The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

CHAPTER II.THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA.(Norway and Sweden.)General Features.HE great northern peninsula comprises two distinct states, thoughruled by one sovereign, and otherwise bound together by ties of avery intimate character. Still they watch with careful jealousyover their mutual political independence, and even in their socialusages the two peoples are sharply contrasted. From the geographicalpoint of view also Norway and Sweden {Norge and Sverige) form equallydistinct natural regions, the one consisting mainly of plateaux and highlandsrising abruptly on the Atlantic side, while the other forms an extensive inclinefalling gradually towards an inland sea.But this physical contrast and their separate autonomy do not prevent theWesterfold and Austerfold, as they were formerly called, from forming a unitydistinct from that of other European lands, and which should thereforebe studiedas a whole. The term Scandinavia, or Island of Scandia, formerly restricted tothe southern extremity of Sweden, has been gradually extended to the entirepeninsula independently of its political divisions, and this very community ofname seems to point at a general and permanent fusion of the two regions.The natural frontier of the peninsula connects the northern extremity of theGulf of Bothnia directly with the Varanger-fiord, on the Frozen Ocean, andalthough political treaties have caused the line to recede in the most eccentricmanner westwards, thus allowing Russia to cut off Finmark almost completelyfrom the rest of Scandinavia, such conventional limits traced across extensivewastes have but little practical importance.Even within its present reduced limits, Scandinavia is one of the most extensiveregions in Europe, ranking in size next to Russia. Owing to its position on aninland sea giving access to Western and Central Europe, and on the Atlanticplacing it in relation with the rest of the world, it could not fail to exercise acertain influence in determining the balance of power, and the Goths, Norsemen,