Touching Them, The Cloudy
Substance Would Turn Or Close, First On One Side, Then On The Other,
Very Gracefully, But When I Took One Of Them Up In The Ladle, With
Which I Heaved The Water Out Of The Boat, It Appeared Only A
Colourless Jelly.
I did not see any of the seals, numbers of which followed our boat
when we landed in Sweden; but though I like to sport in the water I
should have had no desire to join in their gambols.
Enough, you will say, of inanimate nature and of brutes, to use the
lordly phrase of man; let me hear something of the inhabitants.
The gentleman with whom I had business is the Mayor of Tonsberg. He
speaks English intelligibly, and, having a sound understanding, I
was sorry that his numerous occupations prevented my gaining as much
information from him as I could have drawn forth had we frequently
conversed. The people of the town, as far as I had an opportunity
of knowing their sentiments, are extremely well satisfied with his
manner of discharging his office. He has a degree of information
and good sense which excites respect, whilst a cheerfulness, almost
amounting to gaiety, enables him to reconcile differences and keep
his neighbours in good humour. "I lost my horse," said a woman to
me, "but ever since, when I want to send to the mill, or go out, the
Mayor lends me one. He scolds if I do not come for it."
A criminal was branded, during my stay here, for the third offence;
but the relief he received made him declare that the judge was one
of the best men in the world.
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