240 Travels in Norway, 
elay, which they painted red or brown.— 
This lat covering was found to be the 
leaft expenfive and the mot durable.— 
The only occupation by which thefe 
iflanders can draw any. wealth from other 
parts is fifhing. They take large quan. 
tities of cod, torfk, and ling, trom which 
they mike a good deal of oil, and barrel 
large quantities of dried and falted fith 
for exportation. The cattle are likewife, 
in the winter, fed in part with a mixture 
of fith and lichens boiled together. Mr. 
Fabricius bad here much fatisfaction in 
an acquaintance with an old peafant, 
whofe name was Niels Jufterfen Eide.— 
That old man had been, ome years before, 
honcured with a gold medal and a filver 
cup from the Society at Copenhagen for 
the Improvement of Rural Ecosomy.— 
From the condition of a peafant, without 
a fhilling, he had rifen by his own induf- 
try to the poffeffion of an eftate from 
which he reaps an hundred tons of grain 
in the year. He is, in a manner, the 
creator of the fertility of his own lands.— 
He began with renting and improving one 
fall piece of wafte ground. To this he 
has been ever fince making additions 
which befpeak both boldnefs of enter- 
prize and fingular perfeverance in toil._— 
He has, by a mole, recovercd a piece of 
ground from the fea: he clothes tne bare 
rocks with productive foil taken from the 
peat-marthes : he has drained an extenfive 
piece of ftagnant water, fo as to leave of 
the water only what is wanted for his 
farm-ufes.—The herring-fifhery is per- 
formed on thefe fhores by firft pafling a 
great net, called a #od, around fome rocks 
within the circuit of which there is per- 
ceived to be a {ufficient quantity of her- 
rings. The herrings thus confined are 
taken out with fmaller nets at leifure.— 
Several thou/and tons may thus be fome- 
times taken at once. _ At this time,in the 
feaion the belly of the herring is ufually 
reddifh, and its excrements are of the fame 
colour. Thefe appearances are alcribed 
to the fmall craw-fifh which the herrings 
are known to devour with great yoracity, 
The herrings, to free them trom this ex-. 
crement, are generally left during fome 
days in the confinemest of the zod before 
they are taken cut of the fea. Great 
quantities of the whiting-pout, or Gadus 
Barbatus, are often taken on the fame 
coats ; this {pecies arg found to be much 
infefted with Leraea, or fith-lice. 
On the 27th of July our travellers pro- 
ceeded to an ifle called Otterholm. They 
obferved that the inhabitants’ of that ifle 
{moke the leaves of the Angelica Archan- 
 fand inhabitants. 
“any wind, 
by FC. Fabriciw, = [April ty 
gelica as a fubltitute for tobacco. They 
are likewife accuftomed to ule as a ftrong 
drink an infufion of the leaves of that 
plant in brandy. In their piflage among 
thefe ifles they obferved fea-dogs from 
time to time raifing their black {outs 
above the furface of the water. This ma- 
rine.animal is much hated by the fifher- 
men, becaufe it frightens away the fifhes 
which they wifh to take, Its hide and 
fat are not penetrable by bullets. On 
the rocks at a diftance from the fhore it is 
faid tobe fo little afraid of man, that any 
number of the fpecies may be eafily de- 
ftroyed by knocking them on the head.— 
Juniper-bufhes are commonly burnt in 
the beft apartments in this country, on 
account of the agreeable fmell which they 
diffufe while burning. There is, however, 
an acid pungency in their fmoke. Several 
of the fuci, or fea-weeds, are, in mixture 
with boiled fith, given for food to the 
cows. There is one among them, the /u- 
cus comedibilis : it fattens cows very faft, 
and gives an exquifite flavour to their 
milk. The eider-duck is a native of 
thefe rocks. The people of the country 
prepare nefts for thee fowls among the. 
rocks, and feize for their hire the down 
which the mother-duck plucks from her 
own body to give warmth toher eggs and 
young. One man living on one of the 
rocks the fartheft from the land will col- 
lest in a year from fifty to one hundred 
pounds of eider-down, each pound being 
worth ten rixdollars.. There isa law by 
which any perfon killing an eider-duck is 
fubje& to a fine of ten rixdollars 5 and yet 
there are numbers every year deftroyed, 
both by fhooting them with the gun and 
by carrying away their eggs. 
Another fail brought our travellers to 
Chriftianfand. ‘This is a trading-town of 
moderate fize, fituate partly on a juttmg 
point of land, and in part on three {mail 
Iles, forming a bay of fome confiderable 
extent, and almoft circular. The houfes 
of: this town are arranged in an irregular 
circle around the rocks. The town itfelf- 
was founded by Chrifian VI. in the 
year 1734. It contains about three thou- 
It has a good harbour, 
which fhips can enter and fail from with 
Between the three ifles and 
the main-land tiiere is room even for the 
Jargeit fleets : the anchorage is good ; and 
fhips can come clofe up to any pait of the 
town. The fifhery. principally employs 
the induftry and commerce of the inhabi- 
tants of Chriftianiand. That induftry 
and trade were long left exclufively to the 
Englifh Company fettled im this town 5 
3 _but 
