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CONFIGURATION.
17
lands and the Plains of Skåne is presented in some degree by the islands
of Öland (1 345 sq. km) and Gottland (2 959 sq. km). During the last
phase of the Glacial Epoch both those islands were entirely submerged.
Hence, the looser constituents of the Quaternary deposits were subjected to
the same sorting and re-arranging processes that took effect in the
provinces of Central Sweden, but as the fundamental röck consists of Silurian
limestones, schists, and marls, with horizontal stratification, the country here
has acquired quite a different character. Broadly speaking, each of the two
islands consists of a level limestone röck, the altitude of which only varies
to the extent of twenty or thirty meters. The shallowness and ready
permeability of the soil, allied to the coldness and dryness of the springs and
early summers, render the general character of the vegetation much more
like that of northern latitudes than might be expected, to judge from
the plant-life of certain moist, warm and sheltered localities. The greater
part of Gottland, for example, consists of arid pine-forests, with little
variety of species; in their midst patches of foliferous trees of varied species
form interesting oases in an otherwise uniform landscape; the main part of
Öland too consists of a naked, steppe-like limestone röck, to which the
name Alvaren has been given. The northern parts of Gottland and Öland
and the small island to the north of Gottland, called Gotska Sandön,
present very fine expanses of sand-dunes.
C) From a geographical point of view the Småland Highlands include
all the land lying above the region of the marine deposits, not only in
Småland itself but also in South Västergötland, Halland, North Skåne,
and Blekinge. This region presents such a complete resemblance in all
respects to the middle belt in Upper Sweden (that of the moraines and
the peat-mosses), that it is scarcely necessary to give any minute description
of it. As may be seen by the map, it is only exceptionally that the height
of the district is less than 100 m above the sea, and more than half of it,
chiefly in the central and eastern portions, is upwards of 200 m above
sea-level. The loftiest points are Galtåsen East of Ulricehamn (362 m)
and Tomtabacken South-West of Nässjö (337 m).
The Småland Highlands may be designated a prolongation of the
continental plateau of Upper Sweden, from which they are cut off by the
Lowlands of Central Sweden. The river-valleys are not it is true so
large, nor are they so deeply excavated into the Archæan rocks, which
prr vail here too, as are those of -Norrland; they are nevertheless of
considerable size. The fundamental röck is almost everywhere covered by a
sandy moraine, little adapted for agriculture; in its higher parts there
occur some very extensive peat-mosses. When travelling by the south
trunk railway line, a stranger to the country, in passing from Osby
to Nässjö or vice versa, will see country that is so very much like that in
the middle belt of Upper Norrland that he would have a great difficulty
in discovering any points of dissimilarity between the two. The same
i—133179 Swetleii. /.
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