Aware that the sea-water within the Arctic contains "less salt than that near the Line," some philosophers might have been at a loss to account for "its weight being much greater than in warm countries." The Bishop, however, immediately clears up the difficulty thus: "the air near the Polar being condensed by the cold, compresses close whatever it touches, and consequently the parts of the water; and as, by this compression, they adhere closely to each other, consequently, they have force to bear up heavy burdens, which, in lighter waters, would sink." It must be self-evident to the commonest observer, that as the sea-water, carried by "subterraneous currents," must be ever running through "deep salt mines," &c. it ought continually to grow salter. Rivers and rain might, indeed, afford a partial barrier to this conclusion; but the Bishop expounds a much safer theory, in the form of "fresh-water springs issuing out of the bottom of the sea." Of the possibility of this, of course, there may be no doubt: experimental proof, however, would set the matter for ever at rest; and the Bishop, fortunately, has one quite to the purpose. Certain fishermen having "more than once" informed him that "they often find, in the body of a skate, water entirely fresh, which must always be such, if this freshness be the result of a kind of filtration, which the water has undergone in the body of the fish; but this freshness not being common," he concludes "that the fish has drank in this fresh water from a spring breaking out in the bottom of the sea." We recommend this fact to the immediate attention of the New Zoological Society, formed for the laudable purpose of supplying this country with the animal and vegetable productions of other zones and climates, including the naturalization of sea-fish in our fresh-water streams. Who knows, but the time may be at hand, when, in happy England, every man may sit under the shade of his own talipot leaf, bobbing in his ci-devant trout stream, for prime soles and home-fed turbot? Our classical readers will recollect, that when the Romans sailed round Great Britain, they averred the sea to be "pigrum et grave remigantibus," (see Vita Agricola, c. x.) The Bishop, we find, makes precisely the same remark, and assigns the reason, which we give, with its hitherto unknown effects. "The salt water itself is, from its saltness, so fat and oily, that when a ship is on fire, it, so far from extinguishing, increases the flame." With the exception of a new discovery in America for providing fuel for steam engines, by the decomposition of water, this is the first time we have heard it asserted as a positive fact, that salt-water has this singular quality of increasing the inten sity of fire. No doubt, however, we shall find it fully corroborated on the return of the Enterprize steam-vessel from India. Of Malestrom, nothing very new is recorded: with its whirling powers and central suctions we are all well acquainted, and can therefore perfectly enter into the feelings of bears and whales, which unwisely allow themselves to come within its sphere of action, and can easily believe that one of the former was heard from the shore to " roar terribly," and that the howlings and bellowings of the latter were indescribable, while they performed their involuntary circumvolutions round the vortex gaping to receive them. And yet we recollect a few years ago reading an extract from the log-book of an American vessel, in which Jonathan averred, that he had besported himself without fear or danger in this perilous cauldron; but what marvels have we not heard vouched for by our trans-atlantic neighbours? Some of our readers may be surprised to hear, that not only a relationship, but an actual identity, has been established between Malestrom and Scylla and Charybdis: but this is, nevertheless, a fact. One Mr. Joseph Ramur, an author, quoted by the Bishop, though " he can by no means agree to the opinion of that ingenious gentleman," having laboured" to shew it probable that Scylla and Charybdis, which have always been accounted to lie upon the coast of Sicily, were no other than this Moskoestrom, (or Malestrom,) whither Ulysses was actually driven in the course of his wanderings; the inundations of the water (in the Danish language, Vanders Skyllen,) and the inland Skarsholm having given occasion to the names of Scylla and Charybdis." CHAP. 4. Of the fertility of Norway in variety of Vegetables. Fertile it may be, but marvellous indeed it is, if we may trust to Arndt Bernsen's book on the fruitfulness of Denmark and Norway, who "pretends that some times in wet years the Norway barley degenerates into oats, whilst others imagine that good oats improve into barley." It is but fair to add the Bishop's comment thereupon, viz. that "such anomalous metamorphoses appear to him scarce credible :" and yet, notwithstanding, he lingers with a sort of lurking fancy for the fact, quoting, in its favor, M. Frederic Heffman's Rational Physical Theology, followed up with the experiment of " a worthy friend of his, who, to satisfy himself in this doubt, sowed a case of the finest barley, without a single grain of oats among it; yet, at the harvest, of two cases of barley, one and a half proved oats ;" and so he "leaves the matter without further discussion." We have had occasion, more than once, to refer to one whom we class amongst the wisest of the old philosophers-no less an authority than the great Lord Bacon; and upon this very point, we find him as credulous or as well-informed as the Bishop; in fact, the English philosopher is by far the most positive; for "it is certain," says Bacon, edit. folio, v. iii. p. 107, " that, in very sterile years, corn sown will grow to another kind. Grandia sæpe quibus mandavimus hordea sulcis And, generally, it is a rule that plants that are brought forth by culture, as corn, will sooner change into other species than those that come of themselves; for that culture giveth but an adventitious nature, which is more easily put off. "This work of the transmutation of plants one into another is inter magnalia naturæ, for the transmutation of species is, in the vulgar philosophy, pronounced impossible; and certainly it is a thing of difficulty, and requireth deep search into nature." The only cognizance we ever had of such matter, was a clenching story told by one of the inmates of Dr. Willis's asylum for lunatics, who, in reply to a bouncing assertion from a "sane" visitor, assured him that the narrator's extraordinary fact was not so singular as one annually experienced by himself, namely, the possession of a tree in his garden which one