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I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
stretch of fine sand and clay-silt on the shallow shore, giving rise to
fertile, marshy meadows.
If a general survey is desired of the effect that the above-mentioned
natural conditions have exercised upon the development, in a general
cultural sense, of the various provinces of Sweden, a glance at the map
011 p. 114, which shows the density of population, will suggest interesting
comparisons. The three belts of Upper Sweden are clearly distinguished
on this map too. (The wedge of densely populated sawmill-area between
Härnösand and Söderhamn requires no special comment.) The favourable
natural conditions in the Lowlands of Central Sweden raise the density
of population there one degree above the normal; that is not so in the
Småland Highlands, though the less severe climate of this more southern
region keeps t lie figure one degree higher than in the corresponding parts
of Upper Sweden. The fertile plains of Skåne are the most densely
populated of the large areas of Sweden; but even on the density of population
map, it is evident what an unfavourable influence in this particular
respect is exercised by Romeleklint, a small district of Archæan röck rising
above the general level of the plain.
2. HYDROGRAPHY.
It is calculated that, of the area of Sweden, not less than 36 852 square
kilometers — i. e., more than 8 % of the whole — consists of water, in the
form of lakes and rivers. In consequence of the great extension of the
country, these watercourses drain a large number of basins, which,
however, are comparatively small in extent, as may be seen by the map on p.
22, which shows the boundaries of the principal Swedish basins, i. e..
those with an area exceeding 1 000 square kilometers. These various
drainage areas are distinguished from each other by different colours.
Somewhat more clearly marked is the water-parting that separates the
rivers flowing into the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia, on the one hand,
from those running into the Sound and Kattegat on the other. This divide
begins in Härjedalen, where the basins of the rivers Götaälv and Dalälven
are conterminous, and then extends almost medianly through Central and
Southern Sweden.
The number of basins with an area exceeding 1 000 square kilometers
is 45; their names and areas are given in Table 2. They may be divided,
both as regards area and several other characteristics, into two distinct
groups, according as their area is greater or less than 10 000 square
kilometers. To the first of these groups belong two categories of rivers —
first, those belonging to the great ntouvfain-rivers of Upper Sweden,
from the Torneälv to, and including, the Dalälven, and secondly, the Norr-
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