EMMA.  “The Ferroe Isles, belonging to Denmark, are seventeen in number; they produce agate, jasper, and beautiful zeolites, and export feathers, eider-down, caps, stockings, tallow, and salted mutton.”

CHARLES.  “I do not think that can be very nice:  I wonder who buys it?”

EMMA.  “It always finds purchasers:  therefore some folks are not so fastidious as Mr. Charles Dorning.”

GEORGE.  “Mamma, let us go back past Norway, and see what are all these little islands on the coast.”

MRS. WILTON.  “As you please, George; but most of the islands are barren, uninhabited spots.  Those worthy of notice are Karen, Bommel, Sartar, Hittern, at the entrance of the Gulf of Drontheim; the Victen or Victor Isles, and the Luffoden Isles:  the latter are the most numerous and extensive, and noted for the whirlpool Maelstrom, which has drawn so many fine ships into its abyss, and from which even the bellowing struggles of the great whale will not suffice to redeem him if once he gets within the vortex.”

GEORGE.  “What causes this whirlpool?”

MR. BARRAUD.  “When two currents of a more or less contrary direction and of equal force meet in a narrow passage, they both turn, as it were, upon a centre, until they unite, or one of the two escapes.  This is what is termed a whirlpool or eddy.  There are three celebrated whirlpools noticed in geography—­the Maelstrom, the Euripus, near the island of Eubaea, and Charybdis, in the Straits of Sicily.”

CHARLES.  “Bergen, one of the principal towns of Norway, stands on the North Sea:  it is seated in the centre of a valley, forming a semicircle round a small gulf of the sea.  On the land side it is defended by mountains; and on the other, by several fortifications.  This city is chiefly constructed of wood, and has been many times destroyed by fire.  So dreadful was the last conflagration, in 1771, that it is said the flames were visible in the Isles of Shetland, or at least the red lurid glare of them in the sky.”

MR. WILTON.  “There are silver mines in Norway; but the iron mines are the most profitable.  We have to thank Norway for the magnet, of such inestimable value to the navigator.”

GEORGE.  “Papa, who found out the use of the magnet?”

MR. WILTON.  “Flavio Gioia was the author of the great discovery of the property of the magnet, about the year 1302.  He was a citizen of Amalfi, a town in Naples.”

EMMA.  “Is there not a destructive little animal, native of Norway, called a lemming?”

MR. BARRAUD.  “It is called the lemming, or Norwegian mouse; it comes from the ridge of Kolen; and sometimes spreads desolation, like the locust.  These animals appear in vast numbers, proceeding from the mountain towards the sea, devouring every product of the soil, and, after consuming everything eatable in their course, they at last devour each other.  These singular creatures are of a reddish color, and about five inches in length.”