NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. i?s 



pofe f . In Sundfiord we find a fort of Craw-fifh which I fhould rather 

 take to be young Lobfters, if they were not quite diftinguifhed 

 by their particular form. I have, for this reafon, exhibited a figure 

 of one in the plate annexed. The two foremoft claws are of an 

 extraordinary, and feemingly unproportionable length ; they are 

 even longer than the whole body : they are flender, and of a pen- 

 tagonal fhape. The fhell on the back and fides is variegated with 

 particular marks, like hieroglyphics. I have never feen but 

 one of them, which is remarkably different from every thing I 

 have met with of that clafs. Gefner reprefents, cap. xiv. p. 124, 

 a particular Craw-fifh, which he calls Leo Marinus, or the Sea 

 Lion ; for what reafon I cannot fay ; the comparifon muft feem too 

 far fetch'd. This fpecies however agrees pretty well with ours, in 

 refpecl: to the two long claws ; but then the body is much fhorter, 

 and, according to his defcription, it isfurr'd, or covered with little 

 prickles ; neither has it any thing of thole characters or refem- 

 blances of letters impreffed upon it, which chiefly diftinguifhes 

 that I have defcribed from other kinds ; fb that I cannot look 

 upon them to be the fame *. 



Crabs, Cancri Marini, are caught here in plenty, of which there Crabs; 

 are three forts, namely, the large Taike-krabber, which is reddifh 

 on the back, and white under the belly. Thefe are found on a 



f Car. Linnaeus fays, in in his Fauna Suecica, p. 358, that Craw-fifti were not feen 

 in Sweden till the reign of King John III. who, amongft other things, is celebrated 

 for importing Craw-fifh, and breeding them in his own country. 



* Since I have wrote this account, I find that Ol. Wormius has taken notice of the 

 fame Norwegian Craw-fifh or Lobfter, and has given it the name of the King of the 

 Lobfters, and alfo the Letter-Lobfter. As he has not given a figure of it, I fuppofe 

 it will be the more agreeable to find one here, which I have 'taken care to have very 

 exact ; and the more to illuftrate the fame, I fhall quote a few words from that author 

 on this fubjed : " Quern alii Aftacum medium, feu mediae magnitudinis, Norvegi 

 Hummer-Konge, feu Regem Aflacorum vocant (his name is not known here at 

 prefent) no's non inepte Aftacum Literatum, quod in cruftis caudam tegentibus lite- 

 rarum quarundam grandium & quafi hieroglyphicarum notas oftentet — Meus Aftacus 

 Literatus longitudine eft pedis unius. Chelae feu forcipes, ubi extenfi reda linea, funt 

 craffitie paulo majore pollice, totius corporis lineamentis majori Aftaco fimilis, nifi 

 quod chelae in longitudinem protendantur & minores fint. Dimidium enim pedem 

 aequant & antequam findantur, quatuor in longum exporredis dotantur prominentiis, 

 alternatim duplici & fimplici dentium ordine confpicuis, inter quos finus ad fummum 

 excurrunt quatuor, eleganti fpedaculo — In dorfi cruftis notae confpiciuntur nigricantes 

 (in my fample it is a rifing in the fhell itfelf, with no difference of colour, which is 

 all over a kind of ftraw-colour, intermixed with red here and there) quae prifcas mona- 

 chorum literas quodammodo referunt, utrinque fex, quarum prima a cauda numeranda 

 T, fecunda & tertia E, quarta & . quinta L, fexta I, utcunque exprimunt ea figura, 

 qua in vetuftis manufcriptis codicibus vifuntur. Hunc Aftacum ilium effe crederem, 

 quem Rondeletius Aftacum parvum vocat, nifi plebs forficibus carere diceret. Nofter 

 enim quatuor primos forficibus dotatos obtinet pedes, ut Aftacus major." Muf. 

 ■Wormian, p. 249. All that I can fay further is, that the figures, letters, or hiero- 

 glyphic charaders, reprefented by the force of imagination, are not the fame in all, 

 but a " Lufus naturae elegans quidem fed incertus." 



fandy 



