^T. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 221 



pieces or destroyed by the fall. The people are all 

 extravagantly fond of sledging. The common people 

 enjoy it in a great degree, and seem to feel the greatest 

 pleasure in the motion and driving. Children and 

 boys either skate or go upon a small double patten of 

 two pieces of wood shod with iron, on which they sit 

 and run down hills or descents, &c. 



We set out for Laurvig late in January, at which 

 port a vessel to England was expected to sail. We 

 were kept a week or ten days there, and embarked on 

 a timber-laden ship, happily for us, as to this cargo 

 we owed our safety. The weather being very good, 

 indeed a calm, though it was February arid in the 

 North Sea, when we had our pilot on board at Lowe- 

 stoft on the coast of Norfolk, the vessel, a few miles 

 from shore, struck on a sandbank, the rudder was 

 carried away, and such a leak sprung as kept us at 

 the pumps for three or four hours; but the leak defied 

 all our efforts, the ship became water-logged, and was 

 only prevented sinking by our cargo. We made 

 signals of all kinds, and fired guns to make them put 

 off boats for our assistance; but the sea had increased, 

 and the only one they tried was swamped ! so we had 

 to remain at the mercy of the only anchor we had, 

 the captain considering that his old and crazy vessel 

 would hold together unless it came to blow hard and 

 to drive us on shore, or the wind shifted and we were 

 driven out to sea, in neither of which cases could she 

 hold together. It was no small relief to us, therefore, 

 when a Newcastle collier came in sight and she 





