I.

A GEOGRAPHICAL AND

POLITICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGDOM OF SWEDEN.

ANDREAS BUREUS, A SWEDE.

Modern geographers call the parts of Europe tending toward the north the Arctic region. It is divided into Scandia and Denmark. Scandia or Scandinavia, which Pliny calls an island of unknown size, encloses the northern side of Europe: a very vast region extending between the 55th and 72nd degree of northern latitude, and the 25th and 65th of longitude: it has Denmark and Germany to the south, the ocean to the north and west, and Russia bordering it to the east; its more southern parts, where the pole is not elevated beyond the sixtieth degree, have a sufficiently mild and temperate climate; however, the middle parts, which lie between the sixtieth degree and the Arctic Circle,