Full text: The national Church of Sweden

1—THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 
the Swedish lakes better waterways than those of other 
countries (though Lake Vettern is liable to sudden storms); 
and when the forests were thick and the roads few they 
afforded the easiest modes of travel. Even now in great 
part of Sweden the winter travelling over ice and snow is 
preferred to the summer travelling over ill-kept roads. 
3 3.—THE INHABITANTS. THE STONE AGE UP TO 1500 B.C. 
CULT OF THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD. 
The southern part of this country—which I will continue 
to call Scandia, as distinguished from Svithiod, the country 
of the Swedes—was undoubtedly the earliest inhabited. 
This is evident from the many relics of the Stone Age 
which are found particularly in its south-western and 
southern provinces, and very frequently near the sea coast. 
This age, which lasted in Sweden till about 1500 B.C., was 
one in which stone and bone and wood were the chief 
materials used for the service of man. A glance at 
Montelius’ revised map in the new edition of the Swedish 
History, p. 52, will show the distribution of the old graves, 
which are the chief monuments of the Stone Age. There 
are none in the more northern provinces of Dalarne, Verm- 
land, Vestmanland, and Upland, and very few north of 
the great forests of Tived and Kolmord (Nerike and 
Sodermanland). There are many in the western and 
south-western provinces, near Norway and Denmark, 
particularly in Dal, West Gothland, Bohuslin, Halland 
and Skéne, and fewer in East Gothland, Smailand and 
Blekinge, and in the two islands of Oland and Gotland. 
This evidence makes it probable that the mainland of 
Sweden was originally settled from the west and south- 
west, and not from the mouths of the Vistula and the Gulf 
of Danzig; and it makes it probable that the northern part 
of the country was very scantily inhabited. We may sup- 
pose that the different tribes which immigrated as the 
severity of the glacial period diminished pushed one 
another upwards from south to north. This agrees with
	        
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