39J^ Mr. H. Durnford on North-Frisian Ornithology. 



selves of it. We drove from Dagebiill to Husum by road, 

 andj after collecting our impedimenta, retraced our journey 

 to Hamburg. We met with invariable kindness and civility 

 from the natives, whose chief desire is to afford the visitor 

 every help in their power. 



Many of the islands have " Vogelkojen/^ which are in every 

 respect like our decoy-ponds in England, and in which, during 

 the winter, large quantities of Ducks are taken. On the only 

 one we examined closely, on Sylt, some twenty or thirty 

 pinioned Wild Ducks, Teal, and Wigeon were quietly reposing. 

 Travelling through the islands generally has to be performed 

 on foot, as roads only exist between the principal villages, 

 and they are usually what we should call cart-tracks in Eng- 

 land. The horses are powerful, well-fed animals ; but the ve- 

 hicles they have to draw are, to the untutored foreigner, veri- 

 table instruments of torture. In shape they somewhat re- 

 semble our ordinary English hay-waggons, but are very narrow 

 at the bottom, with sides rapidly sloping outwards. The tra- 

 veller takes his seat on a wooden plank placed across the 

 waggon, while the driver sits on another plank in front. It 

 is quite impossible to find a comfortable position ; and the 

 amount of jolting and shaking one has to submit to can 

 scarcely be imagined, especially as the vehicle has not the 

 slightest apology for springs. The native boats are usually flat- 

 bottomed, which, as the coast is extremely flat, and channels 

 narrow and, owing to the number of sandbanks, difl&cult of navi- 

 gation, is very necessary. This remark does not apply to the 

 fishing-boats, in which the fishermen are often out at sea three 

 or four days at a time, but to the boats which are used for con- 

 veying farm-produce, stock, &c. from one island to another, or 

 to the mainland ; all we saw were cutter-rigged. The inha- 

 bitants are excellent sailors ; and, as the population is chiefly 

 composed of men who have spent a greater or less portion of 

 their lives on the sea, we were seldom at a loss to find some one 

 who could converse in English. The women do a great deal of 

 out-door work. While we were at List the farmer took ad- 

 vantage of the fine warm weather to shear his sheep, and im- 

 pressed many girls from the nearest village into his service. 



