Chapter V (3)

[161] Hèrað (or Hierat) is the Scotch “heriot,” a tax paid to feudal lord in lieu of military service. In Icelandic the Hèrað is a geographical district generally, and is specially applied to the river-basin of the Skagafjörð (Cleasby).

[162] The sheriff does _not_ attend parish meetings, he has no schools to inspect, for there are none, in fact he has nothing to do with education at all, that being the business of the parish priest under the superintendence of the prófastr (dean) of the district.

[163] The name of this Icelandic code of laws, which must not be confounded with the Grágás of Norway, is variously explained from the grey binding or from being written with a grey goose-quill. It was adopted in Iceland in A.D. 1118, and it contained a Lex de ejusmodi mendicis (sturdy vagrants) impune castrandis. Some writers suppose that the Icelandic Commonwealth had written laws but no code. After the union with Norway the island received its first written code, the Iron-side, Járn-Síða (A.D. 1262-1272), and this was exchanged in A.D. 1272 for the Jónsbók, so termed from John the Lawyer who brought it from Norway. Uno Von Troil (p. 73) removes the date of the latter to A.D. 1272.

[164] Mr Dasent, Introduction to Diet, (xlviii.), remarks that the jury was never developed in Norway, and only struck faint root in the Danish and Swedish laws. When asserting the jury to be purely Scandinavian, the author speaks of Europe, neglecting the admirable Panchayat system which arose in the village republics of Hindostan, and a multitude of other similar institutions.

[165] Dillon notices forty-one women who had passed ninety: the number has now greatly fallen off. There is a further decline from the days of Olaus Magnus, who informs us that “the Icelanders, who, instead of bread, have fish bruised with a stone, live three hundred years.” The general longevity of Norway proves that the climates of the north, the _vagina gentium_ of Jornandes, have nothing adverse to human life. In Scotland the census of 1870 gave a total of twenty-six centagenarians--nine men and seventeen women.

[166] Innuit (Eskimo), like Illinois (from Illeni), means simply “a man”--a frequent tribal designation amongst savages. So Teuton and Deutsch, with the numberless derivations, are derived from Goth. Thiud, a people; Alemanni from “All-men,” and “German perhaps from Guerre-man” (Farrar, Families of Speech).

[167] The discovery of Uriconium and of Roman remains throughout England, and even in London, during the last few years, strongly suggests that the beauty of the English race is derived from a far greater intermixture of southern blood than was formerly suspected; and the racial baptism, repeated by the invasion of the Normans, must also have brought with it Gallo-Romans in considerable numbers. We can hardly doubt that the handsome peasantry of south-western Ireland is the produce of Spanish or Mediterranean innervation; and a comparison with the country people of Orotava in Tenerife, where the Irish have again mixed with the mingled Hispano-Guanche race, shows certain remarkable points of family likeness. On the other hand, except in certain parts of Great Britain, especially the Danelagh or Scandinavianised coasts and the counties occupied by the Angli and other Teutonic peoples, the English race remarkably differs from both its purer congeners, the homely Scandinavians and Germans. The general verdict of foreigners confirms its superior beauty, which, indeed, is evident to the most superficial observer.

[168] It appears probable that the reverence paid to women by the ancient Germans and Gauls arose from what Tacitus calls “some divine and prophetic quality resident in their women;” from the superstitious belief that the weaker sex was more subject to inspiration, divination, second sight, and other abnormal favours of the gods. The _Frauen-cultus_ of the present age, which in the United States has become an absurdity, would be the relic and survival of this pagan fancy.

[169] The author cannot say whether due care was taken when making these observations. Amongst Englishmen, when the thermometer held in the mouth exceeds 98°·5, there is suspicion of fever.

[170] Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio observed this fact among the paviours and the wine-carters, who form almost a separate caste of the Trans-Tiber population.

[171] Not always, as the common river-name Thvátt-á (wash or dip-water) proves.

[172] These satirical songs are known to the Greenlanders, who thus satisfy their malice, “preferring to revenge even than to prevent an injury.” Yet, the Icelanders have a proverb, “Let him beware, lest his tongue wind round his head.”

[173] Usually but erroneously translated “headlands,” instead of “head of men.”

[174] The popular assertion, “nothing can be more natural than that female chastity should be more prevalent in a northern than in a southern climate,” is simply a false deduction from insufficient facts. It is a subject far too extensive for a footnote; we may simply observe that the Scandinavians have never been distinguished for continence, nor are the northern more moral than the southern Slavs. In fact, the principal factor of feminine “virtue” seems to be race not climate.

[175] “To go by the way of the rock” was the old pagan euphuism for self-destruction; and the modern Hindú, as the Girnár Cliff shows, preserves the practice of “Altestupor” and “Odin’s Hall.” Suicide is now, like the duello, extinct, and the few cases recorded in late history are looked upon as phenomena. We remark the same rarity of self-destruction both in Scotland and Ireland, a wonderful contrast to England, which, again, despite its ill-fame, shows favourably in this matter by the side of France.

[176] The reader has only to remember how much of Britain was Danish to understand the Snorra-Edda’s express statement about Icelanders and Englishmen speaking the same tongue, “Vèr erum einnar tungu;” and Bartolin (Antiquitates Danicæ), “Eademque lingua (Norwegica seu Septentrionalis) usurpabatur per Saxonicum, Daniam, Sueciam, Norvegiam, et partem Angliæ aliquam.”

