88 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VII. 



tion, as well as for their own use during the winter. The 

 woman-kind of a family occupy themselves throughout the 

 year in washing, carding, and spinning wool, in knitting 

 gloves and stockings, and in weaving frieze and flannel for 

 their own wear. 



The ordinary food of a well-to-do Icelandic family consists 

 of dried fish, butter, sour whey kept till fermentation takes 

 place, curds, and skier — a very peculiar cheese unlike any 

 I ever tasted, — a little mutton, and rye bread. As might be 

 expected, this meagre fare is not very conducive to health ; 

 scurvy, leprosy, elephantiasis, and all cutaneous disorders, 

 are very common, while the practice of mothers to leave of! 

 nursing their children at the end of three days, feeding them 

 with cows' milk instead, results in a frightful mortality among 

 the babies. 



Land is held either in fee-simple, or let by the Crown to 

 tenants on what may almost be considered perpetual leases. 

 The rent is calculated partly on the number of acres occu- 

 pied, partly on the head of cattle the farm is fit to support, 

 and is paid in kind, either in fish or farm produce. Tenants 

 in easy circumstances generally employ two or three labourers, 

 who — in addition to their board and lodging — receive from 

 ten to twelve dollars a year of wages. No property can be 

 entailed, and if any one dies intestate, what he leaves is 

 distributed among his children — in equal shares to the sons, 

 in half shares to the daughters. 



The public revenue arising from Crown lands, commercial 

 charges, and a small tax on the transference of property, 

 amounts to about 3,000/, ; the expenditure for education, 

 officers' salaries (the Governor has about 400/. a year), 

 ecclesiastical establishments, etc., exceeds 6,000/. a year ; so 

 that the island is certainly not a self-supporting institution. 



The clergy are paid by tithes ; their stipends are exceed- 

 ingly small, generally not averaging more than six or seven 

 pounds sterling per annum ; their chief dependence being 

 upon their farms. Like St. Dunstan, they are invariably 

 excellent blacksmiths. 



