The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

SWEDISH TOWNS. 137Northwards now stretches the vast Norrmalm quarter, its avenues continuallycreeping landwards and over the island of Kungsholm. Southwards, the lessaristocratic district of Sodermalm, tunnelled by an underground railway, fillsthe greater part of an island surrounded by shallow waters, and connected byseveral bridges with the outlying suburbs on the mainland. Viaducts andspacious causeways cross all the channels, and even towards the sea scatteredisles are connected by long piers with the shore. Some of the quarters thusrecall the marvellous city raised amidst the Adriatic lagoons.The most imposing building is the royal palace, a vast stone quadranglestanding on the site of the founder's original fortress.It contains eight hundredapartments, some recalling historic scenes, others adorned with tapestries andpaintings. The terrace commands a view of ths harbour, islands, and greaterpart of the city.Not far off rises the Storkyrka, or " Great Church," the oldestmonument in Stockholm, founded by Birger Jarl in 1264, but since frequentlyrestored. Here the Swedish kings are now enthroned. Riddarholm, or"Knight's Island," contains another royal church decorated with standardsand war trophies, where are the tombs of Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII., andBernadotte. In front of the church stands a fanciful statue of Birger Jarl, andthe whole island is covered exclusively with national monuments. Nearly all thesquares are adorned with bronze statues, mostly of kings, but amongst them thatof Berzelius, who lived, taught, and died here.On a peninsula facing the royal palace stands the National Museum, a vastcollection, including some remarkable statues and 1,500 paintings, amongstwhich the Flemish and Dutch schools are best represented. But the museumis chiefly distinguished by its " Prehistoric Gallery," full of objects admirablyclassified by Hildebrand. An Ethnographic Museum, recently founded byHazelius, is already rich in specimens illustrating the customs, arts, and industriesof the Scandinavians and Lapps. The Academy of Sciences also contains avaluable natural-history museum, including the famous block of meteoric orterrestrial iron, weighing 20 tons, brought from Disco by Nordenskjold. TheAcademy library is very rich in valuable documents—among others, all Swedenborg'smanuscripts and the herbarium of Linnccus. In the Humlegarden Park,on the north side, stands the National Library, constructed so as to allow ofindefinite expansion, and already containing nearly 200,000 volumes, amongstwhich are the Latin version of the four Gospels known as the Codex Aureus,and the famous "Devil's Bible," a collection of magical and other formulas,said to date from the ninth century. Here are also 8,000 manuscripts, historical,autobiographic collections, and other precious records. In Stockholmeducation is held in great honour ; instruction of a high order is received in theFine Arts and Musical Academies ; and the Free University, gradually beingdeveloped by voluntary aid and municipal grants, numbered 340 students of bothsexes in 1878.Industry is very active and varied, including foundries, refineries, spinningmills,ship-building, and in the neighbourhood china and porcelain works.Trade