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CONFIGURATION.
15
dissimilar in various parts as to cause some sections to lie below the
general level, thereby giving rise to the basins now occupied by lakes. Of
these countless lakes some are of considerable size; from very early
times they have played an important part in facilitating intercourse
between different places in the heart of Sweden. The four chief lakes are:
Height above Greatest „ „
Sea-Level Water-area Length Greatest Depth
meters s1- km km m
Mälaren..............0’3—0’6 1 149 117 64
Hjälmaren............21 0 480 61 18
Vättern..............88 2 1899 131 119
Vänern..............440 5 546 150 89
Very remarkable features in the landscape of the plains of Central
Sweden are the very numerous eskers (åsar) of rubble-stone and gravel,
which traverse the country in a NNW — SSE direction. These ridges
attain considerable lengtT and vary in height up to 30 m, or occasionally 60
m; they are comb-shapeu nd are usually wooded; they often rise above the
hills of Archaean rocks, and are on the whole unaffected by the original
topography of the country around them. They are deposits from the
Glacial Epoch. From a practical point of view they are of very great
importance as affording a plentiful supply of excellent water and also of gravel
which latter has been put to a large variety of uses. Similar ridges are to
be found in other parts of Sweden, but in more hilly districts they do not
play nearly so great a part orographically as for instance in Central
Sweden. Such ridges are the famous Brunkebergs-åsen, in Stockholm,
and the Uppsala-åsen.
Like the Lowlands of Central Sweden, the Coast Districts in Bohuslän,
North Halland and Småland have also been submerged beneath the sea
to a depth of from 150 to 60 m (diminution southwards). Consequently,
the resemblance between those districts is very considerable. The actual
coast-line is fringed with a numerous array of islands of varying sizes
and of islets or skerries (Skärgård), which only comes to an end
southwards, on the East coast, at Åhus, and on the West near Varberg. The
more favourable climatic conditions that prevail roughly speaking from
the South of Uppland, on the one hand, and from the Norwegian boundary,
on the other, give rise, however, to the prevalence of a richer and more
varied vegetation of choicer foliferous trees and numerous herbaceous
plants in those coastal districts where the soil is of superior quality. This
contributes to give the southern Skärgård of Sweden a more varied and
often a more inviting aspect than is that of the northern Skärgård. The
ravages of the west winds, however, along with ruthless felling of the
woods have deprived large parts of the west coast area of their forests:
consequently bare rocks and low heights covered with a stunted growth of
heather form a characteristic feature of the scenery of this unique
coast-fringe of peninsulars, islands and skerries.
An intermediate form, so to say, between the Central Swedish Low-
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