Beyond Trollhatta the river expands almost to a lake, and is
separated into many arms by the numerous islands. The shores lose
their beauty, being flat and uninteresting.
We unfortunately did not reach the splendid Wennersee, which is from
forty-five to sixty-five miles long, and proportionally broad, until
evening, when it was already too dark to admire the scenery. Our
ship remained some hours before the insignificant village
Wennersborg.
We had met six or seven steamers on our journey, which all belonged
to Swedish or Norwegian merchants; and it afforded us a peculiarly
interesting sight to see these ships ascend and descend in the high
locks.
September 5th.
As we were leaving Wennersborg late on the previous night, and were
cruising about the sea, a contrary wind, or rather a squall, arose,
which would have signified little to a good vessel, but to which our
small ship was not equal. The poor captain tried in vain to
navigate the steamer across the lake; he was at last compelled to
give up the attempt, to return and to cast anchor. We lost our boat
during this storm; a high wave dashed over the deck and swept it
away:
