TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN.*
IT is very difficult to review a book like this. In its way it is excellent, but the way is not the artistic one. An old Australian who has written books and has lived ten years in Sweden has sat down to tell us all he knows of the country, and he knows a great deal, and how to tell it well. His difficulty is that he does not know how to make a book, how to compress, and excise, and dove- tail, and confine himself to salient points, and make his work seem an artistic whole. It would be possible to dig out of his work an article for a quarterly review of exceeding interest, or to make of it a volume as valuable as any of those reprints and translations from which Mr. Murray has put together the Traveller's Library, but the author has not done this part of his task himself. He is overwhelmed with his own knowledge, puzzled whether he shall tell us first about the geography of Sweden, or its resources, or its sport, its people or its statistics, its salmon or its politics, and so he tells us of all at greater length than the mass of readers will be quite willing to endure. To speak plainly, the book is a little tedious, but the reader who can get through it will know more about Sweden, its people, its agriculture, its farms and productions, its sports, and its climate, than he knew from most of the books he has previously read. The information on points is in fact too complete, so full as to daunt the explorer, who wants even when reading for knowledge to be tempted to deeper researches, and who is staggered by over-profusion of detail. Still, if he wanders on, he will find much to repay him, and over-fulness is a mistake on the right side. For example, pages 90 to 106 are not as bits of writing very enter- taining, but the man who has read them has, what it is so difficult to get, an accurate idea of the expense attending a few months' sport in Sweden. The great rules are of course the same as in every other country. It is not cheap to stay in Gothenburg, which is a quasi English colony, and ignorance of the lan- guage is of course equivalent to an income-tax of about 100 per cent. ; living is dearer for a man with his family than for one who is single, and the man who can rough it has the advantage of the man who cannot. It is not, moreover, true that a man may shoot where he likes in Sweden, and there is a special necessity for being liberal, as well as civil, to the peasants, who are proprietors, fond of money, and disposed to dislike a pot- hunter. Still there are definite facts, the most valuable of which are these :— IT is very difficult to review a book like this. In its way it is excellent, but the way is not the artistic one. An old Australian who has written books and has lived ten years in Sweden has sat down to tell us all he knows of the country, and he knows a great deal, and how to tell it well. His difficulty is that he does not know how to make a book, how to compress, and excise, and dove- tail, and confine himself to salient points, and make his work seem an artistic whole. It would be possible to dig out of his work an article for a quarterly review of exceeding interest, or to make of it a volume as valuable as any of those reprints and translations from which Mr. Murray has put together the Traveller's Library, but the author has not done this part of his task himself. He is overwhelmed with his own knowledge, puzzled whether he shall tell us first about the geography of Sweden, or its resources, or its sport, its people or its statistics, its salmon or its politics, and so he tells us of all at greater length than the mass of readers will be quite willing to endure. To speak plainly, the book is a little tedious, but the reader who can get through it will know more about Sweden, its people, its agriculture, its farms and productions, its sports, and its climate, than he knew from most of the books he has previously read. The information on points is in fact too complete, so full as to daunt the explorer, who wants even when reading for knowledge to be tempted to deeper researches, and who is staggered by over-profusion of detail. Still, if he wanders on, he will find much to repay him, and over-fulness is a mistake on the right side. For example, pages 90 to 106 are not as bits of writing very enter- taining, but the man who has read them has, what it is so difficult to get, an accurate idea of the expense attending a few months' sport in Sweden. The great rules are of course the same as in every other country. It is not cheap to stay in Gothenburg, which is a quasi English colony, and ignorance of the lan- guage is of course equivalent to an income-tax of about 100 per cent. ; living is dearer for a man with his family than for one who is single, and the man who can rough it has the advantage of the man who cannot. It is not, moreover, true that a man may shoot where he likes in Sweden, and there is a special necessity for being liberal, as well as civil, to the peasants, who are proprietors, fond of money, and disposed to dislike a pot- hunter. Still there are definite facts, the most valuable of which are these :— " A single man who can rough it, and is not afraid of a peasant's house, ought to live well on 50/. per year, and get some very tolerable sport- ing, but he must then hire his own room and bay his own provisions. There are many places where a single man can board with a gentleman's family at about two shillings a day, with a peasant for a little less, and till he gets used to the country this will be perhaps his cheapest plan. But a man with a family will find it very difficult to get settled. I am certain he will have great difficulty in finding accommodation, and that such a man must reside for some time in a town at English prices, and probably at an inn, before he can settle up country. Very few residents have furnished rooms to let, and although a single man may obtain quarters anywhere, it will be very difficult for a man with a family. A gentleman with his wife and two small children and nursemaid could not get board and lodging any where in Wermland under ten shillings a day ; and this very gentleman, who had come over from Belgium, said
• 2141 Years in Sweden. By "An Old Bushman." London: Groombridge and Soo.
