78 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



heard to a great diftance, and without any intermifllon, except 

 a quarter every fixth hour, that is, at the turn of high and low 

 water, when its impetuofity feems at a ftand, which fliort inter- 

 val is the only time the fiihermen can venture in : but this mo- 

 tion foon returns, and, however calm the fea may be, gradually 

 increafes with fuch a draught and vortex as abforb whatever 

 comes within their fphere of action, and keep it under water for 

 fome hours, when the fragments, fhivered by the rocks, ap- 

 sub^r n c°x.P ear again. This circumftance, among others, makes ftrongly 

 Y47. m ' P " a g a i n ft Kircher and others, who imagine that there is here an 

 abyfs penetrating the globe, and ifluing in fome very remote 

 parts, which Kircher is fo particular as to afllgn, for he names 

 the gulf of Bothnia. But after the moft exact refearches which 

 the circumftances will admit, this is but a conjecture without 

 foundation ; for this and three other vortices among the Ferroe 

 iilands, but fmaller, have no other caufe, than the collifion of 

 waves rifing and falling, at the flux and reflux, againft a rido-e of 

 rocks and fhelves, which confine the water fo that it precipitates 

 itfelf like a cataract 3 and. thus the higher the flood rifes, the 

 deeper mult the fall be; and the natural refult of this is a whirl- 

 pool, or vortex, the prodigious faction whereof, is fufEciently 

 known by lefTer experiments. But what has been thus abforbed 

 remains no longer at the bottom than the ebb lafts; for the fuc- 

 tion then ceafes, and the flood removes all attraction, and permits 

 whatever had been funk, to make its appearance again. Of the 

 iltuation of this amazing Moikoeftrom we have the following ac- 

 Nordifch count from Mr. Jonas Ramus, " The mountain of Helfeggen, in 



£ h °£??34.' Lofoden 5 lies a lea g ue from the ifland Ver, and betwixt thefe 

 two, runs that large and dreadful ltream called Mofkoeftrom, from 

 the ifland Mofkoe, which is in the middle of it, together with 

 feveral circumjacent ifles, as Ambaaren, half a quarter of a league 

 northward, Iflefen, Hoeyholm, Kieldholm, Suarven, and Buck- 

 holm. Moikoe lies about half a quarter of a mile fouth of the 

 ifland of Ver, and betwixt them thefe fmall iflands, Otterholm, 

 Flimen, Sandflefen, Skarholm. Betwixt Lofoden and Moikoe, the 

 depth of the water is between thirty-Ax and forty fathoms, but 

 on the other flde, towards Ver, the depth decreafes fo as not to 

 afford a convenient paiTage for a vefTel, without the rifk of fplit- 



ting 



