Chapter 21

[224]See Section VI.[225]The author’s statement made in theStandardfound objectors. Hr E. Magnússon impudently contradicted what he termed acontradictio 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 theScotsman. 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 latitudesPhocæandManatisdevour 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’clockA.M.to 8 o’clockP.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 isbronze 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. albicillaorF. 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 aboutA.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 atempête 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 “theschoolsare 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.[287]The fact is, it has become a party question. Hence strangers who, like Dr W. Lander Lindsay (p. 7, “On the Eruption, in May 1860, of the Kötlu-gjá Volcano, Iceland”), are otherwise employed than in making general inquiries, ignore the basis. When this greatopuswas printed (1844), few countries in Europe had charts on such a scale, so accurately detailed, and so well engraved. Even at present it wants only the names of places being made more legible; it is still the standard work, for which seamen and landsmen have reason to be grateful, and it forms a solid foundation for future addition to all time. Mr Thorne (Ramsdale, Thorne, & Co.) kindly lent his copy to the author, who ungratefully kept it nearly three years.

[224]See Section VI.

[225]The author’s statement made in theStandardfound objectors. Hr E. Magnússon impudently contradicted what he termed acontradictio 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 theScotsman. 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.

[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 latitudesPhocæandManatisdevour 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.

[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.

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’clockA.M.to 8 o’clockP.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.”

[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’clockA.M.to 8 o’clockP.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 isbronze 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.

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

[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. albicillaorF. 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.

[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 aboutA.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.”

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 aboutA.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 atempête 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.

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 “theschoolsare 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.

[287]The fact is, it has become a party question. Hence strangers who, like Dr W. Lander Lindsay (p. 7, “On the Eruption, in May 1860, of the Kötlu-gjá Volcano, Iceland”), are otherwise employed than in making general inquiries, ignore the basis. When this greatopuswas printed (1844), few countries in Europe had charts on such a scale, so accurately detailed, and so well engraved. Even at present it wants only the names of places being made more legible; it is still the standard work, for which seamen and landsmen have reason to be grateful, and it forms a solid foundation for future addition to all time. Mr Thorne (Ramsdale, Thorne, & Co.) kindly lent his copy to the author, who ungratefully kept it nearly three years.

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