xii Tk AUTHOR'S PREFAC E. 



every particular, developed the abftrufe meafures, and difcovered 

 the fecret defigns of the infinite Creator, whofe ways are part 

 finding out. I hold with Bartholin. " Officio fuo fatisfecit phy- 

 ficus, ubi rationes adduxit probabiles." It is not in one refpecl: 

 only that our Saviour's words hold good} the wind hloweth where 

 it liflethy and thou hear eft the found thereof ^ but thou knowefl not 

 from whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. And the wife man 

 does not exaggerate when he fays, we fcarce perceive what lies 

 upon the earthy or feel what is betwixt our hands. However, our 

 almighty and all-wife Creator cannot be difpleafed at an invefK- 

 gation of his works, with a pious and refpectful docility, nor at 

 the praifes we give to his holy name for fo much as falls within 

 the extent of our faculties ; refting afiured, that what is beyond 

 our reach in this Hate of probation, will be explained to us in 

 that new heaven and new earth which we look for according to 

 his promife. 



I fhall now, purfuant to my promife, give fome account of the 

 fources from whence I have drawn what is here offered to the 

 public. Thefe are partly writings relating to Norway, partly my 

 own certain experience, as far as it extended, and partly the ob- 

 fervations of fome intelligent perfons, communicated to me at my 

 defire. 



In the firfh clafs are our noted hiftarians and chorographers, 

 efpecially Peter Nicholas Undalin, formerly fuperintendant over 

 the*difhi& of Lifter, minifter of Undal, in the diocefe of Chriilian- 

 fand, and a canon of the chapter of Stavcnger, who, beiides his 

 tranllation of Snorre Sturlefen's annals, from the old Norwegian 

 tongue into modern Danifh, wrote a pofthumous work, publifhed 

 at Copenhagen, in quarto, in the year .1632, intitled, A True 

 Defcription of Norway and the adjacent Iflands. Of this piece 

 Dr. Chriftopher Steinkuhl, in 1685, publifhed a German transla- 

 tion with additions. It gives a tolerable account of the extent of 

 every province in general, its fubdivilion, and the names of the 

 diftrids and parities ; with fome particulars on the nature and 



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