NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 89 



ad extras venerit, qui magnam hujus aquas copiam fibi apportari 

 curarunt." About two years ago, when I made a vifit to Coun- 

 fellor Swerdrup, proprietor of the iron manufacture at Hakkedal, 

 he carried me to a fpring, which is probably that mentioned by 

 M. Lochftar ; upon tafting it, I found the water light and pala- 

 table, and, as the proprietor informed me, it is very falubrious ; 

 efpecially in hypocondriac cafes, by attenuating and rectifying the 

 infpiffated blood. 



Mr. Peter Nicholas Undalin, in his defcription of Norway, re- 

 lates from an old book, called Speculum Morale (doubtlefs 

 a manufcript now loft) that the water of Birkedahl fen in Sund- 

 moer, in this diocefe, has a petrifying quality, and that within 

 three years it turns hazle into ftone, but not elder, which grows 

 near it. As fuch a power is inherent in fome waters*, and I myfelf 

 have feveral undeniable petrefaclions of beech, hazle, willow, and 

 other wood, I made no difficulty of giving credit to this account; 

 and tho' it appeared a little fufpicious, when I firft received fome 

 of this pretended petrefaction from the • fen of Sundmoer, yet I 

 fulpended my judgment, till laft fummer ; when on my vifttation, 

 I had an opportunity of informing myfelf more particularly from 

 the minifter of the place, Mr. Jver Munthe, at Volden. I found 

 that there was no fuch thing as petrifying w r ater in Birkedal-fen, 

 but that on one fide of it, there is a piece of an Amianthus, or 

 Afbeftos rock, which being divifible into long pliant threads, like 

 flax, and being more like wood than ftone, has been given out 

 for petrified wood ; and brought the neighbouring morafs into 

 oreat and undeferved honour and reputation. This is fo far from 

 ~ being any thing new, that it is a very ancient tradition, and 

 many intelligent perfons have been deceived by it ; among others, 

 Girald Cambrenfis, as appears from his Topograph. Hibern. 

 cap.viii. where he fays, " Eft et in Norvegia fons fimilis naturae, 

 fed tanto tamen efHcacis majoris, quanto ad frigidam zonam 

 magis accedit. In hoc enim non tantum ligna, fed et lina lineae- 

 que telae per annum impofitae duriilimum in lapidem congelantur, 



* The water doth actually pervade, either longitudinally or tranfverfally, the mi- 

 nute, interfaces of the wood, fills it with lapideous particles, dilates it, and when 

 by a cauftic corrofive power, which it derives from lime, it has deftroyed the wood, 

 it then appears in the form of the vegetable into which it penetrated. Hamb. Mag. 

 Vol. II. p.- 162. 



unde 



