NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 5i 



that he feeks for rivers or water-falls, to wafh them off, we 

 fhould feldom have opportunities of getting at him : by that 

 means he falls into the hands of mankind, to a great advantage. 



The Sea-Beaver is another and larger Infect, peculiar to the lea. « 

 It is fometimes taken here, and in the Nordland Waters that sea-iw. 

 run between the cliffs and iflands, near the coaft of Norway • 

 and is faid to be an amphibious creature, like the ordinary 

 Beaver, of which I have treated before, in the defcription of land- 

 animals. By the plate annexed it will be found to be the 

 fame that is called in the Mediterranean Hippocampus, and 

 by the Italians Cavallo Marino, the Sea-horfe \ but that name 

 here lignifies quite another creature. Hav-Baeveren is an hex- 

 angular fifh, refembling a worm; its head, neck and.cheft 

 very much refembles a horfe, yet fo that the mouth is a kind of 

 trunk * y the body more wonderful, being undulated : every one 

 of the rings formed by thefe undulations, has on the fix corners 

 fome fmall projecting fpines, and with thefe, as well as the hollow 

 rings, this creature moves himfelf like fmall Worms, for want of 

 feet. The tail, which begins from their broad belly, is, in moil 

 that I have feen of them, rolled up, and lies in a fort of circular 

 direction on their back : when that is ftretched out, I believe the 

 creature's length may be a quarter of an ell ; and about the middle 

 it is as thick as a good large thumb; 'tis of a greenifh colour 

 towards the back part a little darker, and looks mighty pretty! 

 O. Wormius fays, that this creature is ferviceable in feveral cures, 

 Mufeo, p. 2,44. and others again fay the belly has fomething 

 poifbnous in it jj, 



A ihort and thick Sea- Worm is found here alfo, for which I don't 

 know a name ; it is about the length and thicknefs of a finger, Unknowm 

 quite white^ without head or tail, and with' only one opening at T " 

 the end, which doubtlefs ferves for a paffagc for both aliments 

 and excrements. 



The ftomach is as long as the Worm, and there is no fign 

 of entrails ; the flefh is white and tough, and of a pretty hard 

 fubftance. 



Pere Labat fays that the Americans eat a Water-worm, which, 

 according to his defcription, very much refembles this, but is fome- 

 thing larger. 



* Hippocampus nomen compofitum eft ex diftione Xintog, qui equum fio-nificat & 

 xocfATTii, quae erueam, quia erucam imitatur, non modo corporis flexura, fed eti'ara 

 circulis, quibus ut infedta diftinguitur. Willough. L. iv. c. 9. p. i^y, 



(| This is properly a fifli of the Syngathus kind, not an Inf^dt. 



S EC T. 



. Worm. 



