i 4 2 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



being on account of its fatnefs more durable than any other wood. 

 In Nordfiord and elfewhere, a very valuable juniper-oil is extracted 

 from the fruit, and fometimes exported to Holland. The fame 

 ufe is made of the berries, but not fo frequently now as hereto- 

 fore. 



Efp or bever-efp, the afpen-tree, whofe leaves make and trem- 

 ble at the leaft motion. The twigs are, like thofe of the birch 

 and alder- tree, given to the cattle, particularly horfes, when other 

 fodder is fcarce. This tree, which in other refpects is very weak 

 and tender, proves to be almoft incorruptible, in the water or hu- 

 mid ground, when it is laid down without being ftripped of its 

 bark, and is therefore much ufed for water-pipes and gutters un- 

 der ground. 



Fyr, or as it is here called fure, the fir-tree, is of two forts; the 

 red and hard fir, which grows upon the mountains, and contains 

 the greateft quantities of refin ; and the whitifh fort, which grows 

 quicker in low and moift grounds, but is of much lefs value, con- 

 fining only of the bare timber. The fir-tree in general, which 

 grows almoft every where in Norway, is the richeft produce of 

 the country ; for this fingle tree yields annually at leaft, I fpeak 

 within compafs and from the ftrongeft afTurance, above a million 

 of rixdollars, efpecially if we include the advantages of the faw- 

 mills, and the mafts, fome of which are fold from one hundred. 

 to two hundred rixdollars each *. Thefe trees, excepting thofe 

 on the mountains, from whence they cannot be fo eafily removed, 

 are now feldom fuffered to grow fo large as in former days, of 

 which we have the ftrongeft evidence in modern houfes, for a 

 peafant's apartment, which heretofore ufed to be raifed by four 

 flicks of fir-trees laid upon each other, requires now commonly 

 feven or eight. The richnefs of the fap of the red fir-tree may 

 be concluded, among other arguments, from the age of fome of 

 our Norway-peafants houfes, which are fuppofed to be three or 

 four hundred years ftanding, if not more. We even read in Mr. 

 Jon. Ramus' s hiftory of Norway, that in the farm of Nass in 



* A choice mail-tree, which when ftanding may be eftimated at iixty, hundred, or 

 hundred and twenty rixdollars, cannot, after it is cut down, be conveyed to the fea- 

 ports for lefs than double the prime coft; for befides the many other trees it requires 

 to form a kind of bed for it to float upon, left it mould be torn to pieces by the rocks, 

 fometimes an hundred trees or upwards muft be feil'd to make a way for it, and la- 

 borers are employed to hawl it in places impaffable for horfes. 



i Guld- 



