82 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DIVERS. 



its nest.'* There is here, in my opinion, a palpable blun- 

 probably a mis- der, which must have arisen either from a mistranslation, 

 translation. or f rQm t y ie acc iJ eu t a l omission of some words. If the ori- 

 ginal were consulted, I should not be surprised to find it 

 run thus : " The ember lives constantly at sea, and is never 

 seen on the dry land," &e. That this must be the import, 

 seems evident from the rest of the account. If the ember 

 lived constantly on the dry land, in the narrow and confined 

 islands of Feroe, the nest and young of so large and re- 

 markable a bird must have been familiar to the natives; 

 yet we are told, that, " although it has been often seen 

 with grown up young, no person has ever yet found its 

 nest." It is indeed added, " As it has a large hole under 

 each wing, many have imagined, that it there hatches its 

 eggs." 

 Improbability Supposing that the eggs were really hatched in hollows 

 of the account. lln( ] er the wings, (which is too extravagant a notion to be 

 granted without complete proof) we cannot for a moment 

 believe, that the young could remain there till they were 

 ** grown up." But further, if the ember lived constantly 

 on dry land, there would evidently be no occasion at all for 

 this singularity in the manner of hatching its eggs; which, 

 on the other hand, might seem commodious, on the suppo- 

 sition that the bird lrved constantly at sea. And the opi- 

 nion, that it does live constantly at sea, has procured it 

 sometimes the striking appellation of the " herdsman of the' 

 sea." 

 Opinion of the If any confirmation be wanted, I may state, that, by the 

 Orkney and correction I have suggested, the Feroe account of the em- 

 landers, ber is brought to agree perfectly with the opinion enter- 

 tained at this day by the common people in the Orkney aud 

 Shetland islands. These, it will' be recollected, were for- 

 merly subject to the Crown of Denmark, and ultimately 

 connected with the Feroes. That the vulgar notions, there- 

 fore, prevalent in our own northern islands and in the Fe- 

 roes should coincide, is extremely natural : that they should 

 be directly contrary to each other, seems exceedingly unna- 

 tural and improbable. 

 Inquiries in In the course of visiting many of these islands in the 

 these islands. sum mer of 1S04 5 I mad<* frequent inquiries concerning the 



habits 



