mon to both. Though
iron is found in large deposits in Norway, it is still more abundant
in Sweden, where it is chiefly of the magnetic and haematite
character, yielding when properly smelted the best ore for the
manufacture of steel. It is believed that there is sufficient
malleable and ductile iron in the soil of Sweden to supply the whole
world with this necessary article for a thousand years to come. Mount
Gellivare, which is over eighteen hundred feet in height, is said to
be almost wholly formed of an ore containing fully eighty per cent of
the best quality of merchantable iron; so that a dearth of this
mineral is certainly not imminent.

But let us not wander too far from our course due north. Nor are we
yet quite ready to depart from Gottenburg. While strolling alone
through its broad and pleasant avenues, the writer met a couple of
girls of about eleven and twelve years respectively. They were
evidently sisters, and they looked so bright and so pleasantly into
the stranger's face that he addressed them in the few native words at
his command. That we were a foreigner was at once realized, and the
eldest asked from whence we came. So much could be understood, and
happily the name America was plain enough to them. It acted like a
charm upon them, lighting up their soft blue eyes and wreathing their
lips with smiles, while it also elicited their confidence. Each put a
tiny hand within our own, and thus escorted we passed along until the
nearest confectioner's shop was reached. Here we met upon terms where
pantomime was quite sufficiently expressive, and we were soon engaged
in partaking gleefully of bon-bons, cakes, and cream. What a merry
half hour we three passed together, and how rapidly the time flew!
Was real pleasure ever more cheaply purchased than at the moderate
price demanded by the shop-keeper, who placed a little packet of
sweets in each of the children's hands as we parted? On passing out
upon the avenue we came full upon a person who was all astonishment
and courtesy combined. It was Rene, our Danish courier. "I did not
think, sir," he said, "that you knew any one in Gottenburg." "You
were right, Rene," was the reply, "but these little fairies took
possession of us, and we have had a delightful half hour together."
Then both of the children began to speak to him at the same time, and
he to reply to them. It was soon made apparent why they should so
have affiliated with and trusted a stranger. They un