The A U T H O R'b PREFAC E. 



thefe young gentlemen are faid to be undertaken upon worthy 

 motives, I hope their principal object is to qualify themfelves the 

 better for the fervice of their king and country, in thofe public 

 employments which at their return they follicit, and to which 

 they have fome claim. Now if this be their object, it is more 

 neceffary for them to vifit Norway and Sweden, than all the other 

 countries of Europe. An. acquaintance with the latter (Sweden) 

 both in refpecl: to its ftrength and its weaknefsj is unqueftionably 

 more neceffary to our young ftatefmen, than to be able to decide 

 which merits the preference, the Rhenifh, Italian, French, or 

 Spanifh wines. As to the neceffity of an accurate knowlege of 

 Norway, I believe it muft be immediately manifeft, if not to 

 others, at leaft, to a Norwegian, when he fees a perfbn filling 

 fome eminent poft either in the ftate, or in the law, with irre- 

 proachable integrity, who is totally ignorant of the particular cir- 

 cumflances and properties of Norway, and wherein they totally 

 differ from thofe of Denmark. Thus the public, contrary to his 

 intentions, may fuffer great detriment, or many things be neg- 

 lected, which would be happily executed, if his public fpirited 

 views were directed by his own difcernment, which would enable 

 him without feeing thro' the eyes of other men, throughly to lift 

 and examine the grounds and confequences of a matter, which 

 now becomes doubly difficult, it being not only foreign to him, 

 but very remote perhaps from the purpofe, to which he is medi- 

 tating to apply it. 



In this refpecl:, I flatter myfelf, this firft eflay towards a natural 

 hiftory of Norway, will have its ufe with fome, who never had 

 an opportunity of perfonally vifiting a country, with which, by 

 virtue of their office, they are in a greater or lefs degree, perpe- 

 tually concerned. 



This work, moreover, with all its imperfections, may ferve to 

 enrich natural hiftory in general with fome particulars, of which, 

 confummate naturalifts were heretofore the only competent 

 judges. I am very far from defiririg to relate, or eftablifli marvel- 

 lous 