[177] Their extensive travels gave them peculiar names for peoples and places, which are often somewhat puzzling. “Thýskr,” a German, and Gerzkr, a Russian, are easy; but Samverskt (a Samaritan) is not so plain. Thus, also, we have “Enea” for Europe; “Hvítármannaland,” or white man’s land, and “Irland et mikla,” Ireland the Great (the Irlanda el Kabíreh of Edrisi in the twelfth century), for South America; “Suðurálfa” (_i.e._, southern half), for Africa; “Great Sweden” for Eastern Russia; “Svalbarði” (discovered 1194), for Scoresby’s Liverpool Coast (?); “Bjarmaland” for Permia, the land beyond the North Cape; “Sætt” for Sidon; “Njörfa-fjörð “for the Straits of “Gib;” Há-sterun for Hastings; and “Katanes” (boat naze), for Caithness. Some names are of ethnological value; for instance, “Bretland” for Wales; while Vendill or Vandill, the northern part of Jutland, preserves the name of the Vandals and the origin of Andalusia; and Garða-riki or Garða-veldi, the empire of the Garðar or Castella, tells us how the Russian empire was founded. So Suðr-menn (Germans) opposed to Northmen (Norðmenn), preserves the tradition of original consanguinity. Others are useless complications, as Engils-nes, the Morea, and Ægisif (Ἁγία Σοφία). The travestied names of persons are sometimes interesting, _e.g._, Elli-Sif (Scot. Elspeth) is Elizabeth, probably confounded like Ægisif, with Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, who lives in our gos-_sip_. Icelanders are not answerable for the mistake so general amongst foreigners which makes Níðar-óss (Oyce or ostium of the Nið River) an _alias_ of Throndhjem, of old Thrándheimr, when it is the name of the ancient city occupying the position of the present town. The “Antiquités de l’Orient” (par C. C. Rafn, Copenhagen, 1856) well shows how Icelandic names were applied to the Byzantine empire, _e.g._, Ἐσσουπῆ (_ei sofa_, not to sleep), given to the first bar of the Dnieper; Οὐλξορσὶ (Hólm-fors or islet-force) to the second, and so forth.

[178] “This assertion of travellers never had any foundation in fact,” says Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín, yet it is quoted by Henderson, the least imaginative, and, in such matters, the most trustworthy of men; and the Icelandic proverb says, “One’s own home is the best home.”

[179] As every traveller, from Uno Von Troil downwards, has given a plan and sketch of the Bær, the reader need not be troubled with them. The group of buildings composing the actual homestead is invariably built in a row: the front (Hús-bust) faces south, towards the sea or the river, if in a valley, and the back is turned to the sheltering mountain. The strip of flagged pavement along the front is called “Stétt;” the open space before it, “Hlað;” the buildings are parted by a lane (Sund); the approach is termed “Geilar” or “Tröð,” and the whole is surrounded by the Húsa-garðr, a dry-stone dyke.

The Norse Skáli, or Hall of classical days, whose rude and barbarous magnificence was the result of successful piracy tempered by traffic, has clean vanished--there is not a trace of one upon the island. A ground-plan, section, and elevation, are given in Mr Dasent’s “Burnt Njal,” but it is hard to say how much of it came from the fertile brain of the artist, Mr Sigurðr Guðmundsson. It was probably about as “desirable” a “residence” as the old Welsh manor-house, with its stagnant moat and its banks or walls of earth.

[180] The author well remembers that at Hyderabad, in Sind, only one palace had the luxury of glass, when we first occupied the city.

[181] Sótt is applied to physical, Sút to mental, sickness.

[182] More will be said concerning the several varieties of oxalis, which the people now seem to despise. Both wood-sorrel and meadow-sweet (_Spiræa_) were used by the poor of Ireland to heal ulcers (Beddoes, p. 47, on the Medical Use and Production of Factitious Airs), Uno Von Troil (p. 108) gives a long list of the popular anti-scorbutics.

[183] Of course the first sibilant, the sign of possession, is not used when the noun is otherwise declined. For instance, Jón Arason, often written by foreigners Aræson, is the son of Are, whose oblique case is Ara; yet there are popular exceptions, _e.g._, Bjarnarson (pron. Bjatnarsonj, son of Björn, is vulgarly pronounced, and even written, Björnsson.

[184] Thus the islanders preserve the memory of a “beautiful fiend,” one amongst many, who, after a very human fashion, began life as a coquette, and ended it as a _dévote_, being the first to learn psalm-singing, and to take the veil in the new convent. This hyperborean Ninon de L’Enclos deserves forgiveness for one of the cleverest sayings uttered by woman--a revelation of its kind. When asked which of her half-a-dozen lovers and husbands she preferred, her wise and witty answer was, “Theim var ek verst, er ek unnti mest”--“Whom I treated worst, him I loved most;” alluding to Kjartan Olafsson, murdered by her behest. In old days, Gudrún and John answered to the “M. or N.” of our Catechism, and to “those famous fictions of English law, John Doe and Richard Roe.”

[185] This is probably a relic of early ages, when “Maria” was a name too much revered for general use.

[186] Yet the Polygamia Triumphatrix (Liseri) of Lund, A.D. 1682, was publicly burned at Stockholm.

[187] We may add, Paris, 23; Berlin, 25; Panama, 26; Bombay, 27; New York, 28; Glasgow, 34; Madras, 35; Vienna, 36; and Rome the same, if not more.

[188] Thus Skyr is a congener of the Persian “Shír” and of the Slav Sir (cheese). The first stage is the “run-milk,” the second is the “hung-milk” (because suspended in a bag) of the Shetland Islands. Everywhere it is differently turned; by sour whey in Iceland, by buttermilk in Scotland, and by rennet and various plants in Asia and Africa. No milk-drinking nation drinks, as a rule, fresh milk. The Icelanders want the manifold preparations known to the Scoto-Scandinavian islands.

[189] Dr (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland introduced, or rather first brought, the vaccine virus.

[190] From Lík, Germ. Leiche, Eng. Lych, as in lych-gate, and Thrá, a throe or pang. Hold is flesh.

[191] This, like other forms of gout, certainly depends much upon the popular beverage. In England we find it amongst the beer-drinking poorer classes: Padua, the author was informed by the celebrated Dr Pinalli, does not produce a single case even to lecture upon.

[192] Thýðverjaland, or Thjóðverjaland, is Teuton-land, Germany, the adjectival forms being Thýðverskr, Thýzkr, and Thýeskr. Icelandic here has evidently borrowed from the Gothic Thjuth, the German Diutisc (Diutisch or Tiusch), the low Latin Theotiscus, and the modern Teutsch or Deutsch, through traders in the eleventh or twelfth century (Cleasby). But Rafn (Antiquités de l’Orient, p. xlix.) quotes the Roman de Rou of Robert Wace:

“Cosne sont en thioiz et en normant parler,”

to show that the two terms were applied to a single tongue. From the old root come the Italian Tedesco and the English “Dutch,” which the vulgar in the United States still persistently apply to Germans. Schöning (p. 310, Copenhagen, 1777) and Laing (Heimskringla, iii. 349) confused Thýzkr with “Turkish!”

[193] For a full account of the ancient dietary as prescribed by law in 1789, see Baring-Gould, p. 29. The items are meat and peas; sausages cold and warm; meat, broth, and soup; haddock and flounder; stock fish and butter (“the staff of life”); skyr (not curd) and cold milk; meal-grout, buckwheat-porridge, and barley-water grout with milk and butter.

