62 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chai\ n, 



to get along some of the principal ' streets.' Above 

 the town a little clearing forms a miniature lawn 

 and garden gay with bright flowers in front of the 

 Governor's house, a pretty wooden cottage residence 

 like a villa in a suburb of one of the Scandinavian 

 towns. 



Eseroe, with its wet sunless climate and precarious 

 crops of barley; its turf-thatched cottages and quiet 

 little churches ; its glorious cliffs and headlands and 

 picturesque islets, the haunt of the eider-duck and 

 the puffin; and its hardy, friendly islanders, with their 

 quaint, simple, semi- Icelandic semi-Danish customs, 

 has been described again and again. Eseroe only came 

 to us as a pleasant haven of rest in the middle of our 

 northern work. We paid it two visits of a week each 

 in successive years, and one of the most pleasant 

 memories in the minds of all of us connected with 

 these expeditions will always be the cordial sympathy 

 which we received from our friend M. Holten the 

 Danish Governor, and his accomplished wife. M. 

 Holten received us with the most friendly hospitality, 

 and did everything in his power at all times to render 

 us assistance and to further our views. He introduced 

 us to the leading inhabitants of his dominion, and 

 during the many pleasant evenings which we spent 

 at his residence we heard all that we could of the 

 economy of this simple little community, perhaps the 

 most primitive and the most isolated in Europe. To 

 Governor Holten I have already had the pleasure of 

 dedicating a singularly beautiful sponge-form which 

 we discovered during our return voyage ; and to 

 Madame Holten, to whose graceful pencil I am in- 

 debted for the vignettes of Fseroe scenerv which so 



