has been estimated as follows : 64 oz. of gold, 13,000 oz. of silver, 24, 800 quintals of copper, 100,000 tons of iron, 431 quintals of lead, 22,000 quintals of alum, 35,000 tons of coal.* There are only two inconsiderable gold mines, of which the most important is at Adel fors, in the province of Smaland, discovered in 1737; but it seems to be nearly exhausted. With the exception of some silver veins discovered in Swedish Lapland, a mine of that metal at Salberg, thirty miles west of Upsal, is the only one known in Sweden, It contains about a hundred veins. Copper is found in various places, but the chief mines of this metal, which are in the province of Dalecarlia, have been wrought from time immemo rial. The metal is not found in veins, btit in great masses, and does not extend more than an English mile in circumference. The matrix of the ore is the saxum of Linnaeus, or rock and pyrites of iron. The richest part of the ore has been supposed to yield 20 per cent of copper; but as the poor and rich are blended, they average only 2 per cent. when brought from the mine, and 12 when smelted. The mine is private property, and is divided into shares. 1200 workmen are employed, namely 600 miners, and the same number in roasting and smelting the ore above ground. The mouth or opening of the mine, says Mr. Coxe, is extremely large, perhaps the largest in the world, being 1200 feet in diameter, or nearly three-quarters of an English mile in cir cumference; an immense chasm gradually enlarged to its present size by the excavations and frequent downfalls of the rock. The perpendicular depth is 1020 feet. But Sweden is most distinguished for its mines of iron. Those of Danemora, discovered in 1488, are particularly celebrated both for the abundance and for the superiority of that metal, called in England Oregrund iron, being exported thither from a part of that name where the Gulf of Bothnia joins the Atlantic. The pits are deep ex cavations, like gravel pits, and form so many abyss es or gulfs. They, therefore, have no galleries, but, are wrought in the open air. The richest ore yields 70 per cent of iron, the poorest 30; the collective mass averages one third of pure mineral. The num ber of miners in Sweden in 1825 amounted to no fewer than 28,256, including manufacturers, of which last the number is only about 6000.