[194] Ölmusa or Almusa is the Greek Ἐλεημοσύνη, the German Almosen, and the English Alms (Cleasby).

[195] He died November 2, 1872.

[196] The author is aware that a student who reads Greek and Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French, German, and English, will find almost all the Talmud, certainly all the valuable parts, in translation at the library of the British Museum. But, unhappily, British Museums do not exist everywhere. Till the constitutional days of Italy the five Jewish Synagogues at Rome were not allowed to own copies of this vast repertory of Hebrew lore.

[197] If English, as appears likely, is to become the cosmopolitan language of commerce, it will have to borrow from Chinese as much monosyllable and as little inflection as possible. The Japanese have already commenced the systematic process of “pidgeoning,” which for centuries has been used on the West African Coast, in Jamaica, and, in fact, throughout tropical England, Hindostan alone excepted.

[198] The dialects vary so much that we can hardly speak of modern Greek. The only approach to it is the bastard, half-classical jargon, almost confined to the professors and the λογιώτατοι of the capital and chief towns. Worse still, all the Romaic grammars and dictionaries are devoted to teaching a tongue which no illiterate person speaks, ever spoke, or ever, it is to be hoped, will speak. Except by actual travel it is hardly possible to learn the charmingly _naïve_ dialects of the peasantry.

[199] The two cathedrals of Catholic days were burnt: their successors were humble buildings; that of Skálholt was a wooden barn; the building at Hólar was, like the Viðey church, of stone, a rare thing outside Reykjavik.

[200] Bishop Pètursson (299-305) supplies a “Specification” of all the priesthoods and their revenues in the island.

[201] Gullbringu is the Sýsla which contains Reykjavik; but the cathedral town is, of course, under a separate jurisdiction.

[202] Bóndi (of old, Búandi and Bóandi), _plur._ Buéndr or Bóendr (Germ. Bauer, Eng. Hus-band) included all the owners of landed property and householders (Bú), from the petty freeholder to the franklin, especially the class represented by our yeomen and the “statesmen” of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is still opposed in Iceland to the “klerkar” (clergy), to the knights, to the barons (Hersir-or Lendir-menn), and to the royal officers (hirð). In more despotic Norway and Denmark, “bóndi” became a word of contempt for the lower classes; and in modern Danish, Bönder means plebs, a boor. Bú, from að búa, to build, to inhabit, is the household and stores, opposed to Bær, the house (Cleasby).

[203] In 1873, no less than 4385 “livings” in the Church of England were under £200 per annum: of these, 1211 were under £100; 1596 ranged between £100 and £150; and 1578 from £150 to £200. Measures have lately been taken to abate this scandal, which pays less for the “cure of souls” than for the care of stables.

[204] The traveller cannot but think that our scientific political economists are apt, in outlying countries, to neglect the first rule of taxation, namely, to avoid imposing novelties, and to levy imposts with which the people are accustomed. Thus India willingly contributes salt and capitation taxes, and especially Nazaránah, or legacy duties, whilst she hates the name of income-tax. No one will deny that the two former are objectionable for a host of reasons, but the question is, whether they are less injurious than those which lead to the many evils engendered by chronic discontent.

[205] The system of hundreds will be discussed when treating of taxation. Suffice it here to say that in modern Iceland, as in England of former times, the value of land tenure was estimated not by extent, but by produce. Indeed, superficial land-measures, such as the “mark” of the Færoes (=32,500 square English feet), are unknown to the island.

[206] It should be remembered that “Heimili” (households, families) are quite different from “Jarðir” (farms); and the two must not be confounded. The number of the former is 9306, of the latter 4357.

[207] In 1872 contested elections were almost unknown; at least only one was quoted, and the candidate had learned the practice in England. The position of Al-thíngis-maðr was also an object of scanty ambition except to those who required the small salary, or who had a political theory to work out. The assertion in the text is denied by Icelanders; but the author repeatedly heard it made by Danes and other foreigners settled in the island--at any rate, we may expect to see it realised by the new constitution. Knowledge is power in Iceland as elsewhere, and the numbers of the priesthood secure their influence, whilst the physicians and lawyers are too few to be of much account.

[208] The English Midwife means “with-wife,” from the Icel. “Með,” the German Mit.

[209] So Styria and Istria boast of a “Kohl-fuchs,” so termed from his coal-black waistcoat.

[210] May not the idea have arisen from a confusion of “Tó,” a grass-tuft, with “Tóa,” or “Tófa,” a tod? The older name, Mel-rakki, is derived from burrowing in the sand.

[211] Uno Von Troil (p. 140) also mentions wild cats (Urðar-kettir, cats-o’-stone-heap) and rats.

[212] The Irish “town-land,” _i.e._, yard and meadow; Scotch “toun;” Cornish “town;” Dutch. “tuyn,” a garden; and Germ. “tzaun.”

[213] This bird (_Charadrius pluvialis_, Icel. Hey-ló and Hey-lóa, the fem. Hey-láa commonly used, the hay-sandpiper), “quite the commonest in Iceland” (Baring-Gould, p. 411)--the snow-bunting being perhaps the commonest of the small birds--is black breasted in the breeding season, and afterwards becomes “golden.”

[214] Gaukr (mod. gickr) is a congener of the A. Sax. Gaec; the Irish Cuach (hence Mo-chuachin, “my little cuckoo!”); the Scotch Gowk; the German Gauch; the Danish Gick, and the Slav. Keuk or Kukavitsa: the Serbian legend makes it a sister calling upon a lost brother. The Index Vocum, etc. (Landnámabók, p. 486), explains it Cuculus.

[215] This is a lineal descendant from the ancient and venerable root which named the Aryan race, Ἄριοι, _i.e._, ploughers not pastors, and which produced Ar-atron, Ar-atrum; Bohemian, Or-adlo; Lithuanian, Ar-klas; Cornish, Ar-adar, and Welsh, Ar-ad, and which survives in our word to “ear.” The Arðr of the Sagas was probably heavier and bulkier than the Plógr, a late word of foreign stamp, which “our American cousins” will degrade to “plow.”

[216] This word, Melr (_plur._ Melar), wild oats or bent, also Mel-gras (whence Mel-rakki, the fox), must be distinguished from what the Dictionary, erroneously I think, makes its secondary sense, a sand-hill, dune, dene or link, overgrown with such grass, and a sandbank generally, even when bare. The question is, was the oat called from its sand-bed or _vice versâ_? For a description of this feature, see Chapter IX.

