NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 21 



heat was fo exceflive, that M. Haar, minifter of Waas, and for- 

 merly chaplain in the Eaft Indies, declared he hardly ever felt 

 it hotter in that country ; tho' I am inclined, partly, to impute 

 this, to the much ftronger impreffion made on the mind by prefent 

 fenfations, than by the recolledion of any paft % 



The caufe of thefe violent heats (which however are but of 

 fhort duration) may be partly derived from the valleys inclofed with- 

 in high mountains, where the rays being comprefled and confined, 

 the reverberation of them from all fides muft occafion fuch heats, 

 as were the fummer of any confiderable length, would bring grapes, 

 and other fruits and vegetables, to the like exquifite perfection as 

 in other countries. The fecond, and which is the chief caufe, is, 

 that in the midft of fummer, the fun's abfence below the horizon, 

 is fo fhort that there is no night, at leaft no total darknefs; con- 

 fequently neither the atmofphere nor the mountains have time to 

 cool,. but often retain part of the heat of the preceding day; and 

 if the general opinion of naturalifts, that a mineral foil emits ful- 

 phureous and hot effluvia, be true, this may come in for a third 

 caufe of the heat, the country being almoft every where full of 

 mines. 



There cannot be a more decifive proof of the fummer's heat Early harvest. 

 in Norway, than that feveral vegetables, and particularly barley, 

 grows up and ripen within fix weeks or two months ; which, 

 befides the great profit, is of very confiderable advantage to the 

 peafant, as it enables him to begin threfhing when he will, which he 

 is often under a neceffity of doing very early. It is faid, that the 

 fame happens in Sweden within a much morter fpace, namely, 

 36 days ; but this I mention only on the authority of the cele- 

 brated Olaus Magnus, who has the following pafTage concerning 

 it, " Quoad Aquilonares hoc certum eft, in plerifque agris Weft- 

 rogothorum, parte objecta meridionali plagae, hordeum fpatio 36 

 dierum a femine projeclo maturum colligi ; hoc eft, a finejunii ad 

 medium Augufti, aliquando celerius" f. It is certain that, where 

 nature has but a ihort time to work, me accelerates her opera- 



* It appears, that in the countries lying far north, the great length of the days 

 Often renders it warmer than with us. Wolffius's Phytic. Part. n. Chap. viu. p. m. 1 80. 

 _ f On my vifitation in the year 1750, I faw at Indwigen, in Nordfiord, barley 

 ripe and mowed on the 29th of July. Of the vegetables of the country I mall here- 

 after fpeak more at large, 



tions, 



