GENERAL REMARKS 
£36 
SECTION XIV. 
Of the Amphibious Animals, the Fifties and Fifheries. 
TF we would ftridtly follow the arrangement of Linnaeus, we 
lliould now fpeak of the amphibious animats in Lapland, before 
we come to treat of the fifli.es and the fifheries. However the 
amphibious tribe is by no means numerous, as it only confifts of 
the lacerta palujlris, and, we may perhaps add, the petromyzon flu- 
viatilis. The lacerta paluftris is found in feveral other places be- 
fides Lapland. There are fo many fabulous accounts of this ani¬ 
mal among the inhabitants of the North, that one may eafily be 
milled by the different ftories that are related of it: they, for in- 
ftance, tell you, that it lives in the w 7 ater; that it frequently 
bounds up from the w T ater, or the furface of a lake, and fettles on 
the branch of a tree ; that there it begins to laugh, or to make a 
noife like that of a man’s laughing ; and fo on. But thefe won¬ 
derful tales would probably vanifh before the enquiring eye of an 
attentive obferver. The petromyzon fluviatilis follows in fpring, 
when it begins to thaw, the courfe of the rivers, and becomes the 
prey of the colymbi, and other water-fowls. 
The rivers in Finmark contain great plenty of falmon in the 
feafon; and on the coafl are found cod, hake, ling, haddocks, 
whitings, 