[217] Etymologically, Reynir is applied to a cousin, the rowan tree, or mountain ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_), especially sacred to Thor. Hence the Vikings were called ash-men, because they sat under the sacred ash, which defended them from the evil eye.

[218] Hooker (ii. 325) found a true rose, the _Rosa hibernica_, growing in the Seljaland, but only there. Thus it is not wholly wanting, as in the southern hemisphere.

[219] Further notices will occur in the Journal (Chap. V.) about this Surtar-brand (not “Surtur-brand”). Etymologically, it is from Surtr (a congener of “swarthy”) “the Black,” a fire-giant, who, coming from the south, will destroy the Odin-world, and Brandr, a firebrand. After the change of faith, this northern Ahriman or Set (Typhon) was ready to hand, and at once became the Semitico-Scandinavian “Devil.” Upon the same principle, the latter is known in Scotland as “Auld Sootie,” since the classical gamins gave horns and tail to Pluto, and the face of the great god Pan was blackened by the monks. The Surtshellir tunnel in western Iceland, famed for the atrocious “Cave-men” (outlaws), is also derived from the Surtr of Scandinavian mythology. The author did not visit it, but the descriptions and illustrations suggested the Umm Nírán in the lava formations of the Safá, near Damascus, noticed in “Unexplored Syria.”

[220] In Switzerland, also, the minimum of snow coincides with the last of July and early August.

[221] The indigenous Poas number twelve, and the Festucæ three

[222] Óðal is a congener of the German Edel and Adel, noble, as the “chiefs” of Scandinavian and Teutonic communities were the land-holders. Hence the mid. Lat. Allodium; and (Cleasby) “feudal” is fee-odal, odal held as a fee (Germ. _vieh_; Dutch, _vee_; pecunia, capitale) from the king: Dr Sullivan prefers _Feodum_, from Fuidhir, fugitives. Popularly, Udal, Allodium, prædium hereditarium, is opposed to feudal.

[223] The Icelandic Umboð are our Umboth-lands, formerly belonging to the bishop, and afterwards transferred to the Crown. Etymologically, the word means a charge or stewardship.

[224] See Section VI.

[225] The author’s statement made in the _Standard_ found objectors. Hr E. Magnússon impudently contradicted what he termed a _contradictio in adjecto_, apparently ignorant of the simple truth that neither logic nor Latin can affect facts and figures. It is amply confirmed by the Consular Report of 1870-71: “The stocks of domestic animals have shown a steady tendency to decrease, especially as regards the sheep flocks, which at times have been cruelly decimated by scab epidemics; the occasional failure of the grass crops exercises also a destructive influence on their herds and flocks generally, as they have no means at hand of substituting other fodder for the excellent wild pastures with which in ordinary years Nature supplies them so bounteously. These occasional epidemics and grass failures are bewailed by the Icelander as national calamities; but it is a question whether they may not prove to be the reverse, by opening his eyes to the necessity of devoting his energies and small capital to the better and more regular prosecution of the fisheries, which are boundless in extent, and less dependent on vicissitudes and seasons.”

[226] “Perhaps,” says Peirce (p. 29), “this is why the official statistics, with a sort of grim humour, number the ‘horned cattle’ at 23,713, while other authorities say there are 40,000 ‘cattle.’” He also quotes Dillon (p. 291) about four-horned and six-horned sheep--“quadricorns” are exceptional in Iceland as in most countries.

[227] More exactly the average yield of a one-year old is 1¼ lb.; of a two-year, 2½ lbs.; and of a three-year old, 3 lbs.

[228] Valued at a total of £2468, or about £5, 5s. a head. The prices will be considered in the course of the Journal.

[229] The steamer “Queen” in 1872 embarked 1030 head and the “Yarrow” 1414; these figures are given from the _Scotsman_. In 1873 the price had risen to £10 to £14, and the hire was a Danish dollar a day; thus the peasant was deprived of transport for himself and his goods.

[230] This is not the case with Norway, situated in the latitude of Iceland and Greenland, as the old rhyme shows:

“Sidst i Torri og först i Gio,
Skal Sild og Hval være i Sio.”

“At the last of Torri (first moon after Christmas) and first of Gio
(the second moon),
The sillock (herring, _Clupea harengus_) and whale in the sea will show.”

Yet in Coxe’s time (late eighteenth century) the herring had disappeared from the shore, being found only in deep water; and Fortia (Travels in Sweden) tells us, that firing of guns was not allowed for fear of frightening the fickle fish.

[231] Concerning the fresh-water fishes, details will be found in the Journal.

[232] R. J. Walker, quoted by Peirce. Dr Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson, in the “Lightning,” made the remarkable discovery that sea-water at different depths, is of different temperatures--the older theory being that the sea was of a uniform temperature of 39° (F.).

[233] In intertropical and temperate latitudes _Phocæ_ and _Manatis_ devour the fetid marine vegetation which collects on river bars, chokes the mouths, and causes “Yellow Jack” to prevail from Florida to Rio de Janeiro.

[234] Of course the “finny brood” is not without its folk-lore. There is a variety of “troll-fish” which, being ominous and unlucky, are thrown overboard by their captors. The same takes place farther south, as we learn from Lucas Dobes (Færoe Reseratar, Copenhagen, 1673).

[235] “Gullbringusýsla (literally, Goldbreast county) derives its name from some hills called Gullbringur (Goldbreasts), about twelve English miles distant from Reykjavik. They were so called because tradition says that the old Viking Egill Skallagrímsson there buried the treasure given him by King Athelstan for his assistance at the battle of Brunenburgh” (Jón A. Hjaltalín). This derivation is far more probable than the popular version given in the text: for a third interpretation see the Journal, chap. ii.

[236] The three species on the west coast of Scotland are:

1. The Rawn, or Common Seal (_Phoca vitulina_), from five to six
feet long; coat, tawny-white, spotted brownish-black on back and
sides, with darker haslets and dusky-grey belly. The skin is of
short bristly hair, but no fur.

2. The Tapraist, or Grey Seal (_Halichærus griseus_), somewhat
larger than the former; the muzzle is black, and the coat dirty
brown, looking silver-grey only when the sun strikes the recurved
hair.

