Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
TRAYELS OF EHRENMALM, : 339
of that kingdom. It is high time that man, who has ravaged and depopulated the
earth for ages, fhould at lait endeavour to fertilize it completely, and to cover it with
inhabitants.
The road leading from Lzebi to Ghefle is bordered with a land producing nothing
but firs; but if peace continue long, thefe trees, yet young, will become of great utility
to navigation. ‘This diftri&t, however, pofleffes villages, the fruits of cultivation, and
exhibits fome fertility. The fand of this foil is covered, in fome places, with a bed of
black earth ; but this bed is of fuch little thicknefs, that it is more prejudicial than ad-
vantageous to burn the fields, in order to render them fertile.
No land is entirely ufelefsin the eyes of an induftrious economift. In thefe countries,
almoft defarts, the intelligent cultivators have left’ the hills to be covered with woods,
while they have diftributed the plain into fields and pafture-lands. Here are found
fields of a fandy foil, which receives fertility by manure; lands a mixture of fand
and argil; and foils of pure argil: beneath the beds of fand there mutt be a bed of
argil, of the fame nature as that of the vallies.
At two miles and a half on this fide of Ghefle we croffed the river of Da/, which pro-
ceeds from Dalecarlia, and pafles to the manufactory of Avefta. Near this paflage we
faw a fall, or cataract, which, we were told, is the ftrongeft of this river. At that
place two iflands divide it into three arms, which form three falls; that on the eaft the
iteepeft, and four fathoms high, falls from four rocks, which increafe the rapidity : the
two other cafcades, the one more feeble than the other, are little remarkable, and fome-
times fail of water.
Below thefe falls the fhores of the river are of a bed of fand, which at the depth of
two fathoms covers a bed of argil. The annual increafe of the waters in the fpring,
raifes up the fand and tranfports it to the bed of the river, where there are formed mov-
ing banks, from ten to twelve feet in height: the ice of the river breaking up alfo de-
taches the fand, and augments the banks of the river at the expence of its fhores ; thus
the {aores are undermined, and its channel leffened: the lands become the prey of the
waters which fhould nourifh them. An attempt might be made to dig the fhores of the
river when the waters are low, and to plant trees, which would protect the lands againft
the inundations: the river then compelled to run in its proper channel, would foon
deftroy the banks of fand which time has accumulated. It would become navigable ;
and poiterity would blefs the generation who fhould have thus prepared for the welfare
of its defcendants.
It would be the means of deriving fertility even from the bofom of this river, which
confumes the countries that it waters, to dig in the argil, or the rich land which is bu-
ried under the fand; the two mixed together would enrich the fields. This work
might be attempted during the fummer: it would often be laborious, on account of the
depth of the fand. But there are places where the argil, lying very near the furface of
the earth, would reward the labourer for the pains which this method of fertilizing his
land would coft. Thus the river Dal, which, befides very full of other fifh, furnifhes
great quantities of falmon and lampreys to the inhabitants of its fhores, would alfo be-
come a great refource for agriculture. There are few countries where the waters do
not offer to man more means of fubfiftence than it deprives him of: the torrents which
ravage in winter, water the landsin fummer. The great rivers which defolate their
fhores to the right and left, moiften the lands far diftant from thefe fame fhores, which
they never ceafe to overthrow. ‘The fea, which exercifes over the globe an eternal and
infurmountable empire, receives men and nourifhes them, when it has difpoffefled them
of their lands, or tranfports them to countries which it permits to exift, during fome.
Xi 2 ages,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
