478 



FAULT FEROE ISLANDS. 



email islands arc fortunately situated, so as to pro- 

 tect the harbours of the large ones. Thrse islands 

 were first discovered by Sir Richard Hawkins 

 in 1594, or, as some say, by Captain Davis, an 

 English navigator, in 1592 ; but little was known 

 of them until Commodore Byron formally took 

 po^ession of them for his majesty George III., in 

 January, 1765, under the name of the Falkland 

 islands. They were found to abound in ducks, teal, 

 and all kinds of sea-fowl, and to afford plenty of 

 fresh water. A small English settlement formed 

 here in 1766, was destroyed in 1770 by a Spanish 

 expedition. Spain, however, finally conceded our 

 right to the islands. Latterly, the Buenos Ayrean 

 government set up a claim to them, as the Spaniards 

 had formerly used them as a prison for South Ameri- 

 can delinquents. In December, 1832, commander 

 Onslow visited Port Egmont, on West Falkland 

 island, and not finding any inhabitants, left an in- 

 scription, attached to a flag-staff, stating, " that 

 these islands had been visited by his Britannic 

 Majesty's ship Clio, for the purpose of exercising 

 the rights of sovereignty, 23d Dec. 1832." At 

 Port Louis, on East Falkland island, there was an 

 inconsiderablesettlement of Buenos Ayreans, chiefly 

 engaged in catching wild cattle, &c. for the supply 

 of such ships as occasionally touched there. With- 

 in the last few years, numerous whalers, British, 

 American, and French, have found the Falkland 

 isles a convenient station for refitting and taking in 

 supplies. 



FAULT; a term used by miners and geologists, 

 to express the sudden interruption of a vein or 

 strata, and this may be caused by a fissure of the 

 mass of strata, and a consequent elevation of one 

 side, and depression of the other, or it may be by 

 the intervention of a mass of igneous rock called a 

 dyke, which may vary in thickness from a few 

 inches or a few feet, to many hundred yards. 

 Dykes of trap rocks are those most commonly 

 found traversing the sedimentary strata, and to 

 their intrusion is owing the dislocations, and irregu- 

 larities of the coal seams, a source of such frequent 

 annoyance to miners. 



FAVERSHAM; a seaport-town in the county 

 of Kent, situated opposite the south corner of the 

 isle of Shepey, nine miles west from Canterbury, 

 and forty-seven east from London. It is a place 

 of great antiquity, and consists of four principal 

 streets forming an irregular cross. It carries on a 

 considerable trade in corn, hops, fruits, wool, &c. 

 with the London market. The principal manu- 

 facture is that of gunpowder, for which the town 

 has been famous since the time of Elizabeth, and 

 from which it has suffered several times by explo- 

 sions. There is a large oyster-fishery here. Popu- 

 lation in 1841, 4621. 



FERMOY; a town in the county of Cork, Ire- 

 land, situated on the river Black water, seventeen 

 miles N. by E. from Cork, and 108 S.W. from 

 Dublin. The town is regularly built, and consists 

 of several broad and handsome streets. It was 

 planned and erected by the late John Anderson, 

 Esq., whose name is associated with the first intro- 

 duction of mail-coaches into Ireland. He converted 

 a mean village, which it was at the close of the 

 last century, into a large, handsome, and convenient 

 town, and he lived to see it attain a character as a 

 place of manufacture and of trade, and become the 

 chief military station in the south of the kingdom. 

 The public buildings are erected from regular and 

 architectural designs. The church, designed by 



Mr Hargrave, is much admired. Here are also a 

 Roman Catholic chapel, meeting-houses of disaen- 

 trrs, ii spacious market-hoiiM-, and extensive bar- 

 racks for cavalry, infantry, and artillery. The bar- 

 racks, erected in 1806 and 1809, are calculated to 

 accommodate about 3000 men. Flour-mills, a paper 

 mill, breweries of beer and ale, manufactories of 

 soap and candles, and of various other necessaries, 

 are established here. Population of town in 1841, 

 6379; of parish, including town, 7513. 



FEROE ISLANDS ; a group of islands in the 

 North sea, lying between the latitudes of 01 15' 

 and 62 21', at almost equal distances from Iceland, 

 Orkney, and Norway. They are in number twenty- 

 two, seventeen of which are inhabited, and they 

 extend altogether sixty-seven miles in length from 

 north to south, and forty-five in breadth from east 

 to west. They consist of steep roeks, the bases of 

 which are separated by narrow and shallow channels 

 of the sea, and whose sides, for the most part, form 

 precipices, from two to three hundred fathoms high. 

 Within these iron-bound coasts there are no val- 

 leys of any extent ; but a few narrow dales, broken 

 and craggy, are found between their summits, where 

 the energies of man are hardly taxed to win a 

 scanty supply from the soil, which never exceeds 

 four feet, and is frequently not more than eight 

 inches in depth. This soil, moreover, is often 

 swept away by the winds of the north, that in a 

 moment can destroy the labour and improvement 

 of years. These winds descend from the lofty hills 

 to the shore, impelling large stones, and rolling 

 them forward like balls ; at times even tearing the 

 turf from the sides of the hills, rolling it together 

 like a sheet of lead, and precipitating it into the 

 valleys. To hinder the roofs of their houses from 

 being blosvn away, the poor Feroese are obliged to 

 place boards upon them, arid to throw ropes over 

 them, the ends of which are fastened to heavy 

 stones. Another dreadful enemy they have to con- 

 tend with, is the voracious rat. These animals are 

 so numerous, that they will sometimes destroy half 

 a corn-field in a single night, and when they get at 

 the sea-fowl in the crannies of the rocks, they 

 commit such havoc that the bold fowler, who 

 pursues his avocation at the risk of his neck, finds 

 little left to reward his pains and perils. In one 

 island, the church-path, which is the best and often 

 the only road, is so steep and narrow that at fune- 

 rals the corpse is fastened to a board and carried 

 upon men's shoulders. At another island, when 

 the clergyman comes to visit them, which he does 

 on Sundays as often as the weather and the sea will 

 allow, they hoist him up the lofty steep cliffs, from 

 his boat, by a rope, there being no other possible 

 means of landing. Yet in spite of these manifold 

 difficulties and horrors, (accordingto Landt, a Danish 

 pastor who resided among them many years and 

 who wrote an admirable account of these islands,) 

 the Feroese are a virtuous, a civilized, and a happy 

 people. Though obliged to struggle hard for their 

 subsistence, which is mainly procured by the peril- 

 ous occupations of fishing in their dark and stormy 

 northern seas, and fowling among their giddy precipi- 

 ces, they all find time to acquire reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic. They are of an extremely peace- 

 able dispositior ; hospitable according to their 

 means ; kind and benevolent. They are strictly 

 honest in their dealings with each other, and humane 

 and compassionate towards strangers. 



The population of these islands amounted, ac- 

 cording to a census taken in 1812, to 5209. The 