that with his family he could live there far cheaper than in Sweden, and mach more comfortably, inasmuch that one franc, of which he got about twenty-five for the English pound, would go as far as the rix- dollar in Sweden, of which he got about seventeen for the pound. But if he hires his own little place, and takes Swedish servants, and buys his own provisions, he may certainly do it for less ; but this he cannot think about until he has been at least six months in the country."
In fact we suspect, from various incidental remarks, about a pound a day will enable a family to live very well indeed, half that sum to live tolerably, and for every annual pound less than that amount some enjoyment, or privilege, or freedom must be sacri- ficed. If the object is sport, it is absolutely necessary to remember that trespass is a great offence, though leave, if properly asked, is hardly ever refused ; that small liberalities—the author gave them rye in the winter—conciliate the peasantry, and that British exclu- siveness must be laid aside. Even when he has learnt these rules and obtained the friendship of the neighbouring proprietors, the sportsman will still have only six months' enjoyment, for the climate is against him, the snow setting in early, and when fairly in putting an end to all hopes of game, and for these six mouths the prospect is not in itself irresistible.. The author draws a striking picture of the desolation and solitude of a Swedish winter :— "I cannot deny that life in a bush cottage in the wilds of Sweden daring the long Swedish winter is a dreary, monotonous existence. I was very well off, but a man whose sole object is sporting would not have my resources. My time, as I said before, was fully occupied. I had an excellent library to turn to (and the old author was not far wrong who declared that of all men most to be pitied were 'unlearned gentlemen on a rainy day '), and I had my collections to arrange and look after. Moreover, I had my landlord, who spoke English as well as myself, close at hand, and whenever I wanted a change I ran into Carl- stad, or drove over to spend a few days with some friend or other in the neighbourhood, whose doors were always open to me. But most likely if a man were settled up in the real wilds, where the best sport is to be obtained, he would not have many neighbours within calling distance, and would probably meet no one who could speak English. Even if his sole object were bear-hunting, he could not always be in the forest ; in fact, the fow bears he might kill would not occupy a groat deal of his time, and many a dreary week would hang heavily on his hands. Of course if a man had his wife and family with him, and wore living on his own little estate, the case would be very different, but I am here particularly addressing myself to the bachelor sportsman, and to him I will candidly say I do not believe in any part of the north of Sweden ho would find sport enough to compensate him for the lonely solitary life he must lead during the winter in these forests. I have had my share of it. I have also spent five years in the Australian bush. But I never found that life lonely. We all know what an effect the outer landscape and climate have upon the spirits, and to be shut up in a bush hut for five or six months gazing upon a dreary prospect of snow and pines, with little employment, would wear many a man out. But when once the spring sets in the case is different, and the proper arrangement in these northern forests for the man whose sole object is sporting, should be that he could sleep from November to March, wake up about April, and never sleep again till November came round."
