NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. i 7 



lofophical tranfactions * N° 324. In relation to this truth, a certain 

 French geographer mud be allowed to be in fome meafure right? 

 though the affertion leems very fingular and unheard of, " L'air Empires et. 



1 r 1 Princip. du 



elt fort doux en Norvegue, de forte que la mer n'y gele point, Monde, par 

 et la neige y eft fort peu de terns." i. e. In Norway the air is *. p- 777- 

 very temperate, fo that the fea is never frozen, nor does the fnow 

 lie long upon the ground. 



SECT. VII. 



The aforefaid writer probably had his account from fome m l l%evlt 

 Norwegian, who was acquainted only with the weft fide of the ™J^ eaftern 

 country; for the defcription by no means agrees with moft of the 

 provinces, and efpecially all the eaftern parts near Filefield. The 

 intenfenefs of the winter is there extreme, particularly in the le- 

 vels on the mountains; which are far more expofed to the 

 feverity of the air than the valleys, and reach towards the upper 

 region of the atmofphere which is much colder than the lower, 

 as the reflexion of the fun is there lefs powerful, and the air 

 more rarifkd. The ufual degree of the cold, efpecially in Janu- 

 ary and February, may be fufficiently conceived from hence, that 

 the largeft rivers, with their roaring cataracts, are arrefted in their 

 courfe by the froft, and the very fpittle is no fooner out of the 

 mouth, than it is congealed, and rolls along the ground like hail. 

 A farther inftance of the extreme cold, not unworthy notice^ 

 efpecially as it raifes aftonifhment in foreigners, is, that no fooner 

 has a horfe dropped his excrements on the ice, than the balls' of 

 horfe-dung move and leap on the ground : The caufe of this is 

 the hidden change from heat to cold, which occafions a violent 

 conflict, when the fharp and denfe air penetrates forcibly into 

 the lighter, and expels it *. j t 



whereas Ireland and Scotland felt very little of it, more than in other winters But 

 it feems this is what ordinarily befal thofe northern parts, particularly the iflands of 

 Orkney, of which the learned Dr. Wailis gives the following account " th-re the 

 winters are generally more fubjecl: to rain than fnow; nor doth the froft and fnow 

 continue there fo long as in other parts of Scotland ; but the wind in the mean time 

 will often blow very boifteroufly, and it rains fometimes, not bv drops but bv 

 fpouts of water, as if whole clouds fell down at once, &c." Likewile M Lucas De 

 bes, in his defcription of the Ferro iflands, affirms, « that the winters there are not 

 very cold, though they lie in the 6id degree of latitude-, the frofts feldom kffe&o- 

 onger than a month, and are withal fa moderate, that no ice is ever kta in an ooen 

 bay, nor are the Iheep and oxen ever brought under cover 



* Of the : fmall and piercing darts of ice, as they are called, which are particularly 

 fliot forth by the north, and north-eaft winds, the very learned Jens Spidbero- deaf 



on 



