NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAt. 269 



Our neighbours the Swedes, make the fame fhift, even when 

 there is no neceiBty for it. Mr. Peter Hogftrom, in his defcrip- 

 tion of Lapmark, §. 19. p. 375, fays, " We know how to make 

 ufe of our fir-trees, even to the fupport of life, and many a 

 brave fellow, and bold foldier, in the weftern bottom, has been 

 brought up with the fruits of them. Nor is it always out of ne- 

 ceility, that they feed on them, but to keep up an ancient and 

 laudable, but now utterly defpifed virtue, called frugality. A 

 labourer does not find his ftrength impaired, by eating bread 

 made of the bark of trees." So far Mr. Hogftrom, whofe laft 

 words give me a good deal of furprize, if they are grounded upon 

 fufhcient experience. In the laft years of fcarcity in this country, 

 namely, in the years 1743, and 1744, when they were obliged 

 to make ufe of the old expedient, feveral made an experiment 

 on the bark of elms ; they firft dryed it, had it ground, and 

 made bread of it. This they found fweeter, and rather more 

 agreeable to the tafte, than that made of the bark of the fir-tree, 

 Others made ufe of it in another way ; they foaked it in water 3 

 which received a fweetnefs from it, and became vifcid like the 

 white of an egg, fo that it might be drawn out feveral yards. In 

 this they put fome oatmeal, and the meal of the fir-tree bark, 

 and kneaded it well ; this water binds it together, and renders it 

 more agreeable to the palate. In thofe parts where the peafants 

 have large fifheries, they attempted to mix the row of cod with 

 oatmeal, and knead them together. This made the bread very 

 clofe, foft, and well-tafted, at leaft to a hungry ftomach. But 

 I have been informed that it did not agree with fome of a lefs 

 robuft conftitution, and gave them the bloody-flux *. 



This bread made of bark, as well as the flad-brod or bake 

 bread in general, Th. Bartholin, fpeaks of in his med. Dan. domefh 



Denmark, and other places in the Baltick, they keep their magazines always full, fo 

 that they can furnilh other countries upon occafion, and even this year feveral thou- 

 fand tons of corn have been exported from hence to France and Portugal. 



* The Norwegians that live by the fea-fide, eat dried ftock-fiih inftead of bread, 

 like the Icelanders and \ inlaps. Marc. Paul. Venetus gives us 'the fame account of 

 the inhabitants of Aden, a province in Arabia, p. 163. " Fiunt etiam ab incolis 

 panis bifco&i ex pifcibus idque in hunc modum : concidunt pifces minutim atque 

 contundunt in modum farinas, & poftea commifcent & fubagitant quafi paftum 

 panes, atque ad folem deficcari faciunt." Gemelli Careri writes the fame, in his voy- 

 age autour du monde, Tome ii. p. 319, of the inhabitants of the ifland Lundi and 

 Augon in the Perfian gulph. " lis n'ont de meilleure aliment que des fardines. lis 

 les lont fecher au foleil, & elles leur tienne lieu de pain, pendant toute Pannee." 



Part II. Z z z 



p. 304, 



