The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

71 SCANDINAVIA..and Varangians Lave left a deep mark in history as conquerors and seafarers.Later on when modern Europe was already constituted, the Swedes, with a firmfootinf on the eastern and southern shores of the Baltic, were ahle to carry theirarms in one direction as far as the Vosges, the French Jura, and the Upper Danube,in another to the Russian steppes bordering on the Black Sea. But then came thefatal field of Poltava, ushering in the period of political decadence. Even beforethe loss of all their outlying possessions the Swedes were threatened on theirnative soil, and, at the very time of the first partition of Poland, Frederic II. wasplanning the dismemberment of Sweden. During the Napoleonic wars the suddenpolitical oscillations and dynastic changes, accompanied by the final loss of allterritory on the mainland, showed how largely the destiny of the Scandinavianstates depended on their powerful neighbours.Notwithstanding the mildness of its maritime climate, Sweden is still, on thewhole, too cold to allow its population to increase in the same proportion as that ofmore southern lands. Compared with Germany and Central Russia, it hasremained almost unsettled. The population of Sweden and Norway combinedexceeds that of Belgium only by alout one-fifth, while the area is twenty-six timesgreater.Physical Features of Norway.In the peninsula Norway is the land of plateaux and mountains, Sweden aregion of vast sloping plains. The main ridge stretches north and south at ashort distance from the Atlantic, but very irregularly, and with many seriousinterruptions. Within its political limits, Northern Norway consists of little morethan a highland strip facing the Atlantic ;and here are found the highest summitsof the peninsula. The mean length of the Norwegian is scarcely more thanone-fourth of the Swedish slope. About one-third of the area of Norway, and notmore than one-twelfth of Sweden, stands at an elevation of 2,000 feet, and thewhole mountain mass has been compared to a vast wave solidified in the actof breaking.The main ridge, extending 1,150 miles from Varanger-fiord to the Naze, is farfrom presenting the appearance of a continuous range, such as it was figured on themaps before Munch had correctly described its true character. Norway consists,on the whole, of detached plateaux and mountain masses, raised on a common base2,000 to 3,000 feet high, and pierced at intervals by profound inlets. The plateauxform two distinct groups—on the north the Ejolen, extending from Finmark to theTrondhjem table-land ;on the south the Dovrefield and neighbouring masses.The mean height of the Norwegian summits is only one-half that of the Alps,whereas the general base of the Scandinavian system is one-third broader thanthe Alpine.Even in the extreme north-east, throughout the whole of Finmark, there is noridge properly so called. The entire country, with an altitude of about 1,000 feet,forms a vast irregular plain, composed of pahcozoic rocks, above which here andthere rise mountain masses, with a mean elevation of 1,700 feet, and culminating