NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 19 



Norway, but the gallant Danifli general Budde, who, in the laft 

 invafion of the Swedes, had done his country great fervice, made 

 fuch good difpofitions againft the enemy, that they laid afide their 

 defign of attempting Drontheim, and cantoned themfelves among 

 the peafants, till the beginning of the year 1719 ; when, though 

 late, they received an account by exprefs of the unexpected death 

 of the king before Frederickfhall. Soon after, advice coming 

 that Count Sponeck was in full march towards them, they had 

 orders to make the moft precipitate retreat over thofe defart and 

 lofty mountains ; but juft as they had reached the frontiers of their 

 own country, they were overtaken by a ftorm, accompanied with 

 an extreme cold, and much fnow, which fo bewildered them, that 

 the greater!: part of them perilled. A company of two hundred 

 Norwegian fledge-men, under major Emahus, which followed 

 them clofe to obferve their retreat, found the enemy dead upon 

 the mountains; fome fitting, fome lying, and fome in a poftureof 

 prayer, all frozen to death. How great their diftrefs muft have been, 

 may be judged from their cutting their mufkets to pieces, in order 

 to burn what little fuel they could raife from them. The generals 

 Labarre and Zoega were among the dead, but the generals Adler- 

 feld and Horn barely efcaped with their lives ; and of the whole 

 body only two thoufand five hundred, or, according to others, no 

 more than five hundred, furvived this dreadful cataftrophe * 



SECT. VIII. 



From this accidental digreffion I now return to the cold in Prefervatives 

 Norway, which led me into it, and fhall mew, according to my colt* the 

 defign, that the wife and provident Creator has not left the inha- 

 bitants of thefe cold climates without a greater variety of preferva- 

 tives againft the weather, and more means of keeping themfelves 

 warm, than other countries afford. 1. The country abounds in 

 large forefts, affording them plenty of fuel, and timber for build- 

 ing ftrong houfes : 2. The wool of the fheep, and the furs and 



■ * Whoever considers this great lofs, which was inflicted by the hand of God, and 

 the many other defeats, particularly at Mofs, Frederickfhall, Ringerige, Crogftoven, 

 lid, and eliewhere, cannot but wonder that Mr. Nordberg, an hiftorian of great 

 merit in other refpefts, fhould in the fecond part of his life of Charles XII. affirm, 

 that the war was carried on with equal advantage, or rather on the Swedifli fide with 

 confidence fupenonty « Par Pa les forces de Charles XII. furent affez egales a 

 celles de fon ennemi. 11 fit trois campagnes en Norvegue avec un avantao? affez 

 egaletmemeayecfuperiorite." An affertion without the leaft truth. But the cir- 

 cumitances of this laft war were never rightly underftood by foreigners. 



Part L G fkins 



