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CONFIGURATION.
11
In this belt with its drier soil forests cover large areas; indeed so
extensive are they, that it is this region which constitutes the chief source
of that wealth in timber for which Sweden is so famous and which
exercises such an influence upon the world’s timber-market. This vast forest
region embraces, in round numbers, 100 000 sq. km in Norrland, Dalarne
and Värmland, and extends for 1 000 km in a NNE—SSW direction,
with a breadth varying between 150—250 km. The Scotch fir is, in general,
the most prevalent tree on drier soils and wherever forest fires in recent
times have destroyed the timber, whereas the Norway spruce is more
predominant in places with greater moisture. On the peat-mosses, on the other
hand, no timber grows; there the ground has a covering of various species
of heather, sphagnum and sedge, with here and there some patches of
stunted pines.
Save for the plains of Upper Lappland described above, the typical
river-valley in this belt has steep and naked banks; the landscape only
assumes a more attractive appearance in the vicinity of tlie lakes or along
the course of some isolated glen. Otherwise the aspect of these forest
regions is extremely monotonous — a land of vast distances and of scanty
communications. Except in the fertile Silurian plain of Jämtland, whose
surface was also’ partially covered with the ice-blocked lakes mentioned
above, the possibilities of cultivation with the now prevailing prices of
labour are very limited. To escape from the destructive agency of frost
as far as possible and to obtain the best and warmest soil available, the
peasants have located the patches of cultivated land on the slopes of the
heights that face the South, and there hamlets, farms and dairy-pastures
may be seen, like so many oases in the endless stretch of forests. In the
southernmost parts of the region, in the mining districts of Dalarne and
Värmland, cultivation of the soil has made greater progress owing to the
somewhat milder climate and especially to the abundance of valuable
ore-deposits.
c) The Marine Sand and Clay Belt. The extent of this belt is very
clearly marked in general in the river-valleys. At the base of the valleys
lie wide plains, ancient delta-land of sand or loam, deposited once upon
a time on the sea-bottom when the now-existing coast districts were
covered by the sea, i. e. at about the close of the Glacial Epoch or later.
In the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia these marine deposits attain
an elevation of about 200 m above the sea, and extend about 100 or 150
km into the interior; in Ångermanland, Medelpad and Hälsingland they
rise to as much as 250 m above the sea but as a rule do not penetrate
farther inland than from 50 to 80 km; in Dalarne and Värmland they
rise from 150 to 200 m above the sea. The sea has washed away the
moraine deposits of the Glacial Epoch from the summits, which
consequently mostly display the naked röck, or at all events are denuded of all their
finer material so that only gravel and stone remain. The material thus
removed from the summits was deposited on the former sea-bottom, which
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