These two kingdoms, forming the Scandinavian Peninsula, comprise jointly 297,-321 square miles and 6,785,898 population.

Norway and Sweden are bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by Russia, the Gulf of Bothnia, and the Baltic Sea; on the south by the Baltic Sea, the Sound, Cattegat, and Skager Rack; and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Norway and Sweden together form an hereditary and limited monarchy, the King of Sweden being also King of Norway. But each country has a separate legislative government, which in Norway consists of the

King as executive and the Storthing, with twenty-eight members, and the Odelsthing, with eighty members, as the legislative department. In Sweden the King is the executive, while the legislative comprises the Diet, composed of two chambers, the first with 142 members and the second with 214 members.

Education is fostered in both countries. In Norway there is one university with about 1,400 students, and nearly 7,000 elementary schools with 380,000 pupils. Sweden has two universities, with from 2,500 to 3.000 students, and more than 10,000 elementary and other schools, with upwards of 700,000 pupils. The Lutheran Protestant religion prevails in both Norway and Sweden.

Oscar II., the present King of Sweden and Norway, was born in 1829, and succeeded to the throne in 1872, at the age of forty-three.