SECTION XIV.
O f the Amphibious Animals, the Fijhes and Fi/heries.
T F we would ftriitly follow the arrangement of Linnaeus, we
fhould now fpeak o f the amphibious animals in Lapland, before
we eome to treat o f the fifties and the fifheries. However the
amphibious tribe is by no means numerous, as it only confifts of
the lacerta palu/lris, and, we may perhaps add, the petromyzonjhi-
viatilis. The lacerta paluftris is found in feveral other.places be-
fides Lapland. There are ib many fabulous accounts of this animal
among the inhabitants of the North, that one may eaiily be
milled by the different ftories th a t are related of i t : they, for in-
ftance, tell you, th a t it lives in the w ate r; th a t it frequently
bounds up from the water, or the furface of a lake, and fettles on
the branch of a tre e ; that there it begins to laugh, or to make a
noile like that of a man’s laughing; and ib on. But thefe wonderful
tales would probably vaniih 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 o f ialmon in the
feafon; and on the coaft are found cod, hake, ling, haddocks,
whitings,
whitings, fkate, hollibut, and a variety of other fiih in abundance.
Thefe are caught and prepared for foreign markets, a traffic
which might be carried on to a more confiderable extent than
what it a&ually is, fo as to fupply almoft the whole of Europe.
I t is not our intention to enter into a detail of that fubjed, but
merely to give a concife account of the fiih in thefe feas, and the
methods adopted by the Laplanders for taking them, together
with fome particular circumftances refpeding thefe matters, w hich
have not been noticed by other travellers.
About Candlemas-day the whales appear in afloniffiing numbers
upon this coaft, not only in the open feas, but alfo in the bays
and harbours, being allured by the purfuit of the cod, herrings,
and other fifties. Thefe latter endeavour to efcape by approaching
clofe to the ffiores, where they are taken by the fiffiermen in
the greateil quantities. There are feveral fpecies of the whale; but
this animal has been fo fully and fo often defcribed, th a t it will
be unneceffary to fay any thing of it, further than to obferve, that
they are ' frequently caft on ffiore upon thefe coafts, when, as is
fuppofed, they have left the deep water on being wounded by the
harpoons of fiffiers, or by their great enemy the fword-fiffi, hereafter
to be mentioned, and by unwarily coming too nigh, they
are ftranded and taken by the Laplanders.
Many kinds of fiih belonging to the cetaceous tribe, are found
in thefe feas. Among them the moil; remarkable is the fword-
fiih, an inveterate and declared enemy o f the whale. This fiih,
called fometimes the fea-hound, does not differ much in fliape and
fize