size of its streets and its
architectural aspect. Its commercial connections with America exceed
that of any other northern port, and form its main features of business
importance. Vessels drawing eighteen feet of water can ascend the Elbe
to the wharves at high tide. The city is intersected by canals and
branches of the Alster River, and was once surrounded by a series of
ramparts, but these have been converted into attractive, tree-planted
promenades. The public library of Hamburg contains over two hundred
thousand volumes, and there is no lack in the city of hospitals,
schools, colleges, churches, charitable institutions, museums, and
theatres. The botanical gardens and the zoцlogical exhibition are
remarkable for excellence and completeness. It would be difficult to
conceive of a more attractive sight than that afforded by the broad
sheet of water in the centre of the town known as the Alster Basin, a
mile in circumference, bounded on three sides by streets ornamented
liberally with trees, while its surface is dotted with little omnibus
steamers and pleasure boats darting hither and thither like swallows on
the wing. Snow-white swans, tame and graceful, are constantly seen
floating over the surface of this attractive city-lake. The environs of
Hamburg are rendered very charming by pleasant villas and numberless
flower-gardens, with an abundance of ornamental trees.

Our journey northward continues by railway and steamboat via Kiel,
crossing an arm of the Baltic to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark,
situated on the island of Zeeland. This city, which now contains a
population of about two hundred and fifty thousand, was a large
commercial port centuries ago, and has several times been partially
destroyed by war and conflagration. The houses are mostly of brick, some
of the better class being built of Norwegian granite, while the newer
portion of the town presents many examples of fine modern architecture.
The streets are of good width, laid out with an eye to regularity,
besides which there are sixteen public squares. Taken as a whole, the
first impression of the place and its surroundings is remarkably
pleasing and attractive. As one approaches the city the scene is
enlivened by the many windmills in the environs, whose wide-spread arms
are generally in motion, appearing like the broad wings of enormous
birds hovering over the land. Perhaps the earliest association in its
modern history which the stranger is likely to remember as he looks
about him in Copenhagen, is that of the dastardly attack upon the city,
and the shelling of it for three consecutive days, by the British fleet
in 1807, during which reckless onslaught an immense destruction of human
life and property was inflicted upon the place. Over three hundred
important buildings were laid in ashes on that occasion, because Denmark
refused permission for the domiciling of English troops upon her soil,
or to withdraw from her connection with the neutral powers in the
Napoleonic wars.

As in the Mediterranean, so in the Baltic, tidal influence is felt only
to a small degree, the difference in the rise and fall of the water at
this point being scarcely more than one foot. Owing to the comparatively
fresh character of this sea its ports are ice-bound for a third of each
year, and in the extreme seasons the whole expanse is frozen across from
the coast of Denmark to that of Sweden. In 1658 Charles X. of the latter
country marched his army across the Belts, dictating to the Danes a
treaty of peace; and so late as 1809 a Russian army passed from Finland
to Sweden, across the Gulf of Bothnia.

The territory of Denmark upon the mainland is quite limited, consisting
of Jutland only; but she has a number of islands far and near, Zeeland
being the most populous, and containing, as we have shown, the capital.
As a state she may be said to occupy a much larger space in history
than upon the map of Europe. The surface of the island of Zeeland is
uniformly low, in this resembling Holland, the highest point reaching an
elevation of about two hundred and fifty feet. To be precise in the
matter of her dominions, the colonial possessions of Denmark may be thus
enumerated: Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe group of islands, between the
Shetlands and Iceland; adding St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John in the
West Indies. Greenland is nearly as large as Germany and France
combined; but owing to its ice-clothed character in most parts, its
inhabitants do not quite reach an aggregate of ten thousand. Iceland is
nearly the size of our New England States, and has a population of
seventy-five thousand. The Faroes contain ten thousand inhabitants, and
the three West Indian islands united have a population of a little over
forty thousand.

In the year 1880 the Danish monarchy reached the thousandth anniversary
of its foundation under Gorm the Old, whose reign bridges over the
interval between mere legend and the dawn of recorded history. Gorm is
supposed to have been a direct descendant of the famous Regnar Lodbrog,
who was a daring and imperious ruler of the early Northmen. The common
origin of the three Baltic nationalities which constitute Scandinavia is
clearly apparent to the traveller who has visited Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway. The race has been steadily modified, generation after
generation, in its more important characteristics by the progressive
force of civilization. These Northmen are no longer the haughty and
reckless warriors who revelled in wine drunk from the skulls of their
enemies, and who deemed death respectable only when encountered upon
the battle-field. Clearer intelligence and culture have substituted the
duties of peaceful citizens for the occupation of marauders, and the
enterprises of civilized life for the exaggerated romance of sea-rovers.
Reading and writing, which were once looked upon by them as allied to
the black art, are now the accomplishment of nearly all classes, and
nowhere on the globe do we find people more cheerful, intelligent,
frank, and hospitable than in the three kingdoms of the far North.

