176 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
very rapidly, which is not the case with the other. 
The quantity of live down requisite for an average- 
sized quilt is from two and a half to three pounds, 
which may with ease be so compressed as to be con- 
tained in a common-sized hat. If more be used, the 
object is defeated, as the down then becomes lumpy, 
and collects in the middle. Twenty-five years ago, 
it was no uncommon thing for small vessels to bring 
from five thousand to six thousand pounds of eider- 
down from Spitzbergen to Hammerfest, in Lapland, 
chiefly, it is true, of an inferior quality, and that by no 
means improved by lying in the hold for a month or 
six weeks. 
During the latter part of the last century, Iceland 
alone used to export to Denmark from two hundred to 
three hundred pounds of cleaned down, and from fifteen 
thousand to twenty thousand pounds uncleaned. The 
birds have, however, been exposed to such unfair treat- 
ment in that island, spite of the laudable endeavours 
that many individuals have made to propagate the 
species, and the protective measures adopted by the 
Danish government, that they have very considerably 
decreased in numbers; for not only have the nests been 
robbed of their eggs and down two or three times 
during the hatching season, but the birds themselves 
have been shot in a merciless manner, as well for the 
sake of their feathers as for the flesh. or instance, if 
