continual danger of being washed away by the annual floods, to such an extent, that a whole plantation, situated on the border of the river, has been known to have been swept away during one flood. Fort Chartres, erected at a vast expense by the French government on the border of the river, prior to the cession of Louisiana in 1763, is now almost entirely swept away. The fur trade of the Mississippi and the Missouri, together with that of the tributary streams, almost wholly centers in this town; and after the return of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke from the Pacific Ocean, a fur company was formed for the purpose of trading with the nations on the head waters of the Missouri, which, from a variety of untoward events, but principally from the hostile and bloody disposition of the Indians, has miscarried."

weather. The sledges are brought out, the horses harnessed, and all the world, before sluggish and inactive, at once is set in motion. Figures innumerable are seen gliding over the white carpet of snow, with a pace so quick and yet so silent, that it appears to a stranger as an exhibition of enchantment. The cart of the peasant, the carriage of the noble, shoot by as swift as lightning: you hear nothing but the safety bell, which tinkles in your ear as it passes, and declines in the distance, before you have yet well recognized its sound. The gladdening ray of a bright sun, and a sky perpetually serene, lend so pleasing a variety of colours to the view as to render a picture of Stockholm, in the month of November, one of the liveliest prospects in nature.

The gay season now commences, as the chief families arrive from the country to winter in the metropolis. Early hours are still preserved here in spite of French o'clock, or a profuse supper at fashions, and a dinner at two ten, are the usual offers of Swedish hospitality: but neither are the private parties frequent, or yet the public amusements very numerous. An Italian opera-house, and a small Swedish theatre, alone, were open during our stay: for the company of French comedians, who had lately attracted so much notice, had been dismissed, by order of the Crown Prince. There were, however, several clubs and institutions. The first of these, the Society, or Selskapet, was regulated on a plan similar to that of a club in London. The others were lodges, that held assemblies

and

and balls at stated times; the Amaranth, the Innocence, the Narcissus, &c. The Amaranth is by far the most fashionable, and the best attended, and includes several associated establishments in the larger towns of Sweden. There was formerly an order of knighthood, instituted by Queen Christina, under this title, to perpetuate the memory of her lover, Pontus de la Gardie; but having afterwards fallen into disuse, it was nominally revived in this spurious shape about 70 years since by a private association.

The ceremonials of inauguration are conducted with all the due forms of chivalry. On the ballot for a new member being declared, the elect is introduced by a lady, and a procession arrayed to the strains of solemn music: when this is concluded, she decorates him with the ribbon and insignia of the Amaranth, and he receives on his shoulder the sword of the president, who is usually one of the first officers of the state. The grand cordons, and grand crosses and collars, are distributed in profusion-mock honours, that give, nevertheless, a strikingly gay air to the whole assembly. In the midst (not the least conspicious) shone the Marechalls of a late noble marriage, wearing, in similar knightly guise, the garters of the bride; which, according to custom, are the prize of those who light the bridegroom to his chamber on the nuptial night. But ceremonious decorations, so universal on the continent in general, are objects of a nature particularly captivating to the ostentatious mind of a Swede. At a meeting even of this description the full

dress is ordinarily worn by all that are entitled to it; and exceptions can only be few, when the members of every rank and profession, from the highest civil officers of the crown to the Royal Academy of artists, have their distinctive and appropriate uniform. The citizens, too, have their regular gala habit; a Spanish cloak and hose of black, being the same in colour, and not differing much in shape from the common dress of the court. It is but fair to add that, among other accomplishments, the young of both sexes all dance extremely well, and in a style inferior perhaps only to the beau inonde of Paris.

Among the lower classes the first indication of the approach of winter gives them the hint to lay up their stock of eatables for the frozen market; the provisions lasting, in a congealed state, unhurt during the whole season. They next pile their stocks of wood for firing, and light up the stove of their wooden cabin, that is never suffered to grow cool, or even to undergo ventilation, from this day till the arrival of the genial month of May.

One of the most pleasing sights of this time was the return of the seamen, discharged for the winter, to their bostellars, or apportionments of land. We saw a division of them on their march, carrying their families, with all their little store, in light Swedish waggons from the port to their homes: here they were housed, each with his hut and plot of ground, in se parate ranges, according to the gradation of their respective ranks; the habitation of the commander

of

of the ship's company being placed in the centre of the permanent encampment. It is a mode of provision peculiar, I believe, to Sweden; and was made, during a former reign, by the application of certain lands of the crown to this purpose. The advantages of this plan of maintenance are extended to the army as well as the navy, for the regiments of provincial militia are all supported in the same way; and these (if we except the artillery, and a few regiments of guards), form, in fact, the only standing force of the country.

Jan. 25.-At this time the cold was excessive, generally below 20o, and on the 21st day of this month the mercury stood at 33° of Celsius's scale below freezing point, or 28° below zero of Fahrenheit. It is impossible to recount all the horrors of such a season: no example had occurred during the last sixty years of one so severe. The peasants attending the market came with their faces, arms, and legs, frozen : the soldiers on guard, though relieved every hour, were often taken up in the same condition; and one, it was said, had been found dead at his post. Besides the miserable cases of persons frostbitten that daily thronged the hospitals, several deaths took place among those who were out of the way of immediate assistance. A poor woman, to mention one instance, being ignorant of the unusual inclemency of this morning, had gone early to her usual occupation of washing on the river side; scarce half an hour elapsed before we saw her on her return, borne VOL. LIX.

under our windows to her home a lifeless corpse.