3. The Bodach, or Old Man (Halket, _Halichcærus_?), somewhat
smaller than No. 1, and very easily tamed.

[237] Forelle is German and Danish; the general Icelandic name of trout is Silungr, but, as might be expected, the nomenclature is rich. Hooker notices this char (i. 97). The “suburtingur” of Baring-Gould (Appendix, 423), a fresh-water fish with pink-coloured flesh and sometimes weighing twenty pounds, does not appear in the Dictionary.

[238] A description and plate are found in Ólafsson.

[239] The word Vaðmál (pron. _Vathmowl_) is derived from Váð, Vóð, or Voð, stuff, cloth, weeds (_e.g._, widows’ “weeds”); and Mál, a measure--“stuff-measure,” because it was the standard of all value and payment before a coinage came into use (Cleasby). The form “Wadmal” will here be preserved, although England prefers “Wadmill,” _e.g._, in “Wadmill-till” for waggons.

[240] The following is the translation of the “Advertisement to mariners who enter the harbour of Reykjavik:”

“In pursuance of the laws, and under the punishment fixed by law, the following rules are to be attended to by the masters and crews of vessels that touch at the port of Reykjavik.

“1. As suspected, with regard to health, are considered all vessels (_a_) coming from countries or places where pestilential or epidemic diseases are found; (_b_) having merchandises on board, which are brought from such countries or places, or there packed up; (_c_) having had during the voyage, or having at the arrival, any sick person on board, whose disease can be considered as ill-natured or contagious; (_d_) having had, on the sea or near the land, communication with any vessel from suspected or infected places. Such vessels are bound, at the arrival to the harbour, to hoist a green flag, or, in default of such a one, their national flag on the main-top, with which they remain lying, until further order is given.

“As to other vessels, against whom there is no reason for suspicion of this kind, the masters thereof are peremptorily enjoined to land first at the bridge of Quarantine (distinguished by a green flag), to be submitted to the legal examination of the state of health of their crew, and to produce their bill of health, if they have any. Before this is done, nobody from the vessel is permitted to go on shore. The landing can take place from 8 o’clock A.M. to 8 o’clock P.M.

“2. It is the duty of the master, when arrived on shore, instantly to present himself in the Police Office for showing there his ship’s documents and clearances. Loading or unloading is not permitted before this is performed, and Icelandic maritime pass redeemed. Commerce on board with the inhabitants (‘speculant-trade’) is not permitted, except after a previous information thereof to the Policemaster.

“3. When any of the crew commits disorders on shore, it will be examined how far the master himself can be considered as responsible for such offences committed by his crew, especially when he has permitted them to remain on shore till late in the evening or night.

“4. In order that the breeding of the Eider ducks in the islands in the neighbourhood of the harbour (Viðey, Engey, etc.) shall not be disturbed, no firing of cannons, except in cases of distress, or as to men-of-war, in what the service exacts, is permitted within half-a-mile Danish (about two and a half miles English), or of guns within a quarter of a mile Danish (one and a quarter English) from the said islands. Nor is it permitted to go on shore on the uninhabited islands surrounding of near the harbour (Effersey, Akurey), without a special permission from the owner; hunting or disturbances of the breeding of the birds in these places are, accordingly to the laws concerned, punished with peculiar severity.

“5. It is prohibited to take ballast on the ground or beach belonging to the town, except in places pointed out by the Policemaster. Throwing overboard of the ballast may not at all take place on the harbour, and not in other places than such as will be pointed out by the police.

“6. Water to the use of mariners may only be taken in places pointed out by the police. As water money every vessel of the burthen of above forty tons pays for each voyage one rixdollar Danish; of less burthen, half a rixdollar.

“Given in the Police Office of Reykjavik, July 4, 1870, (Signed) A. THORSTEINSON.

“N.B.--This advertisement, which is delivered by the pilot, and from the Police Office, is made for the use of sailors. Wanting notion of it does not exempt from liability to punishment for offences, mentioned or not mentioned here, that are committed by mariners.”

[241] The “Napoleon book” (p. 364), gives a sketch of a “mine de criolithe:” one of the veins embedded in granite is eighty feet thick. Mr Walker (Peirce’s Report, p. 3) is mistaken in asserting that cryolite is found only in Greenland, but doubtless the largest known supplies are there, the development being due in great part to American (U.S.) enterprise. The natives used it only in the pulverised state--like quartz--to “lengthen out” their snuff; and similarly the “Red Indians” of the Brazil utilised their diamonds as counters. This double fluoride of sodium and aluminium, popularly called natural soda, is a mineral of ever increasing value; it is employed in the manufacture of soda and soda-salts, hydrofluoric acid, fine glass, and earthenware almost infrangible; the residue makes a flux (“Steven’s flux,” etc.) capital for the treatment of difficult metallic ores. Perhaps the chief use is in the manufacture of aluminium and its alloys, a noble metal which can be carried to white heat before it oxidises, and whose brilliancy is unaltered by sulphuretted hydrogen, water, acids, salts, and organic matter. The price till lately was about one-third that of silver, but increased cheapness has extended the use, especially in coinage and jewellery. Tenacious as silver, sonorous, easily melted and moulded, about as hard as soft iron, and one-third the weight of zinc; it is valuable for watch-cases, mirrors, spectacle-frames, opera and field glasses, hand-bells, pendulum-rods, small weights and balances, chemical apparatus, instruments of precision, and articles where lightness is required. It has also been converted into dinner services and cooking apparatus, in which, unlike tin and copper, it is absolutely harmless. The common form is _bronze d’aluminium_, with one of that metal to ten parts of copper; the tenacity of the alloy is about that of steel.

[242] This again is the popular assertion which has been strongly opposed by Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín (see note at end of Section III.). The reader, however, will observe that the patriotic Icelander confesses to the figures in the text, as matters now stand.

[243] The political sense of 120 franklins, several of which composed the English shire, is unknown to Iceland.

[244] The “Sharker,” moreover, pays a variable sum (say 24 skillings) per barrel of oil as an hospital tax, and this is now appropriated to the district physician.

[245] Compare the German Schatze and our Scot in Scot-free, Scot and Shot; Róma-skattr would be Peter’s Pence.

[246] The Icelandic word is Fógeti (low Lat. Vocatus, Germ. Vogtie, a bailiwick, hence “Landvogt” Gessler), which dates from the fourteenth century (Cleasby). It corresponds with the Fowd and Grand Fowd, chief magistrate of the Scoto-Scandinavian islands.

