NATURAL HISTORY of NORPFAT. l05 



articles, to exprefs myfelf fufficiently to convey a juft idea of 

 the vaft multitudes that have been obferved here. When I 

 firft came hither I could not believe it myfelf, till I was con- 

 vinced by ocular demonftration, as well as the teftimony of many 

 fubftantial witnefles*. 



There is no country in Europe fitter for the ftudy of Ichtyo- 

 logy,_ or for enquiring into the natural hiftory of Fifh, than 

 the diocefe of Bergen, and the manor of Nordland in the diocefe 

 of Tronheim. When we obferve the pains that Bellonius, Ron- 

 dele t, Salvian, Aldrovand, Gefner, and beyond them all, Wil- 

 loughby, took, to give a fufficient account of this important 

 part of the ftudy of nature, we cannot help wifhiug that fbme 

 of thefe learned and indefatigable perfons, had been at thefe 

 places to. make their obfervations, where they certainly would 

 have made more important difcoveries than the reader has 

 to expecl: from me ;■ for it would require the whole life of an 

 aceompliifi'd man. I only write in general a Hiftory of the 

 Natural Curiofities in Norway, and confequently cannot enlarge, 

 as might be wifhed, upon every article in particular; much lefs 

 can I, as the learned authors before-mentioned have done, enter 

 upon the anatomy of every particular Fifh j yet, neverthelefs, I 

 hope that thofe, who hereafter may endeavour to bring this 

 knowledge to a greater perfection, will find more of the eiTen- 

 tial articles collected in this narrow compafs, than in many 

 larger, and otherwife more particular defcriptions. What I 

 here relate for a certainty may be depended upon, and will 

 be found, on the niceft examination, to be every where ftriclly 

 true : where I have been under the leaft doubt, I have not 

 pofitively affirmed the circumftance. 



SECT. II. 



Before I begin to treat of the feveral Fifties in particular, I 

 fhall quote a few lines out of Rollin's Treatife, entitled, 

 Phyfique des Enfans, or the Study of Nature, for the Service of 

 Youth, which conduce to the glory of our Great Creator, my 

 principal end.^ In chap. ii. concerning Fifl*, he fays, " How many General pror 

 iC kinds of Filh of various ftzes do the waters produce! I con-p rtiesor ^ u *' 

 " template all thefe, and it feems to me, that there is nothing 

 " but a head and tail - y they have no hands or feet, and their 



* From Karfund' near Stavanger, quite to Tromfen in Nordland, are, with God's 

 bleffing, annually catched fuch vaft quantities of Herrings, the feveral kinds of Cod, 

 and other valuable Fifh, that this Commodity alone brings in, on a moderate 

 calculation, a million of rix- dollars, and fometimes more. 



Part II. e e " head 



