perfons of fuch an extreme age, that from a laffitude of longer life, they get themfelves removed elsewhere, to die the fooner. He affirms, however, there are at the most but two physicians in Bergen, which contains 30,000 inhabitants, and he does not reckon Bergen the healthiest spot in the kingdom, as it is one of the most wet and rainy ones.

In his fection on the Norway fnows, befides their truviers, or fnow-fhoes, in common with other northern countries, he fays they have fkies, or long and thin pieces of board, fo fmooth, that the peasants wade through the fnow with them as fwiftly as fhips under full fail, (which feems to us much swifter than they could move for any length on the beft ground without them). In war time, he obferves, a party of these fkie-men are equal to light troops, for reconnoitring, or any fudden enterprize.

By a fnow-fall, or fnee-fond, a whole parifh was entirely covered a century or two ago, and fo remains; the fnow, which had fallen from the adjacent mountains, not diffolving the year after, was further increased and hardened by lying. Many lives were loft by this difafter, of which no memorial would remain, were not the truth of the story, which was at first much doubted, confirmed by several utenfils, as fciffars, knives, basons, &c. brought to light by a rivulet which runs under the fnow. The benefits arifing from the fnow, and mentioned by the author, are much the fame with thofe ufually afcribed to it elsewhere. This chapter concludes with the defcription of a water-spout seen between Shetland and Norway, which phenomenon is much more familiar in the torrid climates.

Tho' the greater part of Norway is rocky, its foil, like that of other countries, is various, having black mould, sand, loam, chalk, gravel, turf, mud, &c. Juftedale, and fome other parts; afford the black, fhining fand, which they export as writingfand. Among clays of different colours, they have, at Ringerige, a black clay, not inferior in fineness to terra figillata, and ufed by the peasants for blacking. The bifhop does not think the roots, branches, and even entire trunks, of pinetrees, preferved by their turpentine, and found fome yards under the furface, fuch convincing teftimonies of a deluge, as that entire skeleton of a whale found near Frederickfhall in 1687, which was buried with earth and fand at least 240 feet under ground.

The long chain of mountains in Norway runs north and fouth, like the Cordeliers in America. Dofrefield is accounted the higheft here, if not the highcft in Europe; tho' its perpendicular height is not eafily affignable, except it were calculated

by

by the barometer, by reason of the different levels adjoining to it: but on a rock in the middle of the road over it, there was a profpect extended to thirty Danish or German miles, which are equal to 120 English miles. The air on these mountains is fo exceeding cold, that two mountain-ftoves, or refting-houses, are maintained at the public charge on Filefield, and three on Dofrefield, with kitchen-furniture, for the refreshment of travellers.

In the rock or mountain of Torghatten, denominated from its likeness to a head with a hat on, there appears towards the bottom a fingle eye, which is formed by a paffable aperture 150 ells in height, and 3000 in length, through which the fun may be feen. In the lower part is a deep winding cave, whofe depth was not discovered by a line of 400 fathoms. At Herroe the common people imagine, that a cavern there called Dolfteen, extends under the fea into Scotland. Our author's curiofity carried him into one of these caverns, which contained a ftream or little river, vaulted over with marble, but the damps he perceived prevented his penetrating it as far as he defigned. The extraordinary appearances, however, which he encountered here, (having lights with him) led him into many conjectures on the effects of the deluge, in diffolving or foftening the hardest bodies, which former foftnefs is plainly inferable from the foreign fubftances included within their prefent folid forms. The fentiments of many other naturalifts, molt of them English, are introduced here on the fame occafion. But the deepest cavern, or rather cavity, as it is not above two ells in circumference, is in a rock near Frederickshall, for a small stone dropt down does not return any found in lefs than two minutes; which, if we confider the continually augmented velocity of heavy bodies in their defcent, will give us the idea of a very great depth in this cavity.

In reciting the inconveniences, impediments, and dangers from mountains, we must not omit what our author calls a bergrap, in which the mountain being, as it were, convulfed, gives way, and falls down on the country; and fometimes, tho' feldom, entire crefts of rocks, fome hundred fathoms in length and breadth, have fallen, which occasions a violent agitation in the air, and appears like a prelude to the general deftruction of the world. Such a bergrap happened Jan. 8, 1731, when a promontory called Rammersfield, hanging over Nordal creek, being undermined by the water, fuddenly fell down, whereby the waters, for the face of two miles, fwelled with fuch force, that a church half a league from the creek was overflowed, feveral houfes were deftroyed, and fome people drowned: yet

7

(which

(which is wonderful) the creek was fo far from being filled up, that the fishermen fay, they find no difference in the bottom, which thereabout is 900 fathom deep.

The fecond chapter concludes with enumerating the advantages of mountains for minerals, profpects, boundaries, &c. and undoubtedly fuch as abound in Norway thould have confiderable benefits refulting from them, to counterbalance their inconveniences and dangers.

In his chapter of the waters, our author, after obferving that Norway is extended 300 leagues on the northern part of the Atlantic ocean, mentions the many little islands and numerous rocks on the coaft. By fuch a rampart, he fays, which poffibly may confift of a million or more stone columns, founded in the bottom of the fea, the capitals whereof fcrce rife higher than fome fathoms above the waves, almoft the whole waitern coaft of Norway is defended. The fhore is in few places level, but generally steep and impendent, fo that close to he rocks the fea is from 100 to 300 fathom deep; tho' on fome long uneven fand-banks the bottom is much more floping. The depth in the feveral large and small creeks that run up into the country, from five to ten leagues, is various, tho' in general as deep as the fea on the coaft. But in the middle of most of them there is a narrow channel, called the Dybrende, or deep courfes, of a very difproportionate depth, the breadth from 50 to 100 fathoms, but, by the fishermen's account, feldom lefs than 400 fathoms deep. Nay, in fome of them no bottom can be found; as in Floge creek, near Drontheim, where a line of 1000 fathom did not reach it; whence he judges the bottom of the fea to communi ate with this immeasurable abyss.