[247] In these pages “$” always refers to the rixdollar, which, like the Brazilian milreis, is half the milreis of Portugal or the dollar of the United States.

[248] In the plur. Aurar is supposed to be corrupted from Aurum, as the coins first known to Scandinavia were Roman and Byzantine, Saxon and English. It was applied to coinage opposed to baugr, gold or silver rings. Hence the phrase “Aurar ok óðal,” money and land. Ær or Ör was probably the name of a small coin; so the modern Swedish Öre is a coin worth less than a farthing, and the Norsk Ort (contracted from Örttog, Örtug, Ærtog, or Ertog) is the fifth part of a specie dollar (Cleasby). Upon the ancient money of Iceland the reader will consult Dr Dasent’s Burnt Njal, ii. 397.

[249] In 1872 it was not a legal tender.

[250] The German Loth and the corrupted Italian Lotto.

[251] Uno Von Troil (1770) makes the Lispund = 20 lbs. English, and adds the Vaett = 5 Lispunds, and the Kapal 12 to 15 Lispunds. Both Lispund and Bismer are now falling out of use in Iceland, where only the Danish pound is preserved. She should follow the example of Austria, and introduce the metrical system.

[252] The Danish mile is the long league; 15 being = 1° of latitude.

[253] Formerly there were only four--viz., Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 6--established by law of April 15, 1854, regulating the trade and navigation with Iceland.

[254] The following Danised names of the thirty-one privileged factories and trading places are given by Mr Vice-Consul Crowe (Report, 1865-66):

SOUTH QUADRANT.

1. Reykjavik (capital). 2. Havnefjord. 3. Keflavik. 4. Örebakke. 5. Vestmanns Islands. 6. Papö. 7. Landhussund.

NORTH QUADRANT.

8. Oefjord (called “a town”). 9. Skagerstrand. 10. Hofsós. 11. Seydafjord. 12. Husavik. 13. Ramforhavn. 14. Thorshavn. 15. Sandarok.

EAST QUADRANT.

16. Vapnafjord. 17. Seydisfjord. 18. Eskifjord. 19. Berufjord.

WEST QUADRANT.

20. Isafjord (called “a town”). 21. Stykkisholm. 22. Olafsvik. 23. Bûdenstad. 24. Bildal. 25. Dyrefjord. 26. Patriksfjord. 27. Flatey (island). 28. Reykjafjord. 29. Bordöre. 30. Straûmfjord. 31. Skeljavik.

[255] This gentleman is most obliging in giving all information about the steamer. No passport is required for Iceland.

[256] Upon these remarks Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín observes, “The case referred to is as follows: The Scotchman’s claim may have been good in point of Scotch law, but it was not in point of Icelandic law. That is the reason why the Procurators would not undertake it. He has therefore to blame the law, not the men. I know, as a fact, that both the Procurators of Reykjavik have conducted cases for foreigners, _e.g._, Messrs Henderson & Anderson against Icelanders. It would have been more questionable practice, although perhaps more lawyer-like, if they had induced the plaintiff to go on with the case, although they were sure that he would lose it. Foreigners often think they are wronged if a case, which is clear according to their own laws, breaks down according to foreign laws: Icelanders have gone through that experience in Scotland.”

[257] 1: Naturalisation is wisely made easy in Iceland. The foreigner swears allegiance, pays $2, and straightway becomes a citizen.

[258] In the secluded parts of the island fish and butter still form a currency of exceedingly variable value.

[259] No Cayenne is procurable, and those who ask for it will probably be served with curry powder in bottles, that do not suffice for a single dish, but cost one shilling.

[260] Coffee did not come into general use before the end of the eighteenth century; tea and tobacco are mentioned in the satirical poem, “Thagnarmál,” 1728, by Eggert Ólafsson, who died in 1768 (Cleasby).

[261] The Consular Report says, “1 lb. per annum for every man, woman, and child.”

[262] The Report has it that the duty of eight skillings per pot or quart has been laid upon ale, wine, and spirituous liquors, when imported in casks or hogsheads, and a duty of equal amount per one and a half pint, when imported in bottles, jars, or kegs.

[263] Iceland home-made butter is poor, white, full of hairs, and made in a way peculiarly unclean. It is mostly of ewes’ milk, that of the cow not sufficing. Travellers of course prefer the imported, but it is not always to be had at the shops. The favourite native form is “sour butter,” which, like the Ghi of Hindostan, lasts twenty years, though if salted it becomes rancid: it takes the place of salt and seasoning; it is considered to assist digestion, and it “diffuses an agreeable warmth over the stomach.” The climate demands such carbon-producing food, and “Fat have I never refused!” is a saying with the islanders.

[264] Flat fish, not being flat, is a misnomer for the sun-dried preparation which is unknown abroad, and unfit for European markets.

[265] This salt fish on the eastern coast is chiefly for home use, the catch being too late for curing, and dry weather being mostly wanting at that season.

[266] Only two pelts were sent in 1872.

[267] The merchant weighs the carcase when cold, melts the tallow, and pays a price varying according to the market, from fourteen skillings to a mark. The people have a strange idea that sheep falling into snow crevasses, and found a year or two afterwards, are naturally salted--a curious appendage to the “freezing upwards” theory.

[268] The other imports not accounted for are alum, drugs, ashes, ink, brushmakers’ work, cocoa, chocolate, ale in bottle and in cask (the latter, 11,776 lbs. in 1865), wine in bottle and cask (the latter, 23,137 lbs.), vinegar, essences, catechu and galls, indigo, dyestuffs and varnish, playing-cards, “galanterie wares,” glass ware, resin and gums, caps, stone china, pork and hams (2,480 lbs.), meat (2,279 lbs.), cork, buckwheat meal (880 lbs.), oatmeal (319 lbs.), spices (1,016 lbs.), coals (157 tons), cotton goods (62,484 lbs.), silk (11 lbs.), woollen goods (686 lbs.), block metal (786 lbs.), bar and hoop iron (63,486 lbs.), nails (23,441 lbs.), iron chain (404 lbs.), iron wares (33,770 lbs.), zinc in plates, hardware sundries (6,981 lbs.), cheese (1,736 lbs.), paper (6,210 lbs.), soap (12,225 lbs.), sago, etc. (811 lbs.), saltpetre (297 lbs.), prepared hides, and skins (4,508 lbs.), acids (309 lbs.), tea (918 lbs.), ropemakers’ work (22,770 lbs.), wood goods (14,294 cubic feet), worked woods (42,993 lbs.), vitriol (4,519 lbs.), and bar steel (1,441 lbs.).

