u8 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



Gods pro- inftance of the care of Providence is obferved by Mr. Anderfon, 



vidence. * fl ^is Account f Iceland, § lxii. p. 88, namely, that thefe 

 Turbots, which, like other Fifh of the Flounder-kind, are, by 

 their form, the moft unfit to fwim, having no air-bladder, and 

 therefore muft keep at the bottom in ftormy weather, and flick 

 inthefand, are, for that reafon, provided with a skin, or mem- 

 brane, which draws over their eyes, to keep the fand out of them. 

 This, as well as the reft of the Flounder-kind, feeds chiefly on 

 young Crabs, and fuch fmall Fifh that crawl upon the fands, and 

 cannot eafily efcape from them : the Sea-eggs, or Sea-urchins alfo, 

 which flick to the cliffs, become an eafy prey to them, and is a 

 food of which they feem very. fond *. 



Hom-fisk. The Horn-flfk, or Horn-give, the Murxna, is in fhape round 

 and long, like an Eel ; it has greenifh bones, and is not ill- 

 tafted. It is found here, but not in fuch numbers as in Den- 

 mark, and our fifhermen do not much regard it. 



Horr. The Horr, which we call Horke in Denmark, is a fmall frefh- 



water Fifh, which fome people reckon to be very delicate ; but 

 they are fo full of bones that it is troublefome, and even dan- 

 gerous, to eat them. 



SECT. VIII. 



Hvai-£ $ k. The Hval-fifk, or, as we call them here, Qual, the Whale, 



Balasna, is a Fifh very well known, by name at leaft, to every 

 body, though but few know any thing further of them, there 

 being fcarce any but the fifhermen who have ever feen them. I 

 have never had the opportunity of feeing a Whale except once, at 

 Sognefaefte, and then he only fhewed his back above the water, 

 which feem'd to be above forty feet long ; and immediately he 

 div'd again. The whole Whale-kind are divided by fome into 

 fix Or feven, and by others into twice as many fpeciesf ; tho' thefe 

 authors under that name comprehend at large all the viviparous 

 Fifties, which are all formed in the womb of the dam nearly in 



* Something very lingular here occurs to me, related by Mr. Affeffor Frius, con- 

 cerning a fre-fh -water river, near Gaarden Stafseng, in N«fne Sogn, on Helgeland, in 

 which they fometimes catch Turbot, and other Sea-fifh, tho' this river has not the leaft 

 vifible communication with the fea •, but it muft have it by fome fubterraneous 

 paffage. The fame is related of a river in Hameroe JCald, Sal tens Fogderie, and like- 

 wife, of Lille Mios, in V alders, many miles from the fea. 



•f From a manufcript which a learned Icelander fent Ol. Wormius, Th. Bartholi- 

 nus, Qtnt. iv. Obfervat. 24, reckons nolefs than 22 forts of Whales, which are caught 

 in the 'North-fea ; but what certainty there is in this account I will not pretend to fay. 

 Rondeletius, Bellonius, Schonveld, Faber, Clufius, Tulpius, and others, knew only 

 thofe call'd Balsena magna, Balsena vulgaris, Balsena dentata, Cete, Phyfeter, & Uni- 

 cornu. My plan obliges me to treat of thofe only that vifit our Norway coaft, tho' 

 their proper abode is feveral hundred miles from hence, towards the north-weft. 



the 



