Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/129

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ESTLED among the outcropping granite ledges and islands of the west coast of Sweden, lies the village of Fiskebäckskil, near which on Skaftö has arisen the Kristineberg Marine Zoological Station. The primordial mass of the surrounding rocks and hills was planed off in curved and deeply-scratched surfaces by the vast ice-sheet of the glacial epoch. From the crests of the hills one can see the blue waters of Gullmar fjord penetrating inland and, off to the west, beyond Gasö, Flatholm and others of the protecting archipelago of islets, the white capped waves of the Kattegat.

Lichens and mosses partly incrust the rocks, and from every soil collecting crevice, grass and wild flowers give life to the hills near at hand, while at some distance the great rocks seem bleak and desolate. In these patches of wild flowers the colors are brilliant, pink heather contrasting with blue-bells and golden hökfibla. Beside the pools of