NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 67 



with fteep rocks. This coaft, indeed, affords fo many and fuch 

 good harbours as few other maritime countries can boaft of; and 

 this is another advantage of thefe numberlefs rocks and Sheers. 

 Yet a large {hip, which cannot make ufe of oars, will be in dan- 

 ger of not reaching the harbour, before the wind, or the current^ 

 which are very violent in the Straits, dafh it againft the fteep rocks 

 in the neighbourhood. In order to prevent this danger, feveral 

 hundreds of large iron rings, have, by order of the government* 

 efpecially here about Bergen, been fixed in the rocks more than 

 two fathoms above water, as moorings to the mips, when there 

 is not room for anchorage. The coafters find the advantage of 

 fo many Sheers and rocks, as thefe protect them in a calm water* 

 againft the violence of the waves, which is greatly abated by 

 breaking againft the rocks. On the other hand, a few open 

 places, fuch as the harbour of the town, and that directly before 

 Jeder, are fo dangerous to pafs, that many lives are loft there 

 every year, the waves of the weftern ocean, when driven by a 

 ftorm towards the iand, making a very hollow and terrible 

 entrance. 



The bottom of the fea is here, as every where, full of inequa- Bottom of the 

 h'ties, and in this refpect, not lefs varied than the land, which fea * 

 is frequently an alternate fucceillon of high mountains, and deep 

 vallies. The analogy is the fame in the fubftance of the bot- 

 tom of the fea, according to the obfervation of pilots, from the 

 end of their leads, where they fometimes find ftones, fometimes 

 clay, chalk, mud, and fometimes white or brown fand ; and in 

 many places it is over-run, not only with all kinds of fea-grafs, 

 but with feveral forts of fea-trees, fome of which are pretty large, 

 with corals, and the like ftony vegetables *. A clear view of 

 thefe, and likewife of the incredible multitude of fea-animals, 

 monfters, &c. moft of them unknown, to which thefe vegetables 

 partly ferve as aliment, could not but excite in us the greateft 

 aftonimment ; for from the fea- vegetables, which fometimes hano- 

 at the lines, or other implements of the fifhermen, and of which 

 I have a large collection, we muft conclude, that the bottom of 



* Sylvas effe fubmarinas mare rubrum fat fuperque docet, ex cujus ftindo fubinde 

 ingens a pifcatoribus corallinarum arborum copia, cerafo noftro vix cedentiurn uti 

 ab Arabibus rubri maris accolis non femel audivi, eruitur. KircherusMimd. Subterr. 

 P. 1. pag. gy. 



Part I. T the 



