Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/218

182 We seemed to be gazing on a perfect picture as we passed through this beautiful country. Population is sparse, and the wooden houses and villages looked quaint and beautiful. We passed Dufed which is about two hours from the beautiful fall of Tannfors. We then passed Are at the foot of the Areskutan mountain, 5380 feet high. There are copper mines here. We then crossed several small lakes and streams and in the afternoon reached the beautiful town of Ostersund situated on the northern bank of the Stor lake. The lake, the island in its midst, and the picturesque town on its bank looked beautiful indeed.

4th August. Our train passed through unending pine forests and wooded hills by night, until we found ourselves at Bollnäs in the morning. Our journey lay the whole day through beautiful scenes, like what we had seen on the previous day. We crossed the Dalelf, the historic frontier of Dalarne, and came to Krylbo, and soon after reached Sala, a town founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1622 A.D. and famous as the principal silver mine of Sweden. The yield was considerable before, but has decreased to 2,300 ℔s only a year now. Lead-ore and letharage are the minerals chiefly worked here now. The country now began to be more and more flat, and at 3 we reached Upsala, the historic University town of Sweden. We left the through train here in order to pass a few hours in this celebrated place.

The Cathedral of Upsala was commenced in the thirteenth century and completed in the fifteenth, and is a high and