NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. i'g 



Norway, but the gallant Danifh general Budde, who, in the laft 

 invafion of the Swedes, had done his country great fervice, made 

 fuch good difpofitions againfl the enemy, that they laid afide their 

 defign of attempting Drontheim, and cantoned themfelves among 

 the peafants, till the beginning of the year 1719 ; when, though 

 late, they received an account by exprefs of the unexpected death 

 of the king before Frederickfhall. Soon after, advice coming 

 that Count Sponeck was in full march towards them, they had 

 orders to make the moft precipitate retreat over thofe defart and 

 lofty mountains ; but jufl as they had reached the frontiers of their 

 own country, they were overtaken by a florin, accompanied with 

 an extreme cold, and much fnow, which fo bewildered them, that 

 the greateit part of them perifhed. A company of two hundred 

 Norwegian fledge-men, under major Emahus, which followed 

 them clofe to obferve their retreat, found the enemy dead upon 

 the mountains ; fome fitting, fome lying, and fome in a poflure of 

 prayer, all frozen to death. How great their diftrefs mull have been, 

 may be judged from their cutting their mufkets to pieces, in order 

 to burn what little fuel they could raife from them. The generals 

 Labarre and Zoega were among the dead, but the generals Adler- 

 feld and Horn barely efcaped with their lives ; and of the whole 

 body only two thoufand five hundred, or, according to others, no 

 more than five hundred, furvived this dreadful cataflrophe % 



SECT. VIII. 



From this accidental digreflion I now return to the cold in Prefer 

 Norway, which led me into it, and mail mew, according to my Sdf Ae 

 defign, that the wife and provident Creator has not left the inha- 

 bitants of thefe cold climates without a greater variety of prefer va- 

 tives againfl the weather, and more means of keeping themfelves 

 warm, than other countries afford. 1. The country abounds in 

 large forefls, affording them plenty of fuel, and timber for build-' 

 ing flrong houfes : 2. The wool of the fheep, and the furs and 



* Whoever confiders this great lofs, which was inflicted by the hand of God and 

 the many other defeats, particularly at Mofs, Frederickfhall, Ringerige, Croo-ftoven 

 lid, and. elfewhere, cannot but wonder that Mr. Nordberg, an hiftorian of great 

 merit in other refpe&s, mould in the fecond part of his life of Charles XII affirm 

 that the war was carried on with equal advantage, or rather on the Swedifh fide with 

 confutable fuperiority. « Par la les forces de Charles XII. furent affez egales a 

 celies de ion ennemi. 11 fit trois campagnes en Norvegue avec un avantage affez 

 egal et meme avec fuperiorite." An affertion without the leaft truth. But the cir- 

 cumftances of this laft war were never rightly underftood by foreigners. 



Part I. G fkiias 



I'vativea 



