ABSTRACT
Agreat many notable lakes lie in the northern countries, remarkable for their size and situation. The chief of these, Lake Vanern, is in Vastergotland, and is a hundred and thirty Italian miles in length and almost the same in breadth. 1 It is broken up by a multitude of different islands, and although it is fed by the wide rivers that flow into it, which are very large and number more than twenty-four, it has only a single outlet (of this I shall shortly say something below). On this lake and around it are built many splendid houses belonging to the nobility, the chief of which is the castle of Lacko, constructed through the exertion of the bishops of Skara; it has a well, more than two hundred feet deep, hewn out of the granite. Now this boring was done not only with iron tools but with flames fed by the grease from three hundred sides of the fattest pigs, the fire being introduced and built up on successive days; for those people have discovered that nothing pierces the hardness of rock more quickly than the lard, or fat, of pigs. 2 Adjacent to this lake are situated the ancient towns of Lidkoping and Tingvalla, 3 which maintain a rich profit from their mines with the production of choice iron and steel.
Lake Vänern
24 rivers entering the lake have one outlet
Bishop of Skara’s Läckö with a well 200 feet deep
300 pigs’ sides
Fat Lidköping Tingvalla Mines of choice iron Lake Vättem
