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MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



Encyclopaedia Britannica, No. LXVIL, edited by PROFESSOR NAPIER, 



THE mode of imparting instruction through the medium of an Encyclopaedia, is 

 well calculated for those persons who are anxious to attain knowledge, but whose 

 indespensable avocations in life leave them insufficient leisure for the study of the 

 minutiae and more elaborate details of science and art. This species of publica- 

 tion, therefore, on their first introduction to general notice, experienced a rapid 

 and extensive sale : and, in consequence of the eagerness manifested by the public 

 to purchase, a considerable quantity of ill-digested surreptitious trash crept into 

 the market. However, such has been the attention paid to this eminently useful 

 description of literature by men of profound erudition and extensive attainment, 

 find the improvement resulting from their persevering and highly important labours, 

 that an Encyclopedia of the present day may be said to constitute a complete library. 

 Of this description the work before us forms an excellent, and indeed a splendid 

 specimen, equally distinguished for sound judgment and consummate ability. It 

 contains, amongst a great variety of important articles, a highly interesting account 

 of Iceland ; which, it seems, though one of the largest islands in Europe, being 

 in length, from east to west, 280 miles; and in breadth, from north to south, 

 varying from 180 to 200; enumerates a population of only 53,000. Ireland, 

 about the same extent, numbers human beings nearly in the proportion of twenty 

 to one. We give the following extract : 



" There are about 194 parishes or livings in the island ; but the clergy number 

 at least 300, as many of the parishes have two churches, the great distance and 

 the danger of travelling, particularly in winter, when the rugged fields of lava are 

 covered with snow, making it frequently impossible for all the peasantry of the 

 same parish to attend at the same church. The clergy are partly supported by a 

 species of tithes, which are mostly paid in kind. These stipends, however, are 

 extremely miserable ; the largest in the island not exceeding 185 dollars ; and the 

 average little above them, 35 dollars, or 6 sterling per annum. Nothing is there- 

 fore more common than to find the parish priest in a coarse woollen jacket and 

 trowsers, or skin boots, digging peat, mowing grass, and assisting in all the opera- 

 tions of haymaking. They are all blacksmiths from necessity, and the bestshoers 

 of horses on the island. The feet of an Iceland horse would be cut to pieces, over 

 the sharp rock and lava, if not well shod. The great resort of the peasantry is the 

 church ; and should any of the numerous horses have lost a shoe, or be likely to 

 do so, the priest puts on his apron, lights his little charcoal fire in his smithy, and 

 sets the animal on his legs again," 



Boiling springs and volcanos are numerous in Iceland, and are described in a 

 very scientific and highly interesting manner. On the subject of Zoology, we are 

 told that " Amongst the birds of the island, are the sea eagle or erne, a very 

 destructive creature among the eider ducks ; the falcon, which used formerly to 

 be a valuable item in the exports of the island ; and the raven, a large and more 

 powerful bird than those of Britain, frequently pouncing upon and carrying off 

 young lambs, and destroying poultry ; it is met with in great numbers, particu- 

 larly on the cliffs near the sea-coast. The ptarmigan snipe, golden plover, wag- 

 tail, and curlew, are well known. Water fowl of every description common to 

 northern latitudes, are met with on the coasts and in the lakes. Of these, the most 

 valuable to the inhabitants is the eider duck, which is strictly preserved, a penalty 

 of half a dollar being exigible for shooting one of these birds. From this circum- 

 stance, they become so remarkably tame, especially in the breeding season, that 