[269] Here and there an eagle skin may be bought; and in country parts the quills of the royal bird are used as pens. The only species is the white-tailed Haliaetus (_H. albicilla_ or _F. leucocephalus_).

[270] Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín observes: “If by ‘home’ is meant the place where the songs were first made, this is undoubtedly correct, according to accepted theories; but then Norway would not then be their home any more than Iceland. On the other hand, it is indisputable that their last and only home was in Iceland, when they were nowhere else to be found. The allusions in the songs give no clue to their birthplace. You may find an Icelander of the present day singing of lions and elephants. And if they can do so now, why not in former times also?” The author would remark that the Elder Edda has evidently been preserved by memory from earlier ages, and that its origin must have been in Continental Scandinavia. It is rather the spirit of the poetry than the scattered allusions which suggests that much of it was not addressed to islanders. A comparison of the Völuspá with any Icelandic composition will explain what is here meant; and Mr Benjamin Thorpe seems to have been struck by the same idea.

[271] We find an Ulf’s-vatn in Iceland, but probably the name was given in memory of the old home, or as Úlfr was a proper name like Vuk in Slav, the first settler may have so christened it.

[272] Skáldr (Germ. Schalte) means a pole; and inasmuch as the Scald-pole (Skáld-stöng or Níð-stöng) was scored with charms and imprecations--as Martin Capella (fifth century) writes:

“Barbara fraxineis sculpatur runa tabellis;”--

so “pole” came to signify a libel. Hence Skáld may be akin to the Germ. Schelten, and the familiar English “Scold.” Afterwards it took the meaning of poetry in a good sense, and Skáldskapr (Skaldship) was applied to the form of verse, metre, flow, and diction (Cleasby). It is hardly necessary to observe that the word is of disputed origin, the five general derivations being Skalla (depilare), Skiael (wisdom = our “skill”), Skjall (narratic), Skal (sources), and Gala (to sing). “Hirðskáld” corresponds with our poet-laureate.

[273] Von Hammer counts 5744 Arabic terms for a camel.

[274] The total is 3060, but this would include the classics who have treated of Istria.

[275] Mr Lidderdale of the British Museum has lately catalogued its Icelandic books, and by another list of all those printed, shows what is wanted to perfect the national collection. The latter possesses some rare volumes which are not in the National Library of Copenhagen.

[276] The most noted of the old writers are the following: Arngrímr Jónsson published a variety of books on local subjects, Brevis Commentarius (1592), Anatome Blefkeniana (1612), Epistola Defensoria (1618), Apotribe Calumniæ (1622), Chrymogæa (1609-1630), Specimen Islandiæ (1643). In 1607 appeared the “Islandia, etc.” of Difmar Blefkens (Blefkenius). The author lived a year at “Haffnefiordt,” and then passed on to Greenland. He greatly scandalised the islanders by making them purify their skins and strengthen their gums like the Celtiberi of Strabo and Catullus, and the coquettes of rural France. In 1608, Ionr Boty printed his “Treatise of the Course from Iceland to Greenland” (Purchas, iii. 520). In 1644, La Peyrère wrote an “Account of Iceland” (Churchill, ii. 432), from which an extract has been made. In 1746, John Andersson, afterwards Burgomaster of Hamburgh, there published his “Nachrichten von Island,” which was translated into Danish and French. His statements were contradicted in 1750 by the Dane Niels Horrebow, “Tilforladeliga Efterretningar om Island med ett nytt Landkort, og 2 Aars Meteorologiska Observationer,” also translated into German and English.

The marking book of the last century was the “Introduction à l’Histoire de Dannemark,” par M. Mallet, à Copenh. 1755, 2 vols. 4to. It was reproduced in English and German. This pioneer of northern literature was born at Geneva, became French Professor at Copenhagen (1752), travelled in Norway and Sweden (1755), returned home and died (1762). The work is obsolete, but Mallet’s “Northern Antiquities,” edited by Bishop Percy, and supplemented by Mr I. A. Blackwell, would form a valuable item of Bohn’s Library (London, 1859), were it provided with a decent index, and purged of the blemishes which now dishonour it. Imagine the effect of such a note as this (p. 42): “The Himalaya, or Heavenly mountains; the Sanskrit, himala, corresponding to the M. Gothic himins; Alem. himil.... Engl., heaven.”

In 1766-67, M. de Kerguelen Tremarec voyaged over the North Sea, and published in 1772 his “Relation d’un Voyage dans la Mer du Nord.” In 1772, Uno Von Troil accompanied Sir J. Banks to Iceland, and wrote a most valuable series of twenty-five letters. They have been reproduced in many collections: the edition always referred to in these pages is the 4to of Robson, London, 1780, kindly given to the author by Mr Bernhard Quaritch. Another important book is that of Eggert Olafsson and Biarní Pállsson (usually Danised to Olafsen and Povelsen), “Reise igienem Island, with Zoega’s Botanical Observations,” 2 vols., Soroe, 1772, 4to; it was translated into German and into French, and a compendium of it, given in English, was largely quoted by Henderson. In 1772, Bishop Finn Jónsson (Finnus Johannæus), the learned author of the “Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ (vols. 3, Hafn., now very rare), treated of the “depopulation of Iceland by cold, volcanic eruptions, and famine.” Guðbrandus Thorlacius, Bishop of Hólar, also wrote a “Letter concerning the Ancient State of the Island.” In 1789, Mr (afterwards Sir) John Stanley addressed two “Letters” to Dr Black, which were printed in the “Transactions of the Koyal Society of Edinburgh.”

