The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

SWEDISH TOWNS. 133ITveen, visible to the south, is the celebrated site of his Uraniborg, afterwardsrazed to the ground by a mistress of Christian IV.The meteorological observationsof the illustrious astronomer have been compared with those recently madeat Copenhagen, and show that the general atmospheric conditions have undergoneno change for the last three hundred years.In this extreme south-west corner of Sweden the population is very dense, acircumstance due partly to the fertility of the soil and relatively temperate climate,but more especially to the development of trade. The coast towns share in theprofits of the traffic in the Sound, and Landskrona and Malmo, whence Copenhagenis visible, may be regarded as Swedish suburbs of the Danish capital, taking partin its progress and general development. Landskrona is mainly a fortress, thetown proper being hemmed in between a vast citadel surrounded by moats andFort Graen. a granite islet carved into geometrical figures by its basins and ditches.Malmo, on the contrary, is a commercial town, whose approaches have lately beenmuch improved by extensive works, including a port 20 feet deep, and landreclaimed from the sea, already covered with docks, workshops, and building yards.Malmo is now the third city in Sweden, and has far outstripped its former rival,the university town of Lund, lying a little to the north-east, amidst the most fertiledistricts of Scania. Before the Eeformation Lund -was the primatial city of allScandinavia, and called itself the " metropolis " of Denmark.But deprived of itsprivileges, and ruined by the wars, it sank rapidly to a place of no more than1,000 inhabitants at the end of the last century. Thanks, however, to its university,founded by Charles X. in 1668, it has slowly revived, and now possesses some finebuildings, parks, gardens, the archaeological museum founded by Mlsson, and aByzantine cathedral dating from the eleventh century, one of the most remarkablemonuments in Sweden. The bronze statue of the poet Tegner adorns one of itspromenades.On the sandy promontory forming the south-west extremity of Scania standthe towns of Skanor and Fakterbo, jointly forming one municipality, formerlyflourishing, now much reduced, and continually encroached upon by the shiftingdunes. East of them are Trellcborg and Ystad, north of which lies Kristianstadin a marshy plain, formerly a fiord, which has been drained, -while the river Helgehas been deepened and rendered navigable for small steamers. Farther on arethe ports of Solvesborg, Karkhamn, and Ronneby, the last mentioned noted for itsrich copperas and alumina mineral waters. "When Karkkrona was founded thepeople of Ronneby -were ordered to remove to the new town, concealed behind arampart of fortified islands, near the south-east headland of Scandinavia. Namedafter Charles XL, Karlskrona is the chief Swedish naval station, with graving docksexcavated in the live rock, numerous detached forts commanding the approachto the roadstead, and an arsenal supplied with excellent water by an aqueduct5 miles long.Kahnar, like Karlskrona, capital of a Ian, is a venerable place, which owes itsimportance to its position on the strait separating Oland from the mainland. Inhistory its name is chiefly associated with the treaty of union concluded in 1397vol. v.L