It may appear furprifing, that the fea-water of Norway, which contains lefs falt than that in the torrid zone, fhould be heavier, as our author affirms it; and which he afcribes to the greater denfity of the air near the poles, which compreffes the particles of water clofer to each other, whence he infers them proportionably more buoyant than lighter waters. The inferior faltnefs of it he rationally afcribes to a much fmaller exhalation from it in that climate. He fuppofes at the fame time, that fresh fprings may open themfelves into the bottom of the fea, whence fome parts of it may be more diluted than others; and he has been repeatedly informed by fishermen, that they have found water entirely fresh in the body of a fkate. The unctuofity, or fatnefs, of the northern fea-water must be very confiderable, if it be certain what our author fays, that fea-water will not extinguish, but increase, REVIEW, June 1755

Hh

the

the flames of à fhip on fire. If the fact were thus, it might be expected that a fhip fhould burn below the furface of the water which we have never feen. Whether there may be any extraordinary unctuofity in the waters of a fea which abounds fo greatly with fifh, and fuch fifh as abound much in oil; or whether any fprings of petroleum, as the bishop fuggefts, may render this fea-water ftill more inflammable, we fubmit: indeed, we ftrongly doubt, ourselves, the fact of fea-water's increafing flame, tho' perhaps it might abate it less than the fame quantity of fresh water.

This unctuolity of the fea-water our author rationally fupposes to have fome connection with its fcintillation, which the Norwegians call moor-ild. He inclines, however, to the hypothefis of a Venetian, tranflated into the literary journal of Copenhagen in 1750, that prefumes thefe luminous particles to be as many lit le infects, or worms, which he fuppofes to feed upon fea-grafs. We cannot conteft the existence of these luminous fea-worms, which this author faw through a microfcope, tho' we think it improbable, that they can be the fole cause of the fcintillation in the fea, which appears from the line as near to the pole as fhipping can attain: for perhaps no one fpecies of infects is thus free of every climate on the globe, nor can we fuppofe this fea-grafs in every part, and at all depths, of the ocean, for their fubfiftence.

There feems to be nothing very particular in the tides of Norway, but they lead our author to a defcription of the MaleStrom, or Mofkoeftrom, in 68 degrees of latitude, near the ifland Moskoe. Its violence and roarings exceed thofe of a cataract, being heard at feveral leagues diftance, and without any intermiffion, except for one quarter every fixth hour, which is at the turn of high and low water, when its impetuofity is at such a stand, that the fishermen can venture in: but this motion foon returns, and, however calm the fea may be, gradually increafes with fuch a draught and vortex, as abforb whatever comes within their influence, and keep it under water till the end of the ebb, at which time it appears again. When its fury is heightened by a florm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile [at least five English] of it; boats and fhips having been carried away, by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. It often happens that whale, coming too near the ftream, are overpowered by its violence and then it is impoffible to defcribe their howlings and bellowings in their fruitles ftruggles to disengage themfelves. No wonder then, that a bear, drawn within the fuction of this vortex, met the fame fate. In 16453 on Sexage fina

6

fima-funday, it raged with fuch noife and impetuofity, that the very ftones of fome houfes on the island of Moskoe fell to the ground. Kircher and others have imagined there is an abyss here [by fome termed the navel of the world] penetrating the globe, and issuing, according to him, in the guli of Bothnia. But a gentleman living near the fpot, affirms the vortex to rife only from the violent rapidity of the ebb and flood, occafioned by the contraction of its courfe betwixt the rocks and shelves at the bottom. That this is the caufe, indeed, is probable, as large flocks of firs and pine-trees, after being abforbed by the current, rife again, torn to fuch a degree as if briftles grew on them.

The fresh-water fprings in Norway, tho' fufficiently wholefome to the inhabitants, are not of the pureft kind, as a drop on a plate leaves a white, brown, or yellow fpot. The mineral waters, of which they have not difcovered many, appear chiefly impregnated with a ferruginous principle. Our author lays he is poffeffed of feveral undeniable petrefactions of beech, hazle, willow, and other woods, by waters of a petrifying quality but refers to a Hamburgh magazine for the following folution of the manner in which they are fuppofed to petrify. The water doth actually pervade, either longitudinally, or tranfverfely, the minute interftices of the wood, fills it with lapideous particles, dilates it; and when by a cauflic corrofive power, which it derives from lime, it has destroyed the wood, it then appears in the form of the vegetable into which it penetrated.

The author mentions nine principal rivers of Norway, either arifing from fprings, or vaft quantities of fnow. Frefh-water Jakes are very numerous, and fome fo large and navigable, that their history affirms, fleets have been fitted out, and wars carried on, in thofe inland feas, between kings and their competitors. In fome of them are floating islands, about 30 or 40 ells long, with trees on them, which being feparated from the main land, are driven about by the wind, and when close to the fhore are fhoved off by a pole. The rivers are not navigable at any confiderable diftance from the fea, on account of the cataracts, by which feveral of the mafts, and fome of the timber floated down, are fometimes deft: oyed: tho' a greater part gets fafely through, and being marked by their owners, are fecured for them at the lentzes, which are great booms, fortified with iron-bolts for flopping the timber. The breaking of a lentz is fo ruinous to the timber-merchants, that fuch an accident, in the year 1675, was attended with many bankruptcies.

Hh 2

The