B O O K yields annually to the value of £,67,500; and iron, of which
the moft produdive mine is near Arendal. •
.Norway abounds in lakes and rivers, more than any country
I ever vifited excepting Switzerland. It is remarkable for the
number and beauty of the bays fringed with wood. Many of the
lakes are fo large, that they appear like inlets of the fea; and the
bays are fo fmall, that they appear like lakes; but I am anticipating
my journal.
C H A P .
C H A P . VI.
■i 'redericjhall—Fortrefs of Fredericsftein— Obfervations on the Death
of Charles .the Twelfth— TiJledal— Fredericsfadt— Chrifiania.
'S E P T EM B E R 4. Norway is feparated from Sweden by the c h a p .
-bay of Swinefund, a bay or inlet of the fea, which in this ■_ VI'
-part forms a ftrait between the perpendicular rocks, fo narrow
as to hear the appearance of a river, yet fo deep as to admit
ih ip S'of the greateft burden. On the Swediih fide o f the bay
■our palfports were examined by a Swediih cuftom-houfe officer;
and on our being ferried over the other ihore, our baggage was
ilightly infpeded by a Daniih cuftom-houfe officer, who dwells
in a comfortable houfe overhanging the edge o f the water.
In a few miles we readied Fredericlhall, the frontier town of
Norway, Handing on the extremity of the Swinefund, at the mouth
of the river Tifte. The principal commerce of the town con-
fifts in the exportation of planks, the greateft part of which
are fent to England. The wood is floated down the various
■catarads, and river Tifte, fornetimes above 100 Englifh miles,
from the interior parts of the country, and fawed here : for this
purpofe thirty-fix faw-mills are ereded on the banks of the
river Tifte, which forms a feries of catarads.
V ol. III. U The