N A T U R A L H I S T G R Y of NORWAY, 93 



SECT. XIII. 



At any great diftance from the fea, the rivers of Norway are Great advan / 

 )t navigable for veflels of confiderable burden; for though in waters for 

 many places, there be a fufficient depth of water, yet the water- and forward- 



y. , . „ , . .. , J _ . ine the 



obftacles, the ftream precipitating itfelf from a height of 6, 8, or 

 10 fathoms, where only mafts and mch timber can be floated down, 

 and many of thefe are deftroyed; yet the greater!: part get fafely 

 through, and being marked by their owners, are fecured at the See plate vn, 

 Lentzes. Thefe are large booms, fortified with iron bolts, and 

 laid acrofs feveral parts of the river for flopping the timber. The 

 breaking of a Lentz is of fuch ill confequenee to the timber- 

 merchants, that in 1675 luch an accident which happen'd by an 

 inundation of the Glommen, occafioned many bankruptcies among 

 them *. As thefe and other rivers perform the capital fervice of 

 conveying from the mountains and forefts thofe mails and timbers, 

 which without fuch conveyance would be abfolutely ufelels with 

 refpecY to commerce, lb by their feveral waterfalls they are of a 

 further utility, in driving feveral hundred law-mills, where, with 

 little labour, planks and boards are fawed to all dimenfions. 



SECT. XIV. 



The vaft force of rivers in feme mountainous countries, where 

 the fall from lofty rocks redoubles the motion of the water, from . the 

 may in fome meafufe be conceived from what I have already re- rive 

 lated of the fudden fubterraneous courfe of the river Gule, and the 

 inundation occafioned by the fubfequent eruption. But I fliall 

 here add another inftance of tins kind flill more wonderful, which, 

 according to the authentic account from whence it is taken, hap- 

 pened in the year 1702. I mean the fudden immerfion of the fa- 

 mily feat of Borge near Friderickftad into a deep abyfs. The par- 

 ticulars of this unhappy and lingular accident may be read in the: 

 < nova literaria maris baltici ad arm. 1703. majv p. 3. where is an- 

 nexed a draught of the fituation of the place. In the night of the 



* The yearly charge of fuch a Lentze or Boom, may in fome places amount to 

 three or four hundred Rix Dollars, but in return it yields to the owner no lefs.than 

 a thoufand or eleven hundred, for at leaft thirty thoufand dozen of large pieces of 

 timber pafs through it, of which each makes fix or eight planks. 



2 fifth 



vers. 



