86 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



Mofkoe, are alfo iflands and rocks, againft which the ftream breaks, 

 among thefe, particularly, is the ifland Skarholm, which may be 

 taken for Chary bdis. 



The ancient geographers are known to have had fome informa- 

 tion of fea-vortices in the north, and according to their opinion, 

 lying under the north-pole, as Jacobus Cnoxen of Bufcodun, in 

 his Itinerarium, and Mercator in his Atlas, pretend, whofe opi- 

 nions alfo Bertius has followed, and given a reprefentation of fome 

 fea-abyfTes under the north-pole, together with an ifland, which 

 he calls Ruft; but as we are now fenfible that there is no going 

 within feveral degrees of the north-pole, on account of the extreme 

 cold, and of the ice-mountains; therefore this fea-abyfs, of which 

 they had heard, can be no other than this Mofkoeftrom, which 

 lies no farther north than a little beyond the fixty-eighth degree ; 

 and the navigators, who frequent the more northern feas, have 

 hitherto met with no other vortices. And as for the ifland Ruft, 

 near which this fea-vortex is placed, the fimilitude of the name 

 fhews it to be the ifland Roeft, which is but four Norway miles 

 from the Mofkoeftrom. This ifland of Ruft, may poflibly be the 

 fame nefs, or cape, in the north, to which Pliny gives the name 

 of Rubeas. 



UlyfTes afterwards reports, that ten days after failing by Cha- 

 rybdis, he came to the ifland Ogygia, which he defcribes, as di- 

 vided by four rivers, each having its particular outlet. This re- 

 markably correfponds with the ifland Hinde, which is fb inter- 

 fered by deep creeks, in the fouth, north, and eaft parts, as to be 

 divided into four parts, of which the fouthern belongs to Sal ten, 

 both the weftern parts to Lofoden and Wefteraalen, and the north 

 part to Sennien. One of thefe creeks is called Oegursfiord, or 

 Agisfiord, an appellation which has fome affinity with that of 

 Og-ygia; and that UlyfTes, whofe name was Outin, lived feven 

 years in this ifland, married and had children there, agrees with 

 the account of our chronicles concerning Outin, where his genea- 

 logy is called Haleigatal, becaufe his defcendants lived in Haloga- 

 land, from which Outin's Hagen Ladejarl derives his origin, and 

 according to Sturlefen, this genealogy has thence obtained the 



name of Haleigatal. 



Plutarch, 



