Trinity Church, with its famous round tower, was erected by Christian IV. for an observatory. The tower is ascended within by means of a spiral inclined-plane, up which the Empress Catherine, in 1716, drove four horses, Peter the Great preceding her on horseback.

Elsinore, 40 miles north of Copenhagen, is situated on the Sound, only a mile distant from the Swedish coast. Here is the Castle of Kronborg, a fortress commanding the Sound, erected in 1574 for the purpose of collecting dues enforced on all vessels going to or coming from the Baltic. The place is interesting from its association with Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, the battlements of the square tower of this castle being the scene where the ghost of Hamlet's father" was doomed · for a certain term to walk the night." On a terrace to the north of the town, in a grove of trees, is a pile of stones shown as Hamlet's grave, and close by is Ophelia's brook.

Many of Shakespeare's dramas, modified and embellished by fiction, are founded on fact. Hamlet was really a native of Jutland, a section of Denmark, where his father was a famous piratechief, and associate governor with his brother of the northern portion of the country. Hamlet's father had married the daughter of the Danish king, and was subsequently murdered by his own brother, who married his widow, and succeeded to the government of the whole of Jutland. Hamlet,

who was a pagan, deeming it his first duty to avenge his father, feigned madness in order to encompass his ends, and contriving to slay his uncle became Governor of Jutland, and was eventually killed in battle. The name Hamlet, pronounced by the Danes Amlet, signifies madman.

It

Jönköping, on the southern extremity of Lake Wetter, is an old Swedish town, which was set on fire in 1612 by Gustavus Adolphus, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. was here that, in 1809, the treaty of peace between Sweden and Denmark was signed. This town is best known as the place of manufacture of the famous Swedish matches, made without sulphur or phosphorus, and since imitated in other countries.

Gottenburg, the first commercial, and secondlargest city in Sweden, has a population of 75,000. It is situated on the Gotha river, and has a fine harbor, but is by no means an attractive city. The military governor resides here, and in the building occupied by him Charles XI., of the Palatinate line, died in 1660.

The Gotha Canal is the general name given to the entire water highway between Gottenburg and Stockholm—each artificial connection having its individual name—which joins the waters of the North Sea to those of the Baltic. The total length of the entire route is 260 miles, while the artificial portions are 57 miles in length, and in

clude 53 locks. The work on the canal was begun in the 16th century, and was in course of construction during the reigns of successive monarchs. Travelling through this route one sees most wonderful specimens of engineering, and while the steamer ascends, through numerous locks, apparently a succession of gigantic steps, one has an opportunity to explore the surrounding country, and to see some of the grandest scenery and finest waterfalls in Sweden.

The Falls of Trolhätta, at the outlet of Lake Wener, seven in number, 108 feet in height, and covering a distance of 480 feet, are sixty miles from Gottenburg. The view obtained of the Rapids, and of the whole series of falls, from a rocky eminence overhanging the river, is one of extreme beauty. The locks on the Trolhätta canal are 19 in number, the oldest of which was constructed in the reign of Charles XII. by the great engineer and celebrated founder of the religious sect, Swedenborg.

Christiania, the capital of Norway, with a population of 100,000, was founded by Christian IV. in 1624. The city is beautifully situated on a fiord, an inlet of the sea, gemmed with a number of small islands, and closed in by a range of hills thickly wooded with Norwegian pine. Although Nature has done so much to beautify it, the city is most commonplace and unattractive. The University museum contains a fair collection

of paintings, the finest of which is Tiedeman's Haugiauer," or, preaching in a cottage, much admired in the Paris Exposition of 1855. Here, also, is the Viking ship, found buried near the coast, supposed to be a war vessel a thousand years old, and containing the bones of human beings and horses.

The Castle of Aggershuus, on an eminence commanding the harbor, was built during the 14th century. It contains at present the regalia and crown jewels; and is noted as having been the place of confinement of the famous Hoiland, the combined Robin Hood and Jack Sheppard of Norway. This man was distinguished for his generosity and kindness towards his associates, and his devotion to the fair sex, while his robberies were entirely confined to the rich; bolts and bars were of no avail against his strength and ingenuity.

The Parliament House, or Diet, and the City Palace, are among the few prominent buildings of the city.

Oscar's Hall, a summer residence of the King, five miles out of town, is a showy building well located on a neck of land, and commanding beautiful views of water and landscape.

Leaving Christiania by rail, we skirted a number of fiords, cascades and rapids, the mountain views being among the finest in Norway; then forty miles by boat on the Randsfiord, the most

beautiful of Norwegian lakes, and again by diligence to Mustad.

Mustad, on the summit of the mountain, consists of a few insignificant houses, and serves as a way station for travellers visiting the remote parts of Norway. The inn is primitive in its appearance and domestic arrangement. Upon the register were only two names of English-speaking people inscribed within ten years; and on a table. an old wooden-bound family Bible of mine host bore the date 1580.

After spending the night in this mountain retreat, we continued our journey to Lake Mjösen, which is over fifty miles long, and two thousand feet deep. Here we crossed over to Hamor, prettily situated on the lake, and a station on the line of railway to Trondhjem.

Trondhjem, on a fiord bearing the same name, at the terminus of the railroad, has 23,000 inhabitants, is the largest of the northern towns of Europe, and has the same latitude as that of southern Iceland. It was founded by Olaf Tryggvesson in 994, was formerly the capital of Norway, and here the kings of Norway and Sweden are still crowned. The city has suffered much from plague and conflagration. The streets are wide, well paved and clean, but the houses, built of stone or brick, are low and insignificant. cathedral, where the kings are crowned, is of Norman architecture, and was erected in the 11th

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