NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 149 



that ingenious naturalift M. Anderfon of Hamburg : " It is to be Account of 



D Iceland, 



lamented that the botanifta, efpecially the Germans, for want of Gre ™ lan .\ 

 opportunity, being remote from the fea, have not, nor can apply slights, 

 themfelves with a precision becoming the Subject, to make a col- 

 lection of the marine- vegetables about this country, distributing 

 them in proper clafies, with defcriptions of each. For Since I have 

 entered upon thefe fpeculations, and collected as many kinds as I 

 could, they appear to me, matter of frefh wonder and moft ex- 

 quifite delight to a devout naturalift, in the confederation of their 

 inexprefHble, and to a ftranger incredible, variety, figure, colour, 

 production, without roots, &c. and when I reflect, that nothing 

 but what is good and ufeful comes from the hand of the wife 

 Creator. I will affirm that thefe vegetables, however ufelefs they 

 may be accounted, not only afford nourifhment to innumerable 

 living creatures, but might for the moil part be Serviceable to 

 mankind, not only as food, efpecially in time of neceflity, but 

 likewife for powerful medicaments ; did not our infatuation for 

 what is foreign and coftly incline us to under-value them. Mr. 

 Martin, in his defcription of the Weftern Iflands of Scotland, a 

 book well worth reading, has, in page 148, &c. thrown together 

 fome very valuable obfervations upon them, which he made 

 among the inhabitants of thofe iflands, who live in the utmoft 

 Simplicity, and in a rational enjoyment of the little, which the 

 author of nature has beftowed on them ; inftances which Should 

 raife a blufh in the effeminate and luxurious." Thus far Mr. An- 

 derfon. As part of the inhabitants of the fea bear in their figures 

 a refemblance to thofe of the land, as is feen in the fea-cow, the 

 fea-horfe, the fea-dog, and Sea-hog, &c. fo fifhermen, and divers 

 who have opportunity of knowing thefe things inform us, that 

 the eminences and declivities in the fea, like the mountains and 

 vallies, are over-grown not only with fea-grafs and plants of Se- 

 veral kinds, but that likewife they produce bufhes, trees, and 

 coral-Shrubs. In the chapter on the waters, I have already quoted 

 the teftimony of Kircher, grounded on the information of Ara- cha xi 

 bian flfhermen. The bottom of our northern-fea, likewife affords 

 variety of fuch marine plants, fome of which muft be unknown to 

 the curious in other parts, and for their fatisfaction I have caufed 

 exact figures of the moft remarkable ones to be annexed. 



But, 



