46 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



Scheuchzer, in a particular trad, ftiews this rrieafure to be vaftiy 



exaggerated. 



wfe ^ he hei S ht of the hi g heft mountains in Switzerland, which 



vol. 3s> no j u ij us c^far terms, fummas alpes, is according to his eonje&ure, 

 no more than 987 ells. Floeyfteld, in the neighbourhood of Ber- 

 gen, which, however, I do not imagine to be half fo high as 

 Hornel or Sneehorn on Sundmore, was by a trigonometrical 

 menfuration performed laft winter, found to be 200 fathom, or 

 600 ells high; confequently, Ulrich, which flan ds clofe by it, 

 cannot be lefs than 800 ells. 



Some of thefe mountains are peculiarly remarkable for their figure 

 and appearance. On the left hand, failing up Joering creek, one fees 

 fuch a groupe of crefts of mountains, as refembles the profpect of a 

 large city, with towers and old gothick edifices,' and fome of them 

 being continually covered with fnow, whilft the chafms in others 

 make a way for the light to penetrate, the profpecl; fills a ftranger 

 with aftonifliment. Not far from thence, in the parifli of Oerfkoug, 

 is the mountain called Skopfhorn, of which the mariners andfiftier- 

 men have a view at 1 6 leagues diftance, when they have loft fight 

 of the reft. On the higheft creft of this mountain, it has the appear- 

 ance of a complete well-built fort, or old caftle, with regular walls 

 and baftions. It is an old tradition, that a girl who was attending a 

 flock or herd, for a wager climbed up to the top, and according to 

 agreement, there blew her horn, but was never feen after ; upon 

 which, her relations, according to an ancient fuperftition, imagined 

 fhe had fallen into the hands of the pretended fubterraneous in- 

 habitants of the mountains. Perhaps the truth is, that the girl 

 was not fo fortunate in coming down as in getting up, and that 

 fhe fell into fome cavity, where her, body never could be difcovered. 



See plate n. Near Alftahoug, in the diftricl: of Helgeland, is a range of moun- 

 tains of a very Angular afpecl, having feven high pinnacles, or 



The seven crefts, known by the appellation of the Seven Sifters, and which 

 are difcernible fixteen miles off at fea. A friend of mine, who 

 ventured to the top of the higheft of thefe crefts, thinks their 

 perpendicular height to be fbmething above a quarter of a league % 



* This appears a very extraordinary height, for one of thefe feparate hills, whicfc 

 have always been accounted but fmall in companion of thole of Dofre and File. E 

 have befides been informed by feveral maritime perfcns, that towards the north, the 

 height of the mountains, immediately beyond Sundmoer and Nordmoer, decreafes, 

 as it incfeafes after palling Stavanger,. and approaching towards Bergen. 



3 lm 



