82 NORWAY. 



The seas and lakes of Norway are extremely productive of most, 

 kinds of fish which are found on the sea-coasts of Europe. Stock-fish 

 innumerable are dried upon the rocks without salting. The haac- 

 moren is a species of shark, ten fathoms in length, and its liver yields 

 three casks of train-oil. The tuella-fiynder is an excessively large 

 turbot, which has been known to cover a man who has fallen over- 

 board, to keep him from rising. The season for herring-fish is 

 announced to the fishermen by the spouting of water from the whales 

 while following the herring shoals. The coast of Norway may be 

 said to be the native country of herrings. Innumerable shoals come 

 from under the ice, near the north pole, and, about the latitude of 

 Iceland, divide themselves into three bodies. One of these supplies 

 the Western Isles and coasts of Scotland ; another directs its course 

 round the eastern part of Great Britain, down the Channel, and the 

 third enters the Baltic through the Sound. They form great part of 

 the food of the common people ; and the cod, ling, kabeliau, and torsk 

 fishes follow them, to feed upon their spawn, and are taken in pro- 

 digious numbers, in 50 or 60 fathoms water : these, especially their 

 roes, and the oil extracted Irom their livers, are exported and sold to 

 great advantage; and above 150,000 people are maintained by the 

 herring and otner fishing on the coast of Norway. The sea-devil is 

 about Six feet in length, and is so called from its monstrous appear- 

 ance and voracity. The sea-scorpion is likewise of a hideous form, 

 its head being larger than its whole body, which is about four feet in 

 length ; and its bite is said to be poisonous.* 



Natural curiosities. ...The dreadful vortex or whirlpool of 

 Maelstrom, or Moskoestrom, is the most remarkable of the natural 



v It may be proper to give here some account of those tremendous monsters of 

 the Norwegian seas, the sea-serpent and the kraken, since they have been describ- 

 ed by Pontoppidan, and other writers of some repute, though it is not probable 

 that either of them ever had existence. A sea-snake, or serpent of the ocean, it is 

 said, was shot in 1756, by the master of a ship .- its head resembled that of a horse; 

 the mouth was large and black, as were the eyes ; a white mane hung from its 

 neck ; it floated on the surface of the water, and held its head at least two feet out 

 of the sea. Between the head and neck were seven or eight folds, which were 

 very thick ; and the length of this snake was more than a hundred yards. ...some 

 say, fathoms. They are said to have a remarkable aversion to the smell of castor ; 

 for which reason ship, boat, and bark masters provide themselves with quantities 

 of that drug, to prevent being overset; the serpent's olfactory nerves being remark- 

 ably exquisite. The particulars related of this animal, however incredible, have 

 been attested upon oath. Egede (a very reputable- author) says, that on the sixth 

 day of July, 1734. alarge and frightful sea-monster, raised itself so high out of the 

 water;' that its head reached above the main-top mast of the ship; that it had a 

 long sharp snout, broad paws, and spouted water like a whale ; and that the body 

 seemed to be covered with scales ; the skin was uneven and wrinkled, and the 

 1 lower part was formed like a snake. The body of 1 his monster is said to be as thick 

 as a hogshead ; his skin variegated like a tortoise-shell ; and his excrement, which 

 floats on the surface of the water, to be corrosive, and blister the bauds of the sea- 

 men if they handled it. 



The kraken is said to be a mile and a half in circumference ; and that when part 

 of it appeai-s above the water, it resembles a number of small, islands and sand- 

 banks on which fishes sport, and sea-weeds grow. Upon his farther emerging, a 

 number of pellucid antenna;, each about the height, form, and size of a moderate 

 mast, appear ; by the action and re-action of which lie gathers Ins food, consisting 

 of small fishes. When he sinks, which he does gradually, a dangerous swell of 

 the sea succeeds, and a kind of whirlpool is naturally formed in the water. In 1680, 

 we are told, a young kraken perished among the rocks and cliffs of the parish of 

 Alstahong ; and his death was attended with such astrench, that the channel where 

 lie died was impassable- 



