uite limited, consisting
of Jutland only; but she has a number of islands far and near, Zeeland
being the most populous, and containing, as we have shown, the capital.
As a state she may be said to occupy a much larger space in history
than upon the map of Europe. The surface of the island of Zeeland is
uniformly low, in this resembling Holland, the highest point reaching an
elevation of about two hundred and fifty feet. To be precise in the
matter of her dominions, the colonial possessions of Denmark may be thus
enumerated: Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe group of islands, between the
Shetlands and Iceland; adding St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John in the
West Indies. Greenland is nearly as large as Germany and France
combined; but owing to its ice-clothed character in most parts, its
inhabitants do not quite reach an aggregate of ten thousand. Iceland is
nearly the size of our New England States, and has a population of
seventy-five thousand. The Faroes contain ten thousand inhabitants, and
the three West Indian islands united have a population of a little over
forty thousand.

In the year 1880 the Danish monarchy reached the thousandth anniversary
of its foundation under Gorm the Old, whose reign bridges over the
interval between mere legend and the dawn of recorded history. Gorm is
supposed to have been a direct descendant of the famous Regnar Lodbrog,
who was a daring and imperious ruler of the early Northmen. The common
origin of the three Baltic nationalities which constitute Scandinavia is
clearly apparent to the traveller who has visited Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway. The race has been steadily modified, generation after
generation, in its more important characteristics by the progressive
force of civilization. These Northmen are no longer the haughty and
reckless warriors who revelled in wine drunk from the skulls of their
enemies, and who deemed death respectable only when encountered upon
the battle-field. Clearer intelligence and culture have substituted the
duties of peaceful citizens for the occupation of marauders, and the
enterprises of civilized life for the exaggerated romance of sea-rovers.
Reading and writing, which were once looked upon by them as allied to
the black art, are now the accomplishment of nearly all classes, and
nowhere on the globe do we find people more cheerful, intelligent,
frank, and hospitable than in the three kingdoms of the far North.

The Denmark of to-day, typified by Copenhag