NORWEGIAN EVIDENCE. 305 



me that there was scarcely a sailor accustomed to those 

 inland lakes who had not seen them at one time or 

 another." 



The Eev. Alfred Charles Smith, M.A., an excellent 

 naturalist, who passed the three summer months of 1850 

 in Norway, and who published his observations in a series 

 of papers in the Zoologist for that and the following 

 year, thus alludes to his own inquiries, which, if they add 

 nothing ro the amount of fact accumulated, add weight 

 to the testimonies already adduced. " I lost no oppor- 

 tunity," he remarks, " of making inquiries of all I could 

 see, as to the general belief in the country regarding the 

 animal in question ; but all, with one single exception 

 naval officers, sailors, boatmen, and fishermen concurred 

 in affirming most positively that such an animal did exist, 

 and had been repeatedly seen off their coasts and fjords ; 

 though I was never fortunate enough to meet a man who 

 could boast of having seen him with his own eyes. All, 

 however, agreed in unhesitating belief as to his existence 

 and frequent appearance ; and all seemed to marvel very 

 much at the scepticism of the English, for refusing cre- 

 dence to what to the minds of the Norwegians seemed so 

 incontrovertible. The single exception to which I have 

 alluded, was a Norwegian officer, who ridiculed what he 

 called the credulity or gullibility of his countrymen ; 

 though I am bound to add my belief, that he did this, not 

 from any decided opinion of his own, but to make a 

 show of superior shrewdness in the eyes of an Englishman, 

 who, he at once concluded, must undoubtedly disbelieve the 



U 



