40 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



the fens, which is faid to be an indication of coal-mines, appears 

 in great quantities in feveral places. If coal could be found in 

 thofe provinces, which are not overftocked with wood, it might 

 encourage the opening of more mines, the country almoft every 

 where abounding in metallic mines, befides thofe already wrought. 



SECT. III. 



Two forts of From treating of the low and level foil of Norway, we are na- 



mountains. 11 1 J i it 



turally led to the mountains and rocks, with which the greateft 

 part of Norway is covered. For the more accurate defcriptioa 

 of thefe they muft be divided into two forts ; fome being general, 

 and extending themfelves thro' the whole length of the country, 

 whilft others are fcattered about, or furrounded with a level coun- 

 try, tho' many of thefe may be confidered as branches or excre- 

 fcences fpringing from the roots of the former. 



SECT. IV. 

 The firft fort of thefe mountains are fuch, as are properly called 

 Juga Montium Concatenata, or a long continued chain of moun- 

 tains; the direction of them here is not tranfverfal, but from the 

 fouth towards the north pole *. M. Emanuel Suedenborg, in his 

 Mifcellanea Obfervata, p. 7 & 9, affigns the caufe to the winds 

 prevailing at the time of the deluge, which gave this pofition and 

 figure to the matter firft hardened : " Obfervari poteft plerorum- 

 que horum montium dorfa a feptentrione verfus auftrum tendere, 

 &c. Extendi dorfa verfus auftrum et boream indicio eft, eofdem 

 ventos dominium tenuiffe in oceano diluviano, qui jam in noftra 

 oceano." At the extremity of Finmark begins that ridge of high 

 and rocky mountains called Koele, inhabited by the wandering 

 Finlappers, who dwell fometimes on the weft-fide of the ridge 

 which belongs to Norway, and fometimes on the eaft-fide which 

 appertains to Sweden f. This ridge, which in its courfe goes by fe- 

 veral names, according to the feveral places contiguous to it, feparates 

 itfelf as it were into two arms; the firft of which, in its progref- 



* This is contrary to the other European chains of mountains, which in Hungary,, 

 Switzerland, France, and Spain, &c. run eaft and weft. But the American Cor- 

 dilleros, are in the fame dire&ion as our northern. Buffon's Nat. Hift. B. 1, 

 Article 9. 



■f A worthy acquaintance, who when young was a miffionary in Finmark, in- 

 forms me, that the Koelen ridge, in many places, breaks into large vallies, andcon- 

 fequently is not fo continued as further towards the fouthi and that it feldom reaches 

 above four leagues in a continued chain,. 



1 fi°% 