The Denmark of to-day, typified by Copenhagen, its capital, is a great
centre of science and art. The spirit of Thorwaldsen, the contemporary
and brother-sculptor of Canova, permeates everything, and in making his
native city his heir, he also bequeathed to her an appreciation of art
which her eminent scientists have ably supplemented in their several
departments of knowledge. The Thorwaldsen Museum contains over forty
apartments, ample space being afforded for the best display of each
figure and each group designed by the great master. The ceilings are
elaborately and very beautifully decorated with emblematical designs by
the best Danish artists. This enduring monument is also Thorwaldsen's
appropriate mausoleum, being fashioned externally after an Etruscan
tomb. It contains only this master's own works, and a few pictures which
he brought with him from Rome. He revelled in the representation of
tenderness, of youth, beauty, and childhood. Nothing of the repulsive or
terrible ever came from his hand. The sculptor's fancy found expression
most fully, perhaps, in the works which are gathered here, illustrating
the delightful legends of the Greek mythology. No one can be surprised
at the universal homage accorded to his memory by his countrymen.

The Ethnological Museum of the city, better known as the Museum of
Northern Antiquities, is considered to be the most remarkable
institution of the sort in Europe. Students in this department of
science come from all parts of the civilized world to seek knowledge
from its countless treasures. One is here enabled to follow the progress
of our race from its primitive stages to its highest civilization. The
national government liberally aids all purposes akin to science and art;
consequently this museum is a favored object of the state. Each of the
three distinctive periods of stone, bronze, and iron forms an elaborate
division in the spacious halls of the institution.

This government was the first in Europe to furnish the means of
education to the people at large on a liberal scale; to establish
schoolhouses in every parish, and to provide suitable dwellings and
income for the teachers. The incipient steps towards this object began
as far back as the time of Christian II., more than three centuries ago,
while many of the European states were clouded in ignorance. Copenhagen
has two public libraries: the Royal, containing over six hundred
thousand books; and the University, which has between two hundred and
fifty and three hundred thousand volumes.

Though Denmark is a small kingdom containing scarcely three million
people, yet it has produced many eminent men of science, art, and
literature. The names of Hans Christian Andersen, Rasmus Rask, the
philologist, Oersted, the discoverer of electro-magnetism, Forchhammer,
the chemist, and Eschricht, the physiologist, occur to us in this
connection. It is a country of legend and romance, of historic and
prehistoric monuments, besides being the very fatherland of fairy tales.
The Vikings of old have left their footprints all over the country in
mounds. It is not therefore surprising that the cultured portion of the
community is stimulated to antiquarian research.

The Palace of Rosenborg, situated near the centre of the city, was built
by Christian IV., in 1604. It is no longer used for its original
purpose, but is devoted to the preservation of a chronological
collection of the belongings of the Danish kings, spacious apartments
being devoted to souvenirs of each, decorated in the style of the
period, and containing a portion of the original furniture from the
several royal residences, as well as the family portraits, gala
costumes, jewelry, plate, and weapons of war. Altogether it is a
collection of priceless value and of remarkable historic interest,
covering a period of over four hundred years. One is forcibly reminded
of the Green Vaults of Dresden while passing through the several
sections of Rosenborg Castle. Many of the royal regalias are profusely
inlaid with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and other precious
stones, forming all together a value too large for us to venture an
estimate. The toilet sets which have belonged to and been in daily use
by various queens are numerous, each set embracing a dozen pieces more
or less, made of solid gold, superbly inlaid with many precious stones.
Among them one is especially interested in the jewelled casket of Queen
Sophia Amalie, wife of Frederick III., a relic inlaid with scores of
diamonds. Here, too, we see the costly and beautiful bridal dresses of
several royal personages, all chronologically arranged, so that the
intelligent visitor clearly reads veritable history in these domestic
treasures.

The Round Tower of Copenhagen is a most singular structure, formerly
used as an observatory. It consists of two hollow cylinders between
which is a spiral, gradually inclined foot-way leading from base to top.
It is quite safe for a horse to ascend, and the Empress Catharine is
said to have reached the summit on horseback. From the top of the Round
Tower, the red-tiled roofs of the city lie spread out beneath the eye of
the visitor, mingled with green parks, open squares, tall steeples,
broad canals, wide thoroughfares and palaces. To this aspect is added
the multitude of shipping lying along the piers and grouped in the
harbor, backed by a view of the open sea. The Swedish coast across the
Baltic is represented by a low range of coast-line losing itself upon
the distant horizon. The ramparts which formerly surrounded Copenhagen
have been demolished, the ground being now improved for fine
garden-walks, planted with ornamental trees and bright-hued flowers,
which add greatly to the attractive aspect of the Danish capital. The
former moats have assumed the shape of tiny lakes, upon which swans and
other aquatic birds are seen at all hours; and where death-dealing
cannon were formerly planted, lindens, rose-bushes, and tall white
lilies now bloom in peaceful beauty.

No finer scenery is to be found in Europe than is presented by the
country lying between Copenhagen and Elsinore, composed of a succession
of forests, lawns, villas, cottages, and gardens, for a distance of
twenty-five miles. Elsinore is a small seaport, looking rather deserted,
bleak, and silent, with less than ten thousand inhabitants. From out of
the uniformity of its red brick buildings there looms up but one
noticeable edifice; namely, the Town Hall, with a square tower flanked
by an octagonal one built of red granite. The charm of the place is its
remarkable situation, commanding a view of the Baltic, with Sweden in
the distance, while the Sound which divides the two shores is always
dotted with