The evening sun shed its last rays over a little town on the lake-shore, and its newly-painted tiles shone brightly in its light beams.
While the ship descended through the many locks, we visited the neighbouring church of the village of Vretakloster, which contains the skeletons of several kings in beautifully-made metal coffins.
We then crossed the lake, which is from four to five miles broad, and remained all night before the entrance of the canal leading into a bay of the Baltic.
September 8th.
This canal is one of the longest; its environs are very pretty, and the valley through which it runs is one of the largest we had passed.

The town of Soderkoping is situated at the foot of high, picturesque groups of rocks, which extend to a considerable distance.
Every valley and every spot of soil in Sweden are carefully cultivated.
The people in general are well dressed, and inhabit small but very pretty houses, whose windows are frequently decorated with clean white draperies.

I visited several of these houses, as we had abundance of time for such excursions while the ship was going through the locks.

I think one might walk the whole distance from Gottenburg to Stockholm in the same time that the ship takes for the journey.

We lose some hours daily with the locks, and are obliged to lie still at night on their account.