j8 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



the countries lying oppofite, viz. Scotland and the Orkneys 

 Fseroerne and Iceland ; there are others again that I never could 

 find out any where elfe, as far as my intelligence could reach; and 

 this is certainly one of thofe bounties, not fufficiently regarded, 

 the great Creator has beftowed on this country, that particularly 

 the weft fide, which, with its numberlefs harbours, creeks, iflands, 

 high cliffs, hollow mountains and caves, is fortified, by the wife 

 and good Creator, as a particular refuge and afylum for an incom- 

 Thsirnum- prehenfible, and indeed, almoft incredible number of Sea and 



bers by the * « __, ., \ ■ \ r 



fea-fide. bnore-Fowls, which fometimes are obferved out at fea, at the 

 diftance of two or three Norway miles*., in fuch large flights, 

 that they obfcure the heavens, and one would imagine all the- 

 Sea-Fowl of the univerfe were gathered together in one flock f. 

 Thefe Birds, with their feathers and down, which are gathered 

 and fent to foreign parts, and partly with their flefh and eggs- 

 together, afford the inhabitants a very good maintenance, befides 

 the extraordinary good grafs that grows after the manure 

 left by the dung of thefe Birds, on the illands, and even in the 

 ©cean, which frequently looks white, and as if it were covered 

 with it and the eggs in the nefts of thefe Strand Birds. 



Not all the eggs, but fome fort of them 5 are as good as hens 

 eggs, and great quantities come to market in this town, where 

 the bakers in particular know how to ufe them; the fhells are of 

 various colours and fizejs, as fhall afterwards be obferved concerning 

 each of them, as far as my intelligence- reaches ; mod of them 

 are white, green, or brown, and almoft all have black fpots on 

 them ; the Water Fugle egg-fhell is fomething thicker, and alfo 

 the white in a greater quantity, than in others j for which Count 

 Aloyfius Marfili, in his Dan-ub. Panon. Tom. v. p. 124., afcribes 



General Pro- this reafon,, that the young Sea Birds, which are nourifhed by 



perties. 



* One Norway mile is about fix Englifh miles. 



f The large quantity of Sea Fowl that are in Norway, agrees with what Dr. Harvey 

 writes of the Scotch, de Generat. Animal, exercit. xi. with Deufing. in fine Diflertat. 

 de Anferibus Scoticis. Eft infula parva, Scotl Boffe nominant, _ haud amplius milk 

 pafTuum circuitu amplitudo, ejus clauditur. Hujus infulae fuperficies, menfibus Maio & 

 Junio, nidis, ovis pullifque propemodum tota inftrata eft, adeo ut vix, prse eorum 

 copia, pedem libere ponere liceat : tantaque fupervolantium turba, ut nubium inftar,. 

 folem ccelumque auferant : tantufque vociferantium clangor & ftrepitus, ut prope al- 

 loquentes vix audias. Si fubjeclum mare inde, tanquam ex edita turri & altiffima 

 prascipitio defpexeris, idem quoquoverfum, infinitis diverforum generum avibus 

 natantibus prasdasque inhiantibus, opertum videas. Si circum navigando imminentera 

 clivum fufpicere libuerit ; videas in fingulis praerupti loci crepidinibus & receftibus, 

 avium cujuflibet generis & magnitudinis, ordinis innumerabiles, plures fane quam 

 nocte, fereno cselo, ftellse confpiciuntur. Si advolantes avolantefque eminus adfpexeris,, 

 apum profecto ingens examen credas. Haud facile dixerim, quantus reditus quotannis 

 ex plumis ovorumque coclorum commercio poffeflbri accedat ; adeo quod ipfe mihi 

 narravit, fidem exfuperat. What Harvey has faid of the way of boiling the Sea-fowls 

 eggs to fell them with great profit, is not ufed in Norway •, the reft agrees. 



the 