The various collections of “Voyages and Travels” contain many interesting notices of Iceland. The “Scoprimento dell’ Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engroenlanda, Estotilanda, and Icarea, fatto per due fratelli, M. Nicolò il Caualiere et M. Antonio, Libro Vno, col disegno di dette Isole,” appears in Ramusio, vol. ii.; in Purchas, iii.; and in Hakluyt, iii. Hakluyt, i., gives “King Arthur’s Voyage to Iceland” (A.D. 517), and King Malgo’s conquest (A.D. 580), by “Galfridus Monumentensis.” Also “A Briefe Commentary of the True State of Island” (or Iseland, both used indiscriminately), by Jonas Arngrim. Volume iii. reprints “A Voyage of the ships ‘Sunshine’ and ‘North Starre’ (of the fleet of Mr John Davis), to discover a Passage between Groenland and Iseland” (A.D. 1586). J. Harris (Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca; or, a Compleat Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1705 and 1748), in book ii., chap. ii., sec. 30, p. 489, et seq. (edition 1748), offers “A Voyage to the North, containing an Account of the Sea Coasts and Rivers of Norway ... and Iceland, etc.” (circa 1605), “extracted from the Journal of a Gentleman employed by the North Sea Company at Copenhagen.” “A Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels,” published by Sir R. Phillips (London, 1805), reprints (vol. ii.) “Travels in Iceland, performed by order of His Danish Majesty, etc., by Messrs Olafsen and Povelsen” (the Olafsson and Pállsson before alluded to), translated from the Danish, map and four plates. Kerr (“A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, etc.,” 1811-24) has a chapter (vol. i., sec. I, p. 4, et seq.) on the Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the ninth century about A.D. 861. J. Laharpe (vol. xvi.) quotes Horrebow (1750), Anderson (1746), Jonas Arngrim, and “Flocco, a Norwegian pirate.” The “Allgemeine Historie der Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande,” etc., Leipzig, 1769 (pp. 1-63, map and plate), contains “Besondere Geschichte von Island.”

[277] In 1837 appeared the first southern attempt at a novel upon hyperborean subjects--“Han d’Islande,” which Jules Janin (Les Catacombes, i. 102) described as “Cette vive, passionée et grossière ébauche d’un homme qui avait Notre Dame de Paris dans la tête et les Orientales dans le cœur.” The great author’s mind must have been very young when he wrote it. This silly and childish farrago bears the same relation to “Notre Dame” as “Titus Andronicus” to the “Tempest” or to “Othello.” Han is an impossible savage, ever with a _tempête sous un crâne_. Ordener is a ridiculous Timon, and the sudden conversion of Schuhmacher to absurd benevolence is worthy of caricature-loving Dickens. With the exception of a few striking remarks, it shows more of fury and frenzy than of fine wit. It forcibly calls to mind the late Prosper Merimée’s harsh judgment of M. Victor Hugo as a poet: “He is all imagery. There is neither matter, nor solidity, nor common sense in his verse; he is a man who gets drunk on his own words, and who no longer takes the trouble of thinking.” And Han d’Islande explains how the austere old littérateur detected a vein of insanity in the greatest poet of the French Revival, the Romantic School which dates from 1830.

Nor amongst travellers can we reckon M. Jules Verne’s “Voyage au Centre de la Terre,” the least meritorious of the “terribly thrilling” and marvellously impossible series; its scene is chiefly below “Sneffles” (Snæfelljökull), a sniffling disguise, which seems to have been, but is not, invented in jest.

[278] M. Robert was the mineralogist, geologist, and botanist of the expedition; he received special directions from M. Adolphe Brogniart (Professor of Botany in the Museum of Natural History, Paris); he traversed the greater part of the island in 1835-36, and at his request Hr Vahl, a Danish botanist, who had lived long in Greenland, revised the published lists, especially Hooker’s, and drew up a fresh list, corrected to 1840. Since that time, Iceland has been visited by Mr Babington of Cambridge (1846), who also made collections. For others, see Section VII.

[279] The writer could have learned this only from Iceland information, and he should have been more cautious in listening to the islanders, especially when they were criticising what they consider a hostile book. On the other hand, Madame Pfeiffer has left an impression upon the reader that the clergy take money from travellers--which is certainly not the case now, and probably never was general.

[280] Amongst Icelandic travels we cannot include the valuable commercial papers, often alluded to in these pages--(1.) by Mr Vice-Consul Crowe, “Report on the Fisheries, Trade, and General Features of Iceland, for the years 1865-66;” and (2.) by Mr Consul Crowe, “On the Trade and Fisheries of Iceland, for the years 1870-71.” It is evident that the able author has not been in Iceland or he would not say “the _schools_ are excellent and well attended,” when there are absolutely no schools. It is to be regretted that the Foreign Office does not enable writers to correct their proof-sheets; we should then not have in a single page such blemishes as Skrid Sökler (Jöklar); Oræfa Tokull (Jökull); Odadahrann (Ódáða Hraun); and Kekjavik-cum-Keykjavik (for Reykjavik) repeated throughout the paper.

[281] Dr Hjaltalín has written many articles on sanitary matters and the natural history of Iceland, which have appeared in various periodicals, Icelandic, Danish, and English. He has also published for several years the “Heilbrigðistíðindi” (Sanitary News).

[282] Near the end of the paper we read, “Iceland was now (after union with Norway) governed as a colony;” this assertion, it is said, belongs not to the author but to the editor.

[283] Laing’s “Heimskringla” is a work of a very different kind, not translated from the original.

[284] The author can practically answer for its value. When travelling in 1872 he had only the first volume, and thus whilst tolerably acquainted with the words between A and the first half of H, he found it impossible, within given limits, to master the rest. In the “Days of Ignorance” it was necessary to learn Danish in order to use the Icelandic Dictionary. It is only to be hoped that the English-Icelandic half of the work will follow in due season, and doubtless some enterprising publisher, like Mr Trübner, will presently give us portable editions of both.

[285] Possibly a confusion with the pied crow (_C. Leucophæus_) of the Færoes. In Scandinavian mythology the raven was white, but, like the Hajar el Aswad of Mecca, it turned black in consequence of babbling and tale-bearing.

[286] He made an expedition to East Greenland in 1828-29; and his volume was translated by the late E. Gordon Macdougall, and published (London, Parker, 1837) by the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain--a most sensible step. His determination that the East Bygð was on the west coast has of late been successfully questioned by Mr R. H. Major (Ocean Highways) through the 1507 edition of Ptolemy, the map of Van Keulen (circ. A.D. 1700), and the “Chorography” of the old Greenland colony, with sailing directions for reaching it from Iceland by Ivar Bardsen, steward of the colonial bishop. Captain Graah had denied the existence of Gunnbjörn’s Skerries, and so forfeited the guidance of Ivar Bardsen. His book, however, is a valuable study of hyperborean regions generally, and especially useful as a standard of comparison between Iceland and Greenland. In the latter we find the hot springs of Onnartok depositing silicious sinter, like the Geysir and Strokkr, whilst the unfinished church of Kakortok reminds us of Færoese Kirkjubæ.