year produced gooseberries, and the next currants! "In our preface we have given an instance of the super-excellent quality of the grass in Norway." All the grasses of this favoured climate are not, however, equally beneficial; for instance, the "gramen ossifragum Norwegium," instead of covering the bones of cows and other cattle with wholesome layers of suet, has a very different effect, neither more nor less than mollifying them to such a degree, that without the "strange remedy of administering to them the bones of other cows, which they devour with the utmost greediness, they quickly die." We have heard our medical friends say, that phosphate of lime, as a chief component part of the ossificatory system, had been occasionally administered to patients as a remedy for a disordered state of the bones; but we doubt whether with as much success as in the case just mentioned. In the celebrated Siege of Paris, in 1589, bone bread was made, and administered in great abundance; but the result upon the consumers was in direct opposition to that of the cows: for," observes the historian, " cette horrible invention causa la mort de quinze mille personnes." We shall mention but one other grass, and that is the Tour, or" bewitching grass," which has the strange effect upon the beasts of the field, "so that the most mettlesome horse immediately hangs his head, and becomes so dull and tractable, as 66 to be managed at will;" and, further, we are truly sorry to observe, that it affords the jockeys of Norway an opportunity of vying with their brethren in England, in the practice of turf-knavery, it being "a known practice among them, when riding to a fair, to watch an opportunity of conveying some Tour grass unto the mouth of another's horse, if he chances to be so much preferable as to prejudice the sale of the latter." Oh, tell it not at Newmarket, and let it not be heard at Tattersall's! CHAP. 7. Of several kinds of Gems and curious Stones in Norway. Under this head we would briefly notice the effects of swine stone, which, though well known to give out a fetid smell when scraped, in Norway where it abounds, appears to be a nuisance of no small magnitude to travellers of delicate sensibility; for in an island in Great Mios upon Hedemark, there are whole mountains of thin stone, "which, when gallopped upon by shod horses, emit a violent stench." Respecting meteoric stones, we again expect a little of the Bishop's best philosophy, premising therefore, that its primordial element being a slimy water, mixed with matter, inspissated by fire, whence a petrifying juice, he assumes that "such a materia lenta et viscosa may ascend into the air,"-further, " that the lightning may have very wonderful effects in the atmosphere, must be granted;" and having thus manufactured his aërolite, he maintains, that such a solid compressed body must, by its own gravity, descend, as a natural consequence; in which conclusion we, with the rest of his scientific admirers, doubtless concur. One other stone only shall we touch upon, "the aëtites, or eagle stones, found here, as in other parts, in the nests of eagles, who, probably, lay them there to moderate the violent heat exhaling from the breast of the dam, the eagle being a bird of extreme heat." We would submit this fact to Mr. John Davy, for insertion in the second edition of his Observations on the Temperature of Man and other Animals, (eagles, of course, included.) CHAP. 8. Of the Metals and Minerals in Norway. Respecting these, we must be equally brief, noticing merely on the subject of mines, (the three best of which are. piously named" God's help in Distress," "Samuel's Mine," and "Old God's Blessing;") that the latter furnishes "an image of hell; and the swarm of miners bustling about in habits according to their several occupations, may well pass for so many devils! PART II. In the preface to Part 2, which was published sometime subsequent to the first, he prepares his readers for divers and sundry marvels which he is about to record; at the same time, thus apologizing for any appearance of credulity, of which he might have been suspected in the foregoing pages: "I have endeavoured, as much as possible, to avoid the imputation of being over-credulous; and, upon that account, often decline giving my opinion of some relations, the credit of which I have reason to doubt. I mention this, because I foresee that, when some readers come to read the contents of the 8th chapter, concerning the mermaid, the great sea snake of several hundred feet long, and the kraken, whose uncommon size seems to exceed belief, they may suspect me of too much credulity." Possibly;-but let us proceed to enable them to judge for themselves. CHAP. 1. Of Four-footed Beasts, or Quadrupeds. Relating to horses, we shall confine ourselves to those pugnacious powers which fortunately, as we have no wolves or bears, they are precluded from exhibiting in this country.When a smart clever hackney, for instance, enters the lists with a bear or wolf, "he attacks his antagonist with his fore legs, which he uses like drumsticks to strike withal; and comes off, usually, the conqueror. Many of the people of fashion would not believe this till Stadtholder Wibe, in King Frederic the Fourth's presence, made the experiment with one of his coach horses. This creature fell upon a bear let loose against him, and laid him presently dead; but, sometimes, the bear, who has double strength, gets the advantage, and especially if the horse happens to turn about to kick with his hind legs. If he attempts this, he is ruined; for the bear instantly leaps upon him, and fixes himself on his back; in which case, he gallops off with his angry rider, till, by loss of blood, he drops down." We incline to think English farmers would prefer a stallfed Holderness cow to a coast-fed Norwegian; where, for lack of "other food or provender, cods' heads, and other fish bones, are mixed together, which the cows eat with a good appetite.' We have before spoken of bone-feeding in a medicinal point of view, but we have them here again provided in the form of regular meals; for "it is not only fish bones that cows here. eat, but, likewise, the bones of their own species, which they swallow greedily, and gnaw them with their teeth as the dogs would, of which the privy counsellor Van Osten" (for some presumed to doubt the fact) "gave proof, to the astonishment of the beholders." It is allowed, indeed, that the milk hath a very fishy smell;—and, possibly, the butter may partake of this "ancient and fish-like" flavour. When cows eat flesh, we must not be surprised if the example descends; accordingly, |