6 NATURAL HI S TOR Y of NOR WA Y. 



The peafants ufually give the cows daily a little fait, which 

 fattens the teeth, and whets the ftomach * ; and fometimes a felt 

 herring, which they apprehend is a treat to the cow, as well as to 

 an human creature. But on the contrary, a fait mackarel, tho' 

 it be his food, is found pernicious to them, as well as the 

 pickle. 



SECT. Ill 



^ Sheep are called here Smaler f, and in fome places Souer ; they 

 differ, fo far as I obferve, but little from the Danifh ; I therefore 

 fhall not detain myfelf with a defcription of them. There are 

 fome brought over from England ; this has been done with a 

 view of propagating theEnglilh Kind, but they degenerate here, 

 and in the third or fourth generation they are but very little 

 preferable to our own. Mr. Peter Dafs acquaints us, in his 

 Poetical Defcription of Nordland's Amt. p. 106, that there are 

 found in the iflands quantities of wild fheep, which never go into 

 any houfe, or have any thing to do with mankind, excepting 

 when they are annually catched to be Iheared ||. He confirms 

 alfo what has been faid about their fat ; that it is found on 

 the external parts, and that it covers the flefh like a warm 

 cufhion. 



In regard to the fheep in Farfe, according to Hr. Lucas 

 Debe's Account, p. 1 16, Handing in the winter under the fhow, 

 and eating one anorher's wool, which is perceived above the 

 fnow by the warm damp that arifes, I fhall not affirm it on my 

 own knowledge, tho' it may be believed from many analogous 

 accidents ; and is ftrengthened by Mr. Anderfbn, L. C. 

 $. xxix. who fpeaks of a Topho Ovino Norvagico, or a hair-ball, 

 which is found in the ftomach of the Norway fheep. It is to 

 be obferved, that the fame kind of ball is alio found in cows, and 



* As for the pernicious epidemic difeafe, which has raged feveral years thro' mod 

 parts of Europe, Norway has, thro' the mercy of the Almighty, been hitherto free 

 from it ; but that the fame, or fome other has been known here (when it pleafed the 

 Almighty to punifh) is to be {een in Olaus Wormius's Account in his Mufeum, p. 

 333, where it ftands, that Anno 1642, died alone in Nordefiord, which has five 

 parilhes, upwards of 4000 oxen and cows of the peafants, exclufive of the clergy's 

 and others. 



f According to D. Nic. Horrebow's account, this is the name of a ihepherd in 

 Ifland ; but here we call the fheep So. 



II Concerning the before- named Udgangfvadre, or the rams, they take their food, 

 winter and fummer, on the Nordland Iflands ; and I am aifured by one of my 

 correfpondents, that they grow much larger and fatter than any other, and that 

 their wool is cleaner and better ; fo that the owner has the greateft profit or advantage 

 of them ; and that, by a natural inflincl:, they take up their quarters at that corner of 

 the land, from whence the wind will come the next day ; which fignal or mark the 

 fea-faring people find to be invariably true, 



is 



