NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, %t 



They are very nice, and of a fheep or goat don't eat more 

 than the head or udder ; and by this circumftance one knows that 

 the Loifen has been there. Tho' they always kill, yet they eat 

 very little in the encreaiing moon ; but in the decreafe they are 

 more ravenous, and will hide or bury the carcaffes like the bear. 

 The wild cat, which feems, from its afpe£r, to be of their kind, 

 is their worft enemy. Its almoft continual employment is to 

 lookout for them in their holes, and fteal their prey from them. 

 They are very cunning in undermining a fheep-fold, where they 

 help themfelves very nobly. 



It happened lately in fome of thefe that a Goupe was found, 

 out by a fly he-goat, who perceived his fubterraneous work, 

 watched him narrowly, and as fbon as his head came forth, before 

 the body could be got out, butted him, and gave fuch home 

 pufhes, that he laid him dead in the grave of his own making. 

 It is faid that the Loflen's claws are good for the cramp, when 

 wore round the neck ; but I cannot affirm it, or allure it to 

 be fb. 



S E C T. X. 



, Foxes, called Rseve, are found here frequently ; they are of Fox. 

 different colours, white, red, and black; the laft are the fiercer!, 

 and their ikins moft valuable : fome of the others, which have 

 two black ftrokes acrofs their backs, fell alfo at a good price *.' 

 This well-known creature's other properties I need not here 

 defcribe ; for thro' the whole I intend to treat largely upon thole 

 creatures only which are peculiar to this country, and diftin£r. from 

 thofeof Denmark, and moft other places; neverthelefs, as- there 

 are certain general things, known by more inftances or examples 

 in one country than another, I fhall fo far take even thefe into 

 confideration. 



And here I mud obferve, that theNorvegian farmer can relate Cunning, 

 moft ftories of the fagacity and cunning for which the Fox, in 

 air countries, is famous ^ fo that if we, with certain philofo- 

 phers, Would judge all creatures, notwithftanding their feveral 

 degrees of fenfe", or -what appears in fome degree of reflection, to be 

 machines, this would hold probable leaft of all of the Fox ; fome 

 of the before related ftories of the Bear fhew alio the folly of fuch 

 a philofophyl'. 



* From Bergen are exported annually 4000 Foxes Ikins, more or lefs. 



t Melius philofopkari illi videntur, qui rationem aliquam brutis tribuunt. Certe, 

 nullo negotio, eorum variarum & mirabilium adtionum rationem reddunt. Jo. Cleri- 

 cus Phyf. 1. iv. cap. xii. §. 4. It may not be ill applied here to divide with Hr. 

 Heumann, in Acl. Philof. Tom. xviii, p. 818. the numbers of fouls under gold, fxlver 

 and copper. 



Fart. II. G The 



