430 THE HOOPER. 



to the sound of distant church-bells ; and adds that, in 

 calm weather, it may be heard at more than a Danish (4 

 English) mile's distance. In the south of Sweden, if the hooper 

 is heard somewhat soon in the autumn, people say it portends 

 an early and severe winter ; but if shortly after the turn of 

 the winter, that spring is near at hand. 



The hooper is a very hardy bird, and ice, rather than cold, 

 would seem to cause it to migrate from the northern regions 

 to more genial climes. This is evidenced by the fact that 

 many winter annually off the coast of Finmark that is, 

 beyond the polar circle where, however, it should be re- 

 membered the water, owing, as some will have it, to the influ- 

 ence of the gulf-stream, never freezes.* I myself indeed 

 have met with the hooper on the southern coast of Norway, 

 in the depth of a very severe winter, when the Cattegat was 

 so full of ice, that we were unable to make the passage to 



* "The swan," says Pontoppidan, "is a stranger in this climate, and is 

 properly no Norwegian bird, and therefore is never seen in the east country, 

 where the rivers are always frozen up in the winter ; but on the western side, 

 where I have observed that the winters are much milder than in Denmark, or 

 many parts of Germany, and where the sea is always open and unfrozen, there 

 are swans, particularly in Sundfiord, near Svane Gaard, and thereabouts, 

 though not in any great number ; for they are but the offspring of some few 

 stragglers, which the severe winters of 1709 and 1740 in particular, drove 

 hither to seek for open waters ; at which time the cold was so severe, that 

 even in France the sentinels died on their posts, the vines were killed by 

 the frost, and the birds dropped down dead out of the air ; the whole Baltic 

 Sea was at that time frozen over, so that people travelled from Copenhagen 

 to Dantzic upon the ice as secure as if they travelled on land ; but all the salt 

 waters in this country were then open. God's wonderful providence brought 

 us at that time many water-fowls, before unknown to us, and among them 

 swans. This must appear marvellous to a philosopher, who would certainly 

 never be persuaded to look for fluid water in the north, when it was frozen in 

 the south." 



