NATURAL HISTORY ^NORWAY. 45 



SECT. V. 



To the other clafs of mountains, according to my former di- Many ieflef 



firigle moun- 



vifion, belong thofe which ftand iingle, and are difperfed over the tains mail the 



rr \ & 1 J 1' 1 provinces. 



country, though they may in eflecT: be confidered as branches or 

 fhoots fpringing from the extended roots of the chains. Thefe, 

 likewife, are generally long in their form, and, like the others^ 

 ftretch away from north to fouth, but with fruitful vales betwixt 

 them, watered with convenient rivers, by which the floats of tim- 

 ber are conveyed to the fea-fide for exportation. The inhabitants 

 find thefe little mountains much more convenient for dwelling, they 

 being exceedingly fruitful, the fides of them covered with fields and 

 woods, whilft their fummits afford plenty of pafture for the cat- 

 tie and wild beafts ; befides which, their bowels are treafures of 

 filver, copper, iron, and other metals, which, both here and in 

 Sweden, are lodged in the fmaller, and not in thofe vaft moun- 

 tains; certainly a gracious difpofition of the Creator, to facilitate 

 the labour of mining. Tihd and Gule in Tellemark, are faid to 

 be the higheft mountains in that part, called Soendenfields. The 

 dioCefe of Bergen, unqueftionably, derives its name (which figni- 

 fies hills) from the height and great number of this clafs of moun- 

 tains, which are chiefly among the creeks, and on the fea-coaft, 

 and of thefe Siken, Ulrich, and Lyderhoorn, are the higheft in 

 this diocefe, though Meldifk in Rofendale, Smoer-ftak in Hougf- 

 gield, Alden, or the horfe in Sundfiord, Hornel in Nordfiord, 

 Sneehorn and Skopfhorne on Sundmoer, Romdalfhorn, and 

 others too many to be here enumerated, are more diftinguifhed 

 by their height*. The perpendicular height of thefe fteep moun- 

 tains, according to appearance, and the report of the people liv- 

 ing near them, may be computed at betwixt 9 or 1200 yards, 

 confequently they are higher, than if ten common church-fteeples 

 were placed one over the other. Strabo thinks the meafure of the 

 higheft mountains in the whole world to be 30 ftadia; Kircher, 

 43; Pliny extends it to 400, and Riccioli to 512; but M. 



* It is obfervable, that as many northern mountains are from their great height 

 called Horn, fome of the moft diftinguifhed mountains in Switzerland bear the fame 

 appellation, as Schreckhorn, Wetterhorn, Roemifchhorn, Buchhorn, &c. which 

 fhews mankind to agree univerfally in their images and metaphors, even where they 

 have no communication with each other, 



