d the last
promontory to the right, and took a lingering look at this charming
"city of the sea," I thought I had never enjoyed a more enchanting
_coup d'oeil_. The suburbs of Stockholm; the numerous little islands,
with their rich green shrubbery; the villas and gardens; the sparkling
vistas of water, form a combination of beauties rarely to be met with
in any other part of the world. No wonder the Swedes regard their
capital as a paradise. I fully agree with them that in summer it
deserves all their praise; but I should prefer a warmer and more
genial paradise for winter quarters. Earthen stoves and hot-air
furnaces are not in any of the seven heavens that occur in my
imagination.

Before many hours we passed a point somewhat celebrated in Swedish
history. On a high peak of rock, hanging upon a pole, is a prodigious
iron hat, said to be the identical "stove-pipe" worn by one of the old
Swedish kings--a terrible fellow, who was in the habit of slaying
hundreds of his enemies with his own hand. This famous old king must
have been a giant in stature. Judging by his hat, as Professor Agassiz
judges of fish by their scales, he must have been forty feet high, by
about ten or fifteen broad; and if his strength corresponded with his
gigantic proportions, I fancy he could have knocked the gable-end off
a house with a single blow of his fist, or kicked the head out of a
puncheon of rum, and swallowed the contents at a single draught,
without the least difficulty. His hat probably weighs a hundred
pounds--enough to give any ordinary man a severe headache. Here it has
stood for centuries, in commemoration of his last struggle. Besieged
by an overwhelming force of his enemies, as the chronicle goes, he
slew some thousands of them, but, being finally hard pressed, he lost
his iron hat in the fight, and then plunged headlong into the lake.
Some historians assert that he took to water to avoid capture; but I
incline to the opinion myself that he did it to cool his head. At all
events, the record ends at this point. We are unable to learn any
thing more of his fate. These Northern races are strong believers in
their own aboriginal history, and although there may be much in this
that would require the very best kind of testimony before a California
jury, the slightest hint of a doubt as to its truth would probably be
taken as a personal offense by any public spirited Swede. In that
respect, thank fortune, I am gifted with a most accom