fmall 



NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. H9 



ment, many of them are quite emaciated, and others die and 

 putrify, filling the creek with fuch a flench, that the Herrings 

 avoid the place which was their haunt, for two or three years to 

 come. An inftance of this kind happened in the year 1748, a$.Nambericr« 

 Swanoe Sogn, where the fifliermen had (hut up an incredible Multitudcs - 

 number of Spring Herrings, which a citizen of Bergen bought 

 of them for 100 Rix-dollars and a cask of Brandy. They fay he 

 loaded 80 jaggers with them, and left, perhaps, as many behind, 

 to putrify on the fand. 



Of the Summer Herring kind are thofe which have been fpoke Biaa. or f 

 of before by the name of Briflinger, or Anchovies, which differ Hcrr:ngs ' 

 only in the fharpnefs of their belly; and, according to the 

 opinion of many, are but the young fry of the common Herrings, 

 which have not attained their full growth. Others, and per- 

 haps with better foundation, reckon them a different fpecies, 

 which never grow larger. There is alfo brought to Bergen, 

 about the beginning of December, before we have the large 

 Herrings, that come to the coaft about the middle of January, 

 as I obferved above, a middle-fiz'd and pretty good fort, which 

 we call Soe!-hoved Herrings, and likewife a particular fort of 

 Cod which is called by the fame name, the etymology of which 

 I am unacquainted with. From this account we may fee, that 

 the reafon why the Herring (as has been faid before,) is called the 

 King of Fifties, is, becanfe they are of all Fifh the moft 

 ferviceable to mankind, and are found in the greateft abundance ; 

 and not on account of the homage paid them by other Fifh. 

 On the contrary, they are devoured by alrnoft all other kinds, 

 and harralTed by all the fea-birds; not to mention the numbers 

 that ferve for food for the human fpecies, which, perhaps, do 

 not exceed the half of what is deftroyed. Notwithftanding all 

 this, the Herring kind is neither extin£t, nor vifibly diminifhed, 

 when we take into the account what is contained in the fea in 

 general : in this appears the providence of the Almighty Being, . 

 by whom all things exift, and are continually preferved according 

 to his wife decrees. • In this light the Herrings fate feems to be 

 fimilar to that of the Ifraelites ; of whom it is obferved, that not 

 only formerly in Egypt, but at this prefent time in every part 

 of the world, the more they are crufhed and opprefled, the more 

 they multiply and encreafe. 



The Skalle, the Alburnus, is a frefh- water Fifh, well known skaiic. 

 in Denmark. It has large fcales, from whence it probably has 

 its name. It is generally caught in the lakes in Romerige, 



?art II. (^ q Hede- 



