fords so great a range of shifting yet ever lovely
aspects. Travellers are fond of calling it, in the imitative
nomenclature of commonplace, the "Venice of the North"--but it is no
Venice. It is not that swan of the Adriatic, singing her death-song in
the purple sunset, but a northern eaglet, nested on the islands and
rocky shores of the pale green Malar lake. The _Stad_, or city proper,
occupies three islands, which lie in the mouth of the narrow strait, by
which the waters of the lake, after having come a hundred miles from the
westward, and washed in their course the shores of thirteen hundred
islands, pour themselves into the outer archipelago which is claimed by
the Baltic Sea. On the largest of these islands, according to tradition,
Agne, King of Sweden, was strangled with his own golden chain, by the
Finnish princess Skiolfa, whom he had taken prisoner. This was sixteen
hundred years ago, and a thousand years later, Birger Jarl, on the same
spot, built the stronghold which was the seed out of which Stockholm has
grown.

This island, and the adjoining _Riddarholm_, or Island of the Knights,
contain all the ancient historic landmarks of the city, and nearly all
of its most remarkable buildings. The towers of the Storkyrka and the
Riddarholm's Church lift themselves high into the air; the dark red mass
of the _Riddarhus_, or House of Nobles, and the white turrets and
quadrangles of the penitentiary are conspicuous among the old white,
tile-roofed blocks of houses; while, rising above the whole, the most
prominent object in every view of Stockholm, is the _Slot_, or Royal
Palace. This is one of the noblest royal residences in Europe. Standing
on an immense basement terrace of granite, its grand quadrangle of
between three and four hundred feet square, with wings (resembling, in
general design, the Pitti Palace at Florence), is elevated quite above
the rest of the city, which it crowns as with a mural diadem. The chaste
and simple majesty of this edifice, and its admirable proportions, are a
perpetual gratification to the eye, which is always drawn to it, as a
central point, and thereby prevented from dwelling on whatever
inharmonious or unsightly features there may be in the general view.

Splendid bridges of granite connect the island with the northern and
southern suburbs, each of which is much greater in extent than the city
proper. The palace fronts directly upon the _Norrbro_, or Northern
Bridge, the great thor