UPSAL, one of the handsomest towns of Sweden, in the province of Upland, is situated in an open and fertile plain on the small river Sala, which is diminishing very rapidly in size, which divides it into two equal parts. It is a small but neat town, and the streets are formed at right angles from a central square. Most of the private houses arc of wood, some of brick, but the public edifices are of stone. The wooden houses are painted red, and their roofs covered with turf. Each house has a small court yard or garden. The cathedral is a large structure in imitation of Notre Dame at Paris. Though built of brick, Buttner describes it as one of the finest churches he has seen. The in terior is fine Gothic, and there is a splendid row of massive columns in it. Among the relics in the Sacristy is a human head of oak, called the image of Thor. The monument of Gustavus Vasa is in a private chapel. It is oblong and of marble, with pyramids at the angles. His figure is of marble between those of his two first wives, who were buried in the same tomb. Near the altar stands a silver coffin, containing the bones of Eric XIV., the eldest son of Gustavus Vasa. Linnwus is buried in the west end of the cathedral, a flat mar ble stone lies over him, with his name and the date of his death. On the north side of the cathedral there is an elegant porphyry monument erected to with the inscription Carob a Linne Botanicorum Principi. Smici et Discipuli. The University of
Upsal has been long celebrated. It was founded in the 15th century, and contains at present above 1000 students. There are 24 professors, who lec ture frequently in their own houses. The students lodge in the town, and there is no academical dis• cipline. The University has a valuable library of 52,000 volumes, containing many valuable books and MSS., one of which is a MS. of the four gospels in Gothic, called Codex .drgenteus, from its silver letters. The other objects of interest in this town are the royal castle and gardens, situated on an eminence near the town, the archiepiscopal palace, the observatory, the botanic garden of Linnzeus, Ste. the new botanic garden, and the cabinets of natural history and mineralogy.
The Royal Society of Upsal is the oldest asso ciation of the kind in Sweden. It was established in 1820. Its first transactions were a sort of re view of books, entitled .leta Literaria Succii. In 1730 the reviews were dropped, and it published regular transactions, which, with an interruption from 1750 to 1752, during which interval the society was abolished, have been irregularly con tinued. Population about 5000. See Kuttner's Travels, sect. x., but particularly Dr. Thomson's Travels in Sweden, chap. viii. and ix. p. which contains very full and interesting details respecting Upsal and its University.