NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 57 



fragments, like lumps of mortar, or a foft pafte, fcattered not 

 only in the vallies and creeks, where they are called Sciffars and 

 Flies, but alfo on the tops of the higheft mountains ; many fuch 

 being found here of the bulk of a common houfe, confequently 

 too ponderous to have been raifed to fuch a height by the hands 

 of men, and befides of no vifible ufe. 



This likewife is the origin of moft of thofe pebbles, which are stones nok 



r t it 11*111 1 -r ve g etat * v *' 



found fcattered in all parts of the globe, and which by length of 

 time become fomewhat fmooth and even. I fay moft of them, 

 and allow that fome fandy ftones may be faid to grow, and from 

 this caufe, that a fuperficial layer of fand or clay was indurated 

 by the fun. But that ftones in general, especially the hard peb- 

 bles, grow, and confequently are endued with a vegetative life, 

 or internal power to imbibe their nourifhment from the earth, 

 this is certainly one of the moft abfurd notions that ever was re- 

 ceived among judicious men, and efpecially in an age in which 

 the caufes of things are fo minutely and accurately investigated. 

 If after clearing a piene of ground of the imall ftones, there ap- 

 pears to be a fucceftion of them, this is owing to a hard froft 

 within the earth, and the fwelling of the earth by the enfuing 

 thaws, whereby, every year, the ftones are carried up to the fur- 

 face. That mountain-cryftals, and pofiibly more valuable gems, 

 may grow like fap or juices, which gradually become tinged with 

 the colours of the minerals, and according to the quality and ar- 

 rangement of the faline particles, concrete and fhoot into cones, 

 I am very willing to admit ; likewife, that the water carrying 

 away fome lapideous particles, here and there in the cavities of 

 the mountains, reduces them to a pafte, which afterwards being 

 dropped, remains fuipended like icicles ; and there forms what is 

 therefore called the Drop-ftone or Stalactites. 



SEC T. IX. 



Before I take my leave of the mountains, and particularly of TheiftCon , 

 our Norvegian rocks, I muft, agreeably to my purpofe, mention detriment S* 

 fomething further to the praife of the great Creator, and to in- J-J ™*^ 

 cline the people of Norway to be gratefully contented with the t a * d g rooun " 

 habitation which God has afllgned them. I previoufly grant, as 



all 



