xii The A U T H O R*s P R E F A C K 



every particular, developed the abftrufe meafures, and difcovered 

 the fecret defigris of the infinite Creator, whofe ways are paft 

 finding out. I hold with Bartholin. " Officio fuo fatisfecit phy- 

 tic us, ubi rationes adduxit probabiles." It is not in one refpedt. 

 only that our Saviour's words hold good; the wind bloweth where 

 it lijiethj and thou heareff the found thereof but thou knowefl not 

 from whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. And the wife man 

 does not exaggerate when he fays, we fcarce perceive what lies 

 upon the earthy or feel what is betwixt our hands. However, our 

 almighty and all- wife Creator cannot be difpleafed at an invefti- 

 gation of his works, with a pious and refpeclful docility, nor at 

 the praifes we give to his holy name for fo much as falls within 

 the extent of our faculties ; refting afiured, that what is beyond 

 our reach in this ftate of probation, will be explained to us in 

 that new heaven and new earth which we look for according to 

 his promife. 



I mail now, purfuant to my promife^ give fome account of the 

 fources from whence I have drawn what is here offered to the 

 public. Thefe are partly writings relating to Norway, partly my 

 own certain experience, as far as it extended, and partly the ob- 

 fervations of fome intelligent perfons, communicated to me at my 

 defire. 



In the firft clafs are our noted hiftorians and chorographers, 

 efpecially Peter Nicholas Undalin, formerly fuperintendant over 

 the diftria of Lifter, minifter of Undal, in the diocefe of Chriftian- 

 fand, and a canon of the chapter of Stavenger, who, befides his 

 translation of Snorre Sturlefen's annals, from the old Norwegian 

 tongue into modern Danifh, wrote a pofthumous work, publifhed 

 at Copenhagen, in quarto, in the year 1632, intitled, A True 

 Defcription of Norway and the adjacent Iflands. Of this piece 

 Dr. Chriftopher Steinkuhl, in 1685, publifhed a German transla- 

 tion with additions. It gives a tolerable account of the extent of 

 every province in general, its fubdivifion, and the names of the 

 diftrids and parifhes ; with fome particulars on the nature and 



qua- 



