Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - I. Physical Geography - 1. Configuration and Water-system. By Docent Gunnar Andersson, Ph. D., Stockholm - B) The Lowlands in Central Sweden
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configuration and .water-system.
19
The ravages of the west winds, however, and wantonness in the care
of the woods have deprived large parts of these islets off the west
coast of their forests; and bare rocks, or, at best, rocks covered with
a stunted growth of heather, are a characteristic feature of the scenery
of this unique coast-fringe of islands and skerries.
A kind of transition from the Central Swedish lowlands to the
plains of Skåne is presented by the islands of Öland and Gotland; the
former has an area of 1,345 sq. kilom, and the latter of 2,959 sq. kilom.
During the last phase of the Glacial Epoch both islands were under
the sea entirely. Hence, the looser constituents of the soil have been
Stånge Head. Photo. M. Jacobson,
In the »Stttrffkrd» of the cout of BohnslKn. Lysekil.
subjected to the same sorting and rearranging processes that took
place in the provinces of Central Sweden, but as the basal röck consists
of Silurian limestones, schists, and marls, the country has acquired
quite a different character. Broadly speaking, the two islands consist
of uniform plains of limestone röck, the altitudes of which vary only
by some tens of meters. The layers of light, loose soil, which readily
permit the penetration of moisture, together with the cold, dry springs
and early summers, render the character of the vegetation much more
like that of northern latitudes than one would expect from the
plant-life of those localities, that are sheltered, moist, and warm. The greater
part of Gotland is occupied by dry, sterile pine-forests, amidst which
there occur patches of foliage trees of varied species, forming interesting
oases in the otherwise uniform landscape; the main part of Öland con-
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