5 8 NATURAL HISTORY of NORtT.AT. 



the countries lying oppofite, viz. Scotland and the Orkneys,, 

 Fseroerne and Iceland 5 there are others again that I never could 

 find out any where elfe, as far as my intelligence could reach ; and 

 this is certainly one of thofe bounties, not fufficiently regarded, 

 the great Creator has bellowed on this country, that particularly 

 the well fide, which, with its numberlefs harbours, creeks, iflands, 

 high cliffs, hollow mountains and caves, is fortified, by the wife 

 and good Creator, as a particular refuge and afylum for an l'ncom- 

 be^b^S" P re ^ en ^^ e 5 an d indeed al-moft incredible number of Sea and 

 fca-fide. Shore-Fowls, which fometimes are obferved out at fea, at the 

 diftance of two or three Norway miles*, in fuch large flights, 

 that they obfcure the heavens, and one would imagine all the 

 Sea- Fowl of the univerfe were gathered together in one flock f. 

 Thefe Birds, with their feathers and down, which are gathered 

 and fent to foreign parts, and partly with their flefh and eggs 

 together, afford the inhabitants a very good maintenance, befldes 

 the extraordinary good grafs that grows after the manure 

 left by the dung of thefe Birds, on the iflands, and even in the 

 ocean, which frequently looks white, and as if it were covered 

 with it and the eggs in the nefts of thefe Strand Birds. 



Not all the eggs, but fome fort of them, are as good as hens 

 eggs, and great quantities come to market in this town, where 

 the bakers in particular know how to ufe them; the fhells are of 

 various colours and flzes, as fhall afterwards be obferved concerning 

 each of them, as far as my intelligence reaches ; mod of them 

 are white, green, or brown, and almoif all have black fpots on 

 them ; the Water Fugle egg-fhell is fomething thicker, and alfo 

 the white in a greater quantity, than in others 5 for which Count 

 Aloyfius Marflli, in his Danub. Panon. Tom. v. p. 124., afcribes 

 General Pro- this reafon, that the young Sea Birds, which are nourifhed by 



j»ertic 



* One Norway mile is about fix Englifh miles. 



f The large quantity of Sea Fowl that are in Norway, agrees with what Dr. Harvey 

 writes of the Scotch, de Generat. Animal, exercit. xi. with Deufing. in fine DirTertat. 

 de Anferibus Scoticis. Eft infula parva, Scoti Boffe nominant, • haud amplius mille 

 paffuum circuitu amplitudo ejus clauditur. Hujus infulse fuperficies, menfibus Maio & 

 Junio, nidis, ovis pullifque propemodum tota inftrata eft, adeo ut vix, prse eorurrt 

 copia, pedem libere ponere liceat : tantaque fupervolantium turba, ut nubium inftar, 

 folem coelumque auferant : tantufque vociferantium clangor & ftrepitus, ut prope al- 

 loquentes vix audias. Si fubjedtum mare inde, tanquam ex edita turri & altiffimo 

 praecipitio defpexeris, idem quoquoverfum, infinitis diverforum generum avibus 

 natantibus prsedseque inhiantibus, opertum videas. Si circum navigando imminentem 

 clivum fufpicere libuerit ; videas in fingulis pramvpti loci crepidinibus & recefilbus, 

 avium cujuflibet generis & magnitudinis, ordinis innumerabiles, plures fane quamv 

 nocte, fereno cselo, ftellse confpiciuntur. Si advolantes avolantefque eminus adfpexeris, 

 apum profefto ingens examen credas. Haud facile dixerim, quantus reditus quotannis 

 ex plumis ovorumque coclorum commercio polTeffori accedat ; adeo quod ipfe mihi 

 narravit, fidem exfuperat. What Harvey has faid of the way of boiling the Sea-fowls 

 eggs to fell them with great profit, is not ufed in Norway ; the reft agrees. 



the 



