The sheep of Norway are of the same brecd with those of Denmark ; but in some of the southern dis tricts the English breed has been inttoduced. Many flocks are left to themselves on the islands, and are only visited when about to be shorn, in the month of May; but some of the other flocks are shorn two, or even three times in the year. Many goats also are kept in the country ; and their milk is mixed with that of the sheep in making butter and cheese. Hogs are not very abundant ; nor are geese, ducks and other poultry, made an object of much attention among the peasantry..
In most districts of Norway, a principal part of the husbandman's profits are derived from the cutting of thriber for fuel, inclosures, making of roads, or the pur poses of building, and from the preparations of tar, ashes, and charcoal. Many of the forests are the pro perty of the crown; others belong to individuals; and some are in a manner common. Various laws are en acted tor the regulation of the respective rights to make use of the forests ; but in general great abuses are com mitted in this respect, and little economy is practised in the article of wood.
The destruction of the wild animals, with which these extensive lorests abound, forms another occupation of the peasantry, both as a measure of preservation from their ravenous inroads, and as a source of profit to the hunters. There are various kinds of bears, brown, black, and white ; some of which are very large, and attack the horses and horned cattle ; while those of a smaller size devour the heaps of corn in the fields dur ing the autumn. Various means are employed for thin ning their numbers—fire-arms, snares, dogs. Their skins are sold from 8 to 18 rixdollars, according to their size and quality ; and the flesh of the cubs, particularly, is often used as food by the country people. Wolves also are extremely numerous, and prey upon the horses. as well as upon the large and small cattle. They avoid every thing which hangs over their heads, and there• fore shun the woods as much as possible ; so that the best protection against their depredations is a hedge inclosure, sufficiently high to prevent them from leap ing over, and through which they will not attempt te creep. In the long twilights of the winter season, they become formidable to travellers, especially on the ex tensive lakes, where they assemble on the ice in great numbers; and are frequently frightened from making an attack by the following simple contrivance, men tioned by Von Buch." (g A rope is fastened to the hin•
der part of the sledge, and so long as it can be pre served, it hangs down loosely, and is dragged along the track of the sledge. The small irregularities of the way raise it every now and then aloft, and make it turn in perpetual serpentine windings. This frightens the wolves: they dare not venture an attack ; and, in dread of this dancing monster, they remain at a secure dis tance." Besides the usual modes of hunting them, they are frequently destroyed by poison spear] upon the dead carcass of a sheep or lamb ; and rewards are proposed by government to encourage the destruction of wolves and bears. There are in Norway many other wild ani mals, whose skins reward the toils of the peasant in preserving his fields from their depredations, particu larly lynxest, whose furs bear a high price ; foxes, white, red, and black; hares, white in winter, and grey in summer; ermines of a fine white colour, particu larly in the northern districts; squirrels, martens, ot ters, and a few beavers ; stags and roe-bucks in some of the southern cantons ; but the elk, in consequence of the slaughter made among the females by the hunters, (though often prohibited by public authority,) is be coming a rare animal in the country. There are great numbers of the mouse called lemming, which multiply among the furze and other underwood to an extraor dinary degree ; and, at certain seasons, migrate in mul titudes, always directing their course towards the fron tiers of Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia, advancing in a straight line o‘er every obstacle, and producing a sensible damage in the fields through which they pass ; hut their ranks are greatly thinned in their progress by their natural enemies the bears, rein-deer, foxes, and martens. The birds are numerous, particularly those which fiequent the lakes and the sea-shore ; and they are taken and destioyed in great quantities for the sake of their down, which forms a valuable article in com merce. The natives encounter great risks in this pursuit, by clambering among the rocks, suspending themselves from the summits of the most tremendous precipices, in order to catch the birds in their nests.