The A U T H O R's PREFACE, xv 



with this extrad, but it contains fome things relative to my pre- 

 lent purpofe. 



M It is to be lamented that hitherto no perfon has ventured to 

 undertake a natural hiftory of Norway; for I am perfuaded that 

 no country in the univerfe affords more curiofities and wonders, 

 out of the three kingdoms, of nature, than this ; and confe- 

 quently, there is not a fubjecl: more fit for the pen of a naturalift. 

 Had M. Maupertius gone as far as to Wardehuus, or to the north- 

 cape, and there made his difpofitions for taking the figure of the 

 earth, his calculations would have been attended with lefs difficulty, 

 and more certitude than at Tornea. Had M. de Mairan taken care 

 to procure from Norway, fome accurate obfervations on the Aurora 

 Borealis, his valuable Traite Phyfique de l'Aurore Boreale, had 

 been much more complete and decifive ; for the north light takes 

 its rife from Norway, and particularly from the diocefe of Dront- 

 heim. Confiderable additions might have been made to Redi, 

 Swammerdam, and even to M. Reaumur's Memoires des infe&es, 

 had they had the advantage of a communicative, and obferving 

 correfpondent in Norway, where are feveral tribes unknown either 

 in Italy, Holland, or France. Linnaeus, by his obfervations in 

 Sweden, has enriched botany more than Tournefort, by all the 

 remarks he made in France, or in his travels to the Levant. I 

 need only mention the article of metallurgy, in which Norway 

 furpafTes all other countries, producing all kinds of minerals and 

 metals, from gold, to fulphur and lead. In like manner I pafs 

 over the numberlefs beafts, birds, and fifties peculiar to Norway • 

 the rivers, hot fprings, meteors, and the feveral alterations of the 

 air, &c. but alas! all thefe things, fuch is the incogitancy and 

 ignorance of the people, are ftill almaft unknown; at leaft, I 

 have not yet heard of any one equal to the ta/k, who has at- 

 tempted to place them in a proper light. Peter Nicholas Undal, 

 to whom we owe a translation of Snorre Sturlefeus, and a civil 

 hiftory of Norway, had, it feems, alfo compofed a natural hiftory, 

 but it being fent to Copenhagen for approbation, was fupprefled,' 



or 



