e
is divided into pretty light divisions for two persons; but the second
class is all the more uncomfortable: its cabin is used for a common
dining-room by day, and by night hammocks are slung up in it for sleeping
accommodation. The arrangements for the luggage are worse still. The
canal-boats, having only a very small hold, trunks, boxes, portmanteaus,
&c. are heaped up on the deck, not fastened at all, and very
insufficiently protected against rain. The consequence of this
carelessness on a journey of five or six days was, that the rain and the
high waves of the lakes frequently put the after-deck several inches
under water, and then the luggage was wetted through. It was worse still
in a squall on the Wenner lake; for while the ship was rather roughly
tossed about, many a trunk lost its equilibrium and fell from its high
position, frequently endangering the safety of the passengers' heads.
The fares are, however, very cheap, which seemed doubly strange, as the
many locks must cause considerable expense.

And now for the journey itself. We started at five o'clock in the
morning, and soon arrived in the river Gotha, whose shores for the first
few miles are flat and bare. The valley itself is bounded by bare, rocky
hills. After about nine miles we came to the town of Kongelf, which is
said to have 1000 inhabitants. It is so situated among rocks, that it is
almost hidden from view. On a rock opposite the town are the ruins of
the fortress Bogus. Now the scenery begins to be a little more
diversified, and forests are mingled with the bleak rocks; little valleys
appear on both the shores; and the river itself, here divided by an
islet, frequently expands to a considerable breadth. The peasants'
cottages were larger and better than those in Norway; they are generally
painted brick-red, and are often built in groups.

The first lock is at Lilla Edet: there are five here; and while the ship
passes through them, the passengers have leisure to admire the contiguous
low, but broad and voluminous fall of the Gotha.

This first batch of locks in the canal extends over some distance past
the fall, and they are partly blasted out of the rock, or built of stone.
The river past Akestron flows as through a beautiful park; the valley is
hemmed in by fertile hills, and leaves space only for the stream and some
picturesque paths winding along its shores, and through the pine-groves
descending to its banks.

In the afternoo