The A U T H O R's PREFACE. xiii 



qualities of the foil ; but thefe are but few in number, it not hav- 

 ing been his defign to treat exprefsly of them, Mr. Jonas 'Ramusj 

 heretofore paftor to the community of Norderhong in Rongerige, 

 in the diocefe of Aggerhuus, goes further. This writer, befides 

 many other theological and hiftorical compoiitions, has deferved 

 highly of his country for his Defcription of Norway, publifhed in 

 quarto, at Copenhagen 1715. It is a chorographical improvement 

 upon Ujidalinus's work, but having the fame point in view with 

 that author, he confines himfelf within the fame limits, yet is 

 fuller on the nature and produces of the country, adding, parti- 

 cularly at the clofe, from page 240 to 274, an appendix, enume- 

 rating the feveral beafbj infects, birds, fifhes, herbs and trees* 

 This confifts indeed of little more than the bare names of them, 

 but was of ufe however to me, as it opened a large field for fur- 

 ther enquiry. Arendt Berendfen's Fertility of Denmark and Nor- 

 way, printed in quarto at Copenhagen, in 1656, is a book which 

 exhibits a clear account of the different fertility of the relpe&ive 

 provinces, and feveral particulars concerning the products of the 

 country ; but this again proceeds no farther than giving the 

 names of things *. In feme certain points, I have been moft in- 

 debted to Mr. Lucas Debes's Feroa Referata, or Defcription of 

 the Ferro Illands, publifhed at Copenhagen, in octavo, 1673. 

 This gentleman, who was formerly fuperintendent of Ferro, was, 

 for the times he lived in, and the opportunities he had, a good 

 naturalift, and, as the illands he defcribes, lying parallel to the 

 weftern coafts of Norway, have fome analogy with them, efpecially 

 on account of the fea-fifh and water-fowls, his obfervations were 

 of greater affiftance to me than any other work. I have likewife 

 gleaned fome good materials from diftintY treatifes on fingle lub- 

 jeds, fuch as Wormius's Tra&atus de mure Norvegico, Dethar- 

 dingii Diff. de vermibus in Norvegia qui novi vifi, Gartner's Hor- 



* The Norrigra Illuftrata. of Jens Lauridfen Wolf, hardly deferves to be ranked 

 among the chorographies of the country, it containing little of any importance but 

 what is hiftorical. 



Part I. d dcul- 



