NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 169 



peatedly wafhed till cleared of all terene particles; then the flax 

 is dried in a fieve that the water may run off the fooner ; all that 

 remains now, is to fpin thefe fine filaments, wherein great care is 

 required, befides which, the fingers muft be foftened with oil, 

 that they may be the more fupple and pliant. That Kircher and 

 others mould have miftaken this ftone for the alumen plumoruni 

 *, and imagined it to be an ahum fire-proof^ appears hardly pro- 

 bable, efpecialfy as allum has a very acrimonious and peculiar 

 tafte, which this ftone is fo far from having, that it is as void of 

 tafte as any other ftone can poftibly be; 



SECT. VIL 



A phyfical Angularity here, is, that a country thus abounding No flkts> 

 in ftones has no flints, fo that thofe ufed in fire arms are imported 

 from Denmark, or Germany. In all my circuits, I have never 

 {ccn a flint-ftone in Norway, and all whom I have enquired of 

 agree that if there are any, they never have been difcovered : But 

 on the other hand, the mineral mountains produce a kind of py- 



r n 11 • 1 Fire-ftone 



rites or nre-itone, namely, the quartz, as it is called, which at or <i uartz - 

 firft fight refembles the before-mentioned fpar, or fuch glittering 

 vitrious ftones; but that it is of a different kind appears from 

 hence, that in the fire it is not reduced to lime or ftucco as thofe 

 are; but becomes fluid, and is therefore ufed in the glafs-houfes. 



SECT. VIII. 



This quartz or marcafia, is of very near affinity to the Norway Cr ftal 

 cryftal, of which there are great quantities both here and in the Plate **• 

 other provinces, and of a larger fize than moft of thofe in Swit- 

 zerland, Bohemia, and other parts. The mountains are the pro- 

 per native place of the cryftals, which fometimes are feen fuf- 

 pended on them, and glitter in the fun to the amazement of 

 ftrangers ; but thefe are liable to be wafhed away into the rivers, 

 and from thence into the lakes; and this is the only way I can 

 account for cryftal being found in the great mios, as it certainly 

 is. Mr. Peter Underlin in his topography of Norway, mentions 



* Dice itaquc nunc lapidem effe cpmpofitum ex certa aluminis feu talci fpecie, ut 

 proinde eum multi alumen fciffile aut alumen plumae nominandum putarint, eftenim 

 multo molhonbus filamentis etc. Mund. ilibterran. Lib, VIII. Sect III, cap. i. p. 6 7 . 



3 his 