The pleasantest course for the traveller who does not intend to settle is to arrive in March and leave in October, and of course the oftener he does this the easier will be his path, the wider his acquaintance and his opportunities. If he intends to settle, he will find in Ten Years in Sweden, at pages 130-150, minute accounts of the cost and profit of farming, from which it appears that the average value of Swedish land is about eight pounds per acre, that most of the land is mortgaged, and that while high farming pays, ordinary agriculture scarcely returns an interest on the sum invested : — "In good hands and worked with a sufficient capital, farming in cer- tain parts of Sweden might become as profitable as in England ; and a practical English farmer who knew a little of the language and the habits of the country, with a capital say of 4,0001., might according to the above calculation purchase an estate in Sweden of about 250 Eng- lish acres, stock it properly, and if he worked it as it should be might calculate upon a very fair return for the capital invested. Moreover, the farm would be his own, and could never deteriorate in value by proper management ; but probably in ten years' time it might be of considerably more value under a proper system of cultivation ; and we have alto- gether left out the 100 acres of rough meadow or woodland, and it would be odd if these could not be made something of by a good practi- cal man. I fancy at the present time many a large farm in Sweden could be bought for the same money, if the buyer wont into the market with ready cash."
The author does not, however, recommend any British farmer to turn settler in Sweden except for special reasons, for the colonies offer much wider and more tempting prospects, besides being filled with people who speak the same language as himself.
It is, however, to sportsmen that Sweden is supposed to offer the greatest temptations, and to sport the author has devoted the greater part of his fat volume. His general impression is very much less favourable than the one current in this country :—" I can safely say that I have never yet shot in any country where I have found so much difficulty in making a really heavy bag of game as in Sweden, save just in the very wilds of Lapland. And bad as the sporting now is generally throughout the country, and especially in the populated districts, it is every year becoming worse, owing to the laxity of the game laws and the destruction of the forests." The weather is against game, the country is over- run with vermin, and the game laws are very carelessly observed. There is sport, it is true, for Sweden breeds animals forgotten in Great Britain—bears, wolves, elks, reindeer, roedeer, lynxes, gluttons, otters, and martens, besides badgers, foxes, hares, and squirrels, while the list of feathered game includes " capercaillie, black grouse, hazel grouse, ptarmigan, willow grouse, partridge, quail, woodcock, great snipe, common snipe, Jack snipe, landrail, common wild duck, teal, widgeon ; and some others, such as swans, geese, diving ducks, golden plover, and waders." Of each our author has something to say, but it generally leaves the im- pression that sport can be had in greater profusion almost anywhere else. The best province for bear-hunting is Dale- carlia, the time is winter, and the universal mode of pursuit snow skates, the use of which the hunter must learn as a prelimi- nary. That science once attained, a man may shoot four or five bears in a winter, and no bear will cost him, all expenses included, much above twenty pounds! Elk are increasing, as it is strictly for- bidden to shoot them except in August and September, but rein- deer are only met with on the great Scandinavian fell, and the sportsman requires the aid of a trained hunter ; while wolves are not regularly hunted at all, only shot whenever seen, the mode of attracting them being to pinch a pig's ear till it squeals, when if there is a wolf within hearing he is pretty sure to make his appearance, raw pork attracting him almost as much as roast pork did Charles Lamb. Foxes are plentiful, and are shot, and hares are hunted with small hounds, which drive them up to the marksman, who is usually well content with killing two a day. This is a poor account, and in fact there is very little large game in Sweden to tempt the English sportsman, the real abundance being of birds, grouse in particular, and ptarmigan, of which latter it is possible on the Lap fells to shoot twenty-five brace a day. There is also good partridge shooting, though rather strictly pre- served, and woodcocks are numerous, while good fishing is to be had anywhere, though salmon are not so plentiful as in the Nor- wegian rivers. On the whole, Sweden is not, we should say, a country likely to tempt the man who can afford to go anywhere, and there is no reason whatever for choosing it in preference to Norway, except that the cost of living is about 50 per cent. less. To any one who from personal connections or other causes cares to
make the experiment, we can recommend the history of the Scandinavian fauna which makes up the last four hundred pages of this volume.
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