ii4 



Hvidling. 



Wonderful 

 Privilege. 



Hnndftigler. 



NATURAL HISTORY of NOR WA 2~ 



different) as may be feen in the plate annexed, where it is 

 exactly delineated. Mr. Lucas Debes mentions, in his Defcrip-* 

 tion of Farroe, p. 162, a particular fort of Whale, called Dog- 

 lingen j this is about 30 feet long, and is the eafieft caught of 

 all the fpecies; for it will remain ftill while a rope is run 

 through its eye-lid : thefe have the characters or diftinguifhing 

 marks of the Whale kind more ftrongly than any other. They 

 are drawn alhore by thele ropes. The train oil extracted from 

 thefe Doglingers is fo fine and fubtil, that the veffels it is put 

 into muft be made of wood of a very clofe contexture. If the 

 fat be eaten, it immediately tranipires through the pores, and 

 turns the perfbn's linnen yellow % . 



The Hvidling, Hvilling, called here Quitting, the Whiting, 

 Afellus Candidus, fb called from its white colour, is a middling 

 fiz'd Fifh, with a longifh body, and very fharp teeth* The 

 flefh of this Fifh is very delicate and agreeable to the palate. 

 Whitings are moftly found where the ground is muddy, and 

 caught with a hook and line. Mr. Anderfon is of opinion, that 

 the Whiting is what the French properly call Morue, and is 

 caught in abundance on the banks of Newfoundland; he relates, 

 in his Defcription of Iceland, p. 85, that this greedy Fifh has 

 by nature a certain property, which, perhaps, many gluttons of 

 the human fpecies would be glad of ; namely, that when he acci- 

 dentally happens to fwallow a piece of wood, or any thing he 

 cannot digeft, he can throw out his ftomach, turn it infide out, 

 and empty it in the water ; and then fuck it in again to its 

 proper place. This Dionys confirms from his own obfervation, 

 in his Defcription des cotes de PAmerique Septentrionale, Vol. ii. 

 p. 181. 



The Hundftigler, Hundftage, Aculeatus minor, the common 

 Stittleback, is one of the fmalleft of Fifh ; it moves about very 

 quick in the water, and is daily found near the ftorehoufes, but 

 it is not much regarded. God's providence, which is often 

 fignally diiplayed in fmall things, difcovers itfelf here, by pro- 

 viding this little diminutive creature, which does not exceed tvvo 



* In the heads of thefe Doglingers is faid to be found alfo the aforefaid rval-hav s 

 or fperma-ceti, which is known to be a good healing medicine ; from whence I con- 

 clude it to have been one of thofe which the Bremer fiinermen caught fome few years 

 ago, and had never feen the like before ; from which Theod. HafTaeus took occafion 

 to write his Difquifition on the Leviathan of Job, and Whale of Jonah. A French 

 tranllation of that Treatife was printed in the Bibliotheque Germanique, Tom. xy. 

 Art. iv, But perhaps this learned man is miftaken, as well as many others, in this 

 matter; for the Leviathan feems moft iikely to be the Norvegian Sea-Snake, which 

 I fhall treat of in the chapter of Sea-Monfters ; at leaft this appears moft probable, 

 and more agreeable to truth, than any thing yet advanced on this fubje<5t 



inches 



