MALAR  , a

lake of Sweden, extending 73 M. westward fromStockholm, which lies at its junction with the Saltsjo, an arm of the Baltic Sea . The height of the lake is normally only from 11 in. to 2 ft. above sea-level, and its outflow is sometimes reversed . The area is 449 sq. m . The bottom consists of a series of basins separate by ridges from which rise numerous islands . The deepest sounding is 210 ft . The outline is very irregular, the mean breadth being about 15 m., but an arm extends northward for 30 M. nearly to the city of Upsala with many ramifications . The area of the drainage basin is 8789 sq. m., of which 1124 are occupied by lakes . The navigable connexions with the lake are—(1) with lake Hjelmar to the south-west by the Arboga river and the Hjelmar canal; and by the Eskilstuna river and the Thorshalla canal; (2) with the Baltic southward through the Sodertelge canal, the route followed by the Gota canal steamers; (3) with the Baltic by two channels at Stockholm . The more important towns, besides Stockholm, are Vesteras on the north, Sodertelge and Eskilstuna near the south shore . The lake offers a field for recreation fully appreciated by the inhabitants of the capital, and many of those whose business lies at Stockholm have their residences on the shores of Malar . On Drottningholm (Queen's Island, named from Catherine, wife of John III.) is a palace with a fine park and formal gardens . John III. built a palace at the close of the 16th century, but the existing building, by Nicodemus Tessin and his son Nicodemus, dates from the second half of the 17th century .

At Mariefred on the south shore there is the

castle of Gripsholm (1537), built by Gustavus Vasa, a picturesque erection with four towers, richly adorned within, and containing a large collection of portraits . Strengnas, on the same shore, became an episcopal see in 1291, when the fine cathedral, much altered since, was consecrated . In the episcopal palace, a building of the 15th century now used as a school, Gustavus Vasa was elected to the throne of Sweden in 1523 . On the northward arm of the lake is the palace of Rosenberg, used as a school of gunnery, in a well-wooded park . On a branch of the same arm is Sigtuna, a village whose ruined churches are a memorial of its rank among the principal towns of Sweden after its foundation in the 11th century . Remains prove that on Bjorko, an island in the eastern part of the lake, there was a large settlement of earlier importance than Sigtuna . Here a cross commemorates the preaching of Christianity by St Ansgar in 829 . Finally, on the northern arm about to m. south oI Upsala, there is the chateau of Skokloster, occupying the site of a monastery, and presented by Gustavus Adolphus to Marshal Herman Wrangel, whose son Charles Gustavus Wrangel stored it with a remarkable collection of trophies from Germany, taken during the Thirty Years' War; including a library, an armoury, and a great accumulation of curios .