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or brooks in the island -worthy of mention , but a considerable
part of its surface is covered with swamps (myrar or träsk), from
which peat is dug (jestingly called the ‘gold-mines of Gotland’).
The largest of these is the Lummelunds-Träsk. The few scanty
streams which the island contains are lost in the thirsty limestone
soil, or in summer dry up altogether. Here and there, however,
a spring wells forth from one of the ‘landtborgar’ in sufficient
volume to turn a mill-wheel. The limestone rocks are pierced with
numerous grottoes. In parts of the island the surface of the earth
is covered with loose stones (kalk-klapper), but the greater part of
it is fertile and well cultivated. The climate is mild, and the town
of Visby boasts of flourishing mulberry and walnut trees and of ivy
climbing luxuriantly over its venerable walls. The population
(02,570) is chiefly occupied with agriculture and cattle-breeding.
The horses (here called ‘russ’) and sheep of Gotland are allowed to
run wild in summer. Quarrying and lime-burning may be
mentioned among the other resources of the island. Gotland forms a
separate province of Sweden, having a Nationalbeväring, or
militia of its own, in which all the men between the ages of 18 and
50 are liable to serve. — Owing to their insular position, the
people of Gotland have retained many primitive characteristics,
and traces of their national poetry and sagas still survive. They
pride themselves on speaking purer Swedish than the
Stockholmers, and they generally pronounce more distinctly. Their more
frequent use of diphthongs recalls to some extent the Gothic of
Ulpliilas. One of the chief curiosities of the island consists in its
numerous churches (over 90), some of them very handsome
buildings, with their large detached towers, known as cusfeWur,
probably ancient places of refuge and much older than the churches
themselves. The roads are good, and the inns fair.
The History of Gotland is inseparable from that of Visby, its
capital, the ancient ‘place of sacrifice’ (from m, ‘victim’; viga
•consecrate’), situated at the foot of the Klint, a ‘landtborg’ on the
N_W. coast of the island. The town owed its early prosperity as
the great emporium of the Baltic to its convenient position on the
great commercial route established in the 12th cent, between Asia,
Novgorod iu Russia, and the Baltic, and at the point where this
route was intersected by the stream of western European traffic.
Owing, however, to interruptions by the Mongolians and to other
causes, the eastern traffic was gradually diverted to southern
Europe, and even began to find its way round the Cape of Good Hope.
Visby was an important factory of the Hanseatic League, where all
the principal nations of Europe had their representatives. The
German element, however, preponderated, half of the members of the
council and one of the two superior magistrates usually being
Germans. On the whole, however, Visby maintained its character
as the free international seaport of the Baltic , and this is con-
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