NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 175 



pofe f . In Sundfiord we find a fort of Craw-fifh which I fhould rather 

 take to be young Lobfters, if they were not quite diftinguifhed 

 by their particular form. I have, for this reafon, exhibited a figure 

 of one in the plate annexed. The two foremoft claws are of an 

 extraordinary, and feemingly unproportionable length ; they are 

 even longer than the whole body : they are (lender, and of a pen- 

 tagonal fhape. The fhell on the back and fides is variegated with 

 particular marks, like hieroglyphics. I have never feen but 

 one of them, which is remarkably different from every thing I 

 have met with of that clafs. Gefner reprefents, cap. xiv. p. 124, 

 a particular Craw-fifli, which he calls Leo Marinus, or the Sea 

 Lion ; for what reafon I cannot fay 5 the comparifon muft feem too 

 far fetctTd. This fpecies however agrees pretty well with ours, in 

 refpecT: to the two long claws ; but then the body is much fhorter, 

 and, according to his defcription, it isfurr'd, oir covered with little 

 prickles ; neither has it any thing of thofe charaders or refem- 

 blances of letters impreffed upon it, which chiefly diftinguifhes 

 that I have defcribed from other kinds j fo that I cannot look 

 upon them to be the fame *. 



Crabs, Cancri Marini, are caught here in plenty, of which there Crabs, 

 are three forts, namely, the large Talke-krabber, which is reddifh 

 on the back, and white under the belly. Thefe are found on a 



i t Car. Linnasus fays, in in his Fauna Suecica, p. 358, that Craw-fifh were not (hen 

 in Sweden till the reign of King John III. who, amongft other things, is celebrated 

 for importing Craw-fifh, and breeding them in his own country. 



Since I have wrote this account, I find that Ol. Wormius has taken notice of the 

 lamelNorvegian Craw-fifh or Lobfter, and has given it the name of the Kino- of the 

 Lobfters, and ajfo the Letter-Lobfter. As he has not given a figure of it, iluppofe 

 it will be the more agreeable to find one here, which I have taken care to have very 

 exaft 5 and the more to illuftrate the fame, I mall quote a few words from that author 

 on this fubjeft : « Quem alii Aftacum medium, feu media? magnitudinis, Norvesi 

 Hummer-Konge, feu Regem Aflacorum vocant (his name is not known here at 

 prefent) nos non inepte Aftacum Literatum, quod in cruftis caudam tegentibus lite 

 rarum quarundam grandium & quafi hieroglyphicarum notas oftentet—Meus Aftacus 

 Literatus longitudine eft pedis unius. Chete feu forcipes, ubi extenfi re&a linea font 

 craffitie paulo majore polhce, totius corporis lineamentis majori Aftaco fimilis nifi 

 quod chete in longitudinem protendantur & minores fint. Dimidium enim pedem 

 aequant& antequam findantur, quatuor in longum exporreclis dotantur prominentiis 

 alternating duphci & fimplici dentium ordine confpicuis, inter quos fmus ad fummum 

 excurrunt quatuor, eleganti fpedaculo— In dorfi cruftis nota? confpiciuntur nigricantes 

 (in my fample it is a rifing in the fhell itfelf, with no difference of colour, which is 

 all over a kind of ftraw-colour, intermixed with red here and there) qua? prifcas mona- 

 Chorum hteras quodammodo referunt, utrinque fex, quarum prima acauda numeranda 

 T, fecunda & tertia E, quarta & quinta L, fexta I, utcunque exprimunt ea figura, 

 qua in vetuftis manufcriptis codicibus vifuntur. Hunc Aftacum ilium effe crederem 

 quem Rondeletius Aftacum parvum vocat, nifi plebs forficibus carere diceret. Nofter* 

 enim quat.uor pnmos forficibus dotatos obtinet pedes, ut Aftacus maior." Muf 

 •Wormian, p 249. All that I can fay further is, that the figures, letters, or iW 

 glyphic charafters, reprefented by the force of imagination, are not the fame in all 

 out a Lulus nature elegans quidem fed incertus." 



fandy 