It will be well to observe, that the extraordinary increase of cold is not directly made known by symptoms such as might be expected; no external sensation will enable any person to form an estimate of its comparative rigour. The action of a temperature such as the above is not like the nipping of a frost in England, but a general extension of its baneful influence is felt over the whole body, its access being so gradual that, for several minutes after leaving a warm room, the air seems to make little or no impression: an attempt, however, to endure it for even a quarter of an hour, unless extraordinarily well wrapped up in fur or wadded clothing, would be attended with the highest degree of danger. Exercise alone is totally unable to keep up the necessary vital warmth: the linen becoming moist is instantly converted to a covering of ice, and the animal heat escapes as fast as it is excited.

Even with the adoption of every possible precaution, very injurious effects will sometimes manifest themselves. A soreness in breathing, an oppressive headach, a want of sense in the extremities, and a stiffness in the thighs, are the first symptoms which give the stranger warning to seek again the timely shelter of his house.

Frequently did we remark the dead white patch on the cheek, the ears, or the noses of the lower class, who were moderately provided in point of clothing; and to guard against such contingencies, it was usual to see many 21

of

the

the well furred gentry with the upper part of their faces in masks, with coverings fitted to their ears, and applying their fingers with incessant care to every part of their visages in succession: or sometimes, which is the best preservative for travelling, their skins, where exposed, were greased with oil. Salutations in the street at this period are short; scarce a word or an answer; and the greatest assemblage of people (for the groups are seldom numerous) can be compared only to a meeting at a deaf and dumb asylum. A north-east wind, during such weather as this, is a chill blast of death that exceeds in horror any other curse of heaven.

It is not without reason that so much care is used to prevent the face from being taken by the frost, for as the skin is destroyed by its action, a blemish like the sore of a burn serves to recal the memory of the accident during the whole of the succeeding summer. As to the general effects of the constant cold on the body, I cannot help remarking that the women of all classes both here, and as I afterwards observed in Russia, seemed to be much less affected than the men. It may be that they seldom stay out of doors for so great a length of time as the other sex, but it is certainly true that the influence of the climate on the body varies much in degree upon different habits; but I think I may be warranted in saying, that it is most commonly manifested in a determination of blood to the head, and a tendency to lethargy, but this is by no means universal.

The extreme accumulation of

animal electricity in the frame is also remarkable; the natural moisture necessary to carry it of not having been produced during the day, it is retained in great quantities, which are visibly discharged at night on undressing in

a warm room.

The power of the constitution to bear against cold, contrary to vulgar ideas, is weakened gradually more and more by endurance; the frame is enervated, in artificial life at least, and a stranger, instead of growing more hardy and secure, braves the sharpness of the first winter with much greater success than he can attempt a second year. In the course of the first spring, indeed, after his arrival, he feels infinitely more sensible of its injury than he had been of a similar temperature in the preceding autumn.

Several striking natural phenomena attend this season: syn.ptoms of a degree of rigour of which an Englishman has little or no conception. The smoke seems to ascend from the chimney-tops a dense compact cloud, and the atmosphere itself, though not obscure, assumes a heavy aspect, more particularly made observable at the rising and setting of the sun. While no sooner has the thermometer fallen to 20°—(Celsius), or 4 below the zero of Fahrenheit's scale, than the cel lars of the houses emit a strong vapour to the streets; and all the streams of water, whose rapidity is sufficient to check congelation, give out in similar way a powerful steam during day and night from their surface. It was an extraordinary spectacle to see the bridge at Stockholm, through

which the waters of the Mælar were discharged, constantly enveloped during the month in a thick exhalation, as if rising from boiling water.

This effect admits of an easy explanation: a perpetual supply of water takes place from under the ice, great part of which (since the freezing of its surface) has reassumed a higher degree of temperature from the warmth of the earth; the interchange of particles occurring in the steam, because they are in this way possessed of a different quantity of heat, prevents the whole from being cooled down to the point necessary for congelation: the declivity continually keeps up the effect; and so great a difference existing between the temperature of the air and that of the water will occasion steam to be given out from its surface at any point of the thermometer.

The wolves at this time, severely pressed by famine, lost their usual dread of man, and prowled fearlessly on the roads, following the track of the carriages, to a great distance; in one or two instances indeed they were known to venture, during the night, into the villages in search of prey.

All communication with England, through the port of Gottenburgh, was entirely cut off; the packet-boat came in sight, but was inaccessible from the regions of broken ice that encircled the coast an hundred guineas were offered to any one that would undertake the perilous office of fetching the mails ashore; yet even this temptation was held out in vain, and after waiting more than a fortnight the vessel returned to Harwich.

On setting foot in the Aland islands we passed the frontier of the Russian empire, for the line of their coast was settled as the boundary by the treaty of 1809: it is singular, that notwithstanding their vicinity to Stockholm, so dangerous in case of a rupture, the Swedish government has not reclaimed these important posts, for there was a time when Russia could not have refused to cede them.

The island scenery appeared, as we journeyed, even at this time, beautiful; the dark lush of the fir formed a strong contrast with the silvery fleeces of snow that roofed the forest, and the whole seemed to have assumed a new charm in this livery of winter. Our road was an undeviating line from place to place, no obstacle presented itself; we passed over the fields, through the woods, across the ice; hill and dale, land and water, were all alike sometimes we traversed the rocky channel of a deep-bedded river, at other times wandered among the inlets of a lake, at others again steered our way between the islands over the open sea. The path was traced out on shore by large poles headed with straw, over the ice by boughs of trees, stationed at intervals, drawing a long thread over its surface that in some places reached to the very edge of the horizon; we were skirted, indeed, by one of these hedges in our passage across the Delet, for the distance of more than twenty English miles.

The burden of providing these necessary marks is a duty that falls upon the inhabitants of the several parishes respectively; notice is given at the church as soon as the ice may be reckoned secure, and 212

certain