72 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



of winter, as I have fhewn in the firft chapter, together with the 

 caufes of it. Further, that the fea-falt diffolves and detaches itfelf 

 from the adjacent falt-grounds, and, partly, is carried thither by 

 fubterraneous currents, running thro' the deep falt-mines; of which 

 kind feme are to be found in Poland, and other parts, feems 

 to me preferable to any other opinion, although the fagacious 

 Baron Wolfe cannot entirely come into it. But what I alledge in 

 anfwer to the queftion, why the fea- water does not continually 

 grow falter, is this ; that exclufive of the immenfe quantity of 

 fait, which the fea daily lofes by the many falt-works in France, 

 Spain, and other countries, exclufive of the rain, and the frefh- 

 water rivers difcharging themfelves into the fea, by which, ac- 

 cording to the difpofition of the wife Creator, the balance is con- 

 ^tS/bottf tulua % maintained ; exclufive of all this, it is highly credible, 

 of the fea. that frefh- water fprings iffue out of the bottom of the fea. The 

 poftibility of this admits of no doubt ; but to demonftrate the 

 reality by any experiment, will be attended with fome difficulty, 

 yet the fifhermen living under Sund-moer, have more than once in- 

 formed me, that they often find, in the body of a fkate, water en- 

 tirely frefh; which muft always be fuch, if this frefhnefs be the re- 

 fult of a kind of filtration, which the water has undergone within 

 the body of the fifh; but this frefhnefs not being common, I con- 

 clude that the fifh has drank in this frefh-waterfrom a fpring break- 

 ing out in the bottom of the fea. It is obfervable, by the way, that 

 the fea-water on the coaft of Norway, but moftly on the weft- fide, 

 is known to be pretty full of fait particles, the peafants finding no 

 fmall quantities of fait in the clefts and apertures of the rocks, 

 where, by the egrefs and regrefs of the water, fome fait is left with 

 Salt-pans, the remaining furf, fuch as might on occafion be colle&ed and pu- 

 rified. In Hardanger, on Nord-moer, and feveral other places, par- 

 ticularly in the diocefe of Drontheim, the peafants extract fait from 

 the fea-water by boiling ; but as this operation is forced, and con- 

 fumes great quantities of wood, therefore the law of Norway pro- 

 hibits the boiling any more fait than is neceffary to every one for his 

 domeftic ufes, without the exprefs permiflion of the magiftracy to 

 make that ufe of the fuel. About ten years ago, a large falt-work 

 was begun at Tonfberg on the king s account, and the fea-water, 

 after being firft refined, is there boiled in fuch quantities, that 



feveral 



