The royal palace stands in a central and high situation and there are a castle, an arsenal, and several academies. The population is estimated at 80,000.

48. The chief wealth of Sweden consists in its mines of iron and copper. The copper mines are very spacious.

49. Sweden is a barren country, remarkable for the number and extent of its lakes and woods. Its rivers are numerous; but few are navigable. Towards the north, about its middle region, Sweden has only two seasons; nine months' winter, and three months' summer, during which vegetation is wonderfully rapid. Its agriculture has of late been greatly improved.

50. The Swedish islands are numerous; but those constituting the archipelago of Aland have been ceded to Russia. In the Baltic Sea there are

no tides; but a current mostly sets from it into the I meden

North Sea.

51. The kingdom of Denmark consists of the islands of Zealand, Funen, &c. the peninsula of Jutland; the duchies of Holstein, Sleswick, and Lauenburg, and the remote islands of Iceland and Faroe, with West Greenland.

Obs. At the close of the last war, Denmark was compelled to cede the kingdom of Norway to Sweden; but, by the definitive treaty, the little province of Lauenburg in Germany, which was detached from Hanover, was given in lieu.

52. Its chief town, Copenhagen, is in the island of Zealand. At the castle of Elsinore, in the strait called the Sound, foreign ships that trade to the Baltic must pay a small toll.

53. The narrow sea situated between Zealand and Funen is called the Great Belt; and that between Funen and the continent is named the Little Belt.

54. Iceland is a Danish island in the North Sea, distinguished for its boiling springs, volcanoes, and other indications of subterraneous fires. Hecla, a lofty mountain, wrapped in perpetual snow, is the principal volcano. The inhabitants are poor, but virtuous and intelligent.

55. The western coast of Greenland is famous for its whale-fishery; but this is chiefly carried on by other nations and Denmark has only a few small settlements on the coast.

Extent, exclusive of Iceland and the Faroe Isles, 22,000 square miles.

Population, 1,800,000.

RUSSIA.

56. The Russian empire, the most extensive in the world, comprehends a large portion of Europe, and all the northern parts of Asia; but its population is not more than fifty millions.

Obs. 1. With the newly constituted kingdom, or rather viceroyalty, of Poland, and the western province of Finland, the empire contains forty-five governments; and these include the ancient states of Carelia, Esthonia, Ingria, Livonia, together with the duchy of Courland, Lithuania lying on the southwestern side of Petersburg, and the country of the Don Cossacks. It is bounded, on the north, by the Northern Ocean; on the south, by Austria, the Black and Caspian Seas, and Tartary; on the east, by the Seas of Okhotsk and Kamtschatka; or rather by the Northern Pacific Ocean; and, on the west, by Sweden and the Baltic.

By the partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Russia

acquired three fifths of that kingdom, with a population of 6,700,000 inhabitants; and after the overthrow of the power of Buonaparte, the central part of Poland, which he had taken from Prussia and Austria, and formed into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, was declared by the Allies an independent kingdom, with the Emperor of Russia for king. The large portion formerly taken by Russia was not restored to the new kingdom, which contains only 47,000 square miles, and about 4,000,000 inhabitants: and, by a peace with Persia in 1814, a great portion of the extensive regions which bound the Caspian Sea, on the west, were acquired. In 1827, other acquisitions were made by treaty.

Obs. 2. Since 1812, by treaty with Russia, the boundary of Turkey, on the north-east, is formed by the rivers Pruth and Danube. Hence the whole of Bessarabia, with a great portion of Moldavia, formerly a part of Turkey, is now, also, included in the Russian empire.

57. The Russian government is despotic, but tolerably mild in its administration. Siberia is used as a place of banishment, at the pleasure of the sovereign.

The chief part of the population of European Russia is in a state of bondage, the peasantry being bought and sold with the land. The government has long desired to emancipate the peasants, and the late Emperor Alexander set the example, by setting free those on the estates of the crown; but the prejudices of the nobles, and the ignorance of the peasantry themselves, are obstacles not to be conquered at once even by an absolute prince. The wealth of the nobles is estimated by the number of their boors or peasants.

58. The climate of Russia in the northern parts is very severe; but in the southern districts, and on the shores of the Black Sea, it is temperate and agreeable.

59. The principal towns are, Petersburg, the modern capital, in 59° 56′ of north latitude; Moscow (properly Mosqua), the ancient capital; Archangel, a port on the White Sea; Odessa and Cherson, on the Black Sea; Warsaw, the capital of Poland; and Riga, a great port on the Baltic.

St. Petersburg, the imperial residence, was founded by the Czar Peter the Great, in 1703, in a low marshy spot of ground