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THROUGH SWEDEN. 21
through which it was neceffary to penetrate before that level could
be effeRted. I faw the canal not only when it was accomplished,
but in its laborious progress toward completion. This canal,
which was undertaken and begun by Charles XII. ftormed part of
a grssand plan meditated by Gustavus Vasa, and attempted by some
of his successorsfss, for joining the Baltic with the North Sea by
means of a communication cut through the kingdom. If eyer
a canal should be extended from the lake of Wennern, which is
the largest in Sweden, being about, five hundred miles long and
seventy-five broad, by Orebro to the lake of Hielmar, the Swedes
’nsilay then, by a conjunction of this lake with that of Milar, through
the sluices of Arboga, transport all kinds of merchandize in the
fame vessel from Gothenburg to Stockholm. Thus a passage
would be opened between the North Sea and the Baltic, and,
among other advantages, the duties of the Sound would be
ayoided. PThe canal of Trolhitta may justly be considered as
in some respects charaReristical of the Swedish nation ; for it re-
presents them as they are, prone to the conception of grand en-
terprises, and distinguished by mechanical invention. As a work:
of art, and of bold and persevering design, it is not too much to
fay, that it 1s the first in the world, even the Duke of Bridge-
water’s canal in England, and that of Languedoc in France, not
excepted.
There 1s nothing that communicates to the mind a greater 1dea
of human skill, than the means that have been discovered for con-
veying things from one place to another. The watery element,
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