NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 47 



In the fame diftrid fouthward is the noted mountain of Torghat- ™f ™J£ g . 



ten, fo called from the likenefs of its top to a man's he#d widi^-^ 



the hat on, under which appears a fmgle eye, which is formed 



by an aperture, paflfable throughout, an hundred and fifty ells 



in height, and three thoufand in length, thro' which the fun 



may be feen; it likewife affords- a coarfe kind of agate, 



but which will admit of a polifh. On the top of this mountain 



is a piece of water, or a refervoir, of the dimenfions of a moderate 



fim-pond. The rain-water, which gathers there, trickles down 



the mountain thro' fiffures and cracks on its fide. In the lower 



part of this mountain is alfo a cave, full of rugged windings. A 



line of four hundred fathom, being tried out of curiofity, to mea- 



fure this hiatus, did not reach the bottom ; and it was thought 



too dangerous to proceed further. 



SECT. VI. 



Such fecret paftages, and wonderful caverns in the mountains, Deep and 

 are far from being uncommon here. At Herroe in Sundmoer, and as it were 

 I heard much talk, from the common people, of a cavern called infomemoun- 

 Dolfteen, and, as they are apt to magnify all fuch things by their jedtures on the 

 own imaginations, they conceit that it reaches under the fea, all ° nsm ° 

 along to Scotland. I defired the two minifters of the place per- 

 fonally to inform themfelves of the nature of it, and they accord- 

 ingly fent me the following written account. 



" Purfuant to our promife of taking a view of the cavern in cavem in 

 the mountain of Dolfteen, we went thither on the 1 6th of July 

 1750 ; its entrance was the height of a full-grown man, and it is 

 two fathoms in breadth; but we immediately found it to in- 

 creafe in both dimenfions, even higher and wider than Herroe 

 church. The fides were perpendicular, like the wall of a houfe, 

 rifing into a kind of vaulted roof. It ftretched itfelf S. W. and 

 N. E. till about the middle, where we met with a defcent like 

 the fteps of flairs, and there it inclines more to the eaft, but this 

 deflection is not above three or four fathom long, when it again 

 falls into its north-eaft direction. On each fide, at the bottom of 

 thefe fteps, was as it were a bank of clay, on which we refted our- 

 felves, and at the end of thefe banks, likewife on each fide, was 

 a kind of door with an oval top, but upon viewing it with our 



Part t O lights, 



