230 ACCOUNT OF THE MINERALOGY 



travellers, by enabling them to profit by our experience, and 

 by removing the difficulty we encountered in procuring infor- 

 mation, regarding the objects calculated to gratify curiosity, 

 or assist us in our investigations, which neither of the ac- 

 rx)unts of Faroe published are capable of doing *. 



In the following pages, 1 shall take notice of the objects 

 most deserving of attention, and particularly note the locali- 

 ties where minerals are to be found ; and conclude with a few 

 observations on the geology of the islands. 



To this I shall not attempt to add a description of the inha- 

 bitants, their mode of life, or their means of subsistence, al- 

 though all are peculiar, and all interesting. It would be teme- 

 rity to attempt it on an acquaintance of five weeks, although 

 that time was sufficient to satisfy us, that they are a people in 

 all respects honest, industrious, and hardworking, who earn 

 their scanty livelihood with more labour than perhaps any 

 other set of human beings, while nothing but patience and 

 contentment appears to prevail among them. 



In our voyage to Faroe, we were extremely fortunate ; al- 

 though the weather was boisterous, the wind was fair and stea- 

 dy, so that we cast anchor at Thorshavn exactly in sixty hours 

 after passing the Isle of May, — a run of about five hundred 

 miles. When we first made the land, the atmosphere was so 

 thick, that it was some time before we discovered the island we 

 were approaching to be the Lesser Dimon, situated between 

 Suderoe and Sandoe. The form of this rock is similar to that 

 of Ailsa ; it gave us a glimpse of the trap country we were go- 

 ing to ransack, and as we approached our anchorage, other 

 magnificent cliffs successively displayed themselves, affording 

 some idea of the grand scenery we were about to visit. 



Having- 



« The only publications on the Faroe Islands are those of Debis and Landt. 

 The former appeared in 1670, the latter in 1800. 



