16 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



vulcanoes refcmbling the mountainous ones on the furface of 

 the earth, it would not be pertinent here to determine. 

 woodward's Without entering into a prolix examination of thefe things, I 

 Iart e hT y p° f 39> ^ a11 onl 7 q uote Woodward's opinion on this head, u There is 

 a nearly uniform and conftant heat diffeminated throughout 

 the body of the earth, and efpecially the interior parts of it ; 

 the bottoms of the deeper mines being very fultry, and the 

 ftones and ores there very fenfibly hot, even in winter and the 

 colder feafons ; and 'tis this heat which evaporates and elevates 

 the water of the abyfs, buoying it up indifferently on every 

 fide, and towards all parts of the globe." And, page 151, he 

 adds, " That the water refident in the abyfs, is, in all parts of 

 it, endued with a considerable quantity of heat ; and more efpe- 

 cially in thofe parts where thefe extraordinary aggregations of 

 his fire happen. So likewife is the water which is thus forced 

 out of it, infomuch that when thrown forth and mixed with the 

 waters of wells, of fprings, of rivers, and of the fea, it renders 

 them very fenfibly hot." Tkus far Woodward. 



It is fuflicient that experience fliews the countries remote from 

 the fea, tho' neareft to the line, to be fubjecl: to the hardeft win- 

 ters; and that among thofe countries which are actually encom- 

 paffed by the fea, none have lefs of the winter, that is of the froft, 

 ice, and fnow thereof, than thofe which lie open to the great 

 fea, or the main ocean, the mild and warm effects of its exhala- 

 tions being moftly felt in winter, when they are moft copious, 

 having a large range in the atmofphere, which at that feafon is 

 lefs crowded by the folar rays. It is almoft inconceivable, tho' 

 certainly true, that the winter of the year 1708, fo remarkable 

 for its deftrudive feverity, was not remarkably different at Ber- 

 gen from the other common winters. And fo likewife Ireland, 

 Scotland, and the Orkneys, all fituated towards the weftern 

 ocean, felt little of the extraordinary rigor of that winter; of 

 which more particular accounts may be read in the Englifh phi- 



lofophical 



* To remove all doubts, which thofe who are not experimentally acquainted with 

 this lingular providence may entertain of it, I lhall confirm it by the following paf- 

 fage from Derham's phyfico-theology, B. 4, C. 2. Of which defence againft the moft 

 fevere cold, (namely the warm exhalations from the fea,) we have lately had a con- 

 vincing proof in 1768, when England, Germany, France and Denmark, and even 

 the more foutherly parts of Italy, Switzerland, and other countries, fufFered feverelys 

 '" ' ■ whereas 



