NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 87 



Plutarch, likewife, in his treatife De Facie in orbe Lunae, makes 

 mention of fome Grecian people, who lived in the iilands of the 

 north, where the fun was viftble for thirty days together; and 

 did not, during that time, defcend above an hour beneath the 

 horizon. This can be applicable to no other iilands, than thole 

 in Helleland and Sal ten; for to this prefent time, neither in the 

 eaft or weft, has any ifland been difcovered, with any fuch phe- 

 nomena ; but on the iiland of Dum, in Helleland, the fun, in 

 fummer, about the longeft day, is clearly feen both day and night, 

 which mews this iiland to lie in the 66 i. degree under the ar&ic 

 polar circle, where the frigid zone begins ; but the farther one 

 advances towards the north, the higher the fun is feen at mid- 

 night, above the horizon. It is very poilible that Pliny might 

 have intelligence of this iiland of Dum, if that, which he calls 

 Dumna, be the very fame iiland. And when Plutarch further 

 writes, that the Greeks on that iiland, wereperfons of abftemious 

 lives, and accounted a moft venerable race, this tallies with Stur- 

 lefen's relation of Outin, and his retinue, namely, that they were 

 held to be gods, and that divine honours were paid to them." 

 So far I have cited from Mr. Ramus. 



Another remarkable particular in the waters of the north, and 

 withal, to me more unaccountable, than what has hitherto been 

 mentioned of the Mofkoeftrom, is the Kiilftrom, as it is called, 

 four Norway miles off Bergen, in the parifh of Lindaas, lunning 

 betwixt the continent and many fmall iiland s, and to which we 

 may properly apply the motto, Semper contrarius efto> from the 

 continual opposition of its courfe to that of others, flowing when 

 they ebb, and ebbing at their floods. Whether this irregularity 

 be owing to the length of its courfe, in feveral fmall channels be- 

 tween the iilands, the water being fo long detained as not to ebb, 

 till it returns from the fea in other places, or what other caufe 

 further experience may fuggeft, I pafs over ; concluding, with 

 this admonition, that on this Kiilftrom, the inadvertency of a The ksi- 

 pilot is extremely dangerous, of which there was once a melan- 

 choly inftance in the lofs of feven northland barks. 



Part I. A a SECT. 



