FEATHERS. 



479 



whole of the king's revenue amounted, in the year 

 1790, to 3172 rix-dollars. Sheep form the princi- 

 pal riches of the islands, and the number possessed 

 by them in 1312 was estimated at upwards of 

 35,000. Some individuals have flocks of 200 and 

 300. These sheep are allowed to run about both 

 in summer and winter without ever being housed. 

 The wool is in general coarse, and is torn off the 

 hide in a very rough manner. On the more basal- 

 tic islands, the grass is uncommonly fattening and 

 luxuriant. The Danish government generally as- 

 signs the monopoly of the trade of these islands to 

 some private mercantile company at Copenhagen, 

 under the condition of supplying the islanders with 

 a sufficient quantity of grain at a certain fixed price. 

 The exports consist of hose knit on the islands, to 

 the annual amount of 100,000 pairs ; tallow, fish, 

 train-oil, feathers, skins, and butter. 



Stromoe is the largest of the Feroe islands, being 

 twenty-seven miles long and seven broad, extend- 

 ing S.E. and N. W. About a dozen villages are in- 

 terspersed through it. Thorshaun is the capital, 

 and is situated on a small tongue of land on the 

 south-east of the island. It is the seat of govern- 

 ment, as well as the staple of trade ; and the resi- 

 dence of the principal civil officers, such as the com- 

 mandant, chief-justice, &c. There is here a Latin 

 school (being the only seminary, indeed, in all the 

 islands), and a neat church covered with slate. 

 The town is defended by a fort constructed on a 

 projecting rock, which was strengthened and re- 

 paired during the American war. The houses of 

 the town are almost all built of wood, and the 

 streets in general so narrow, that only one person 

 can conveniently walk through them. The town 

 contains only between 500 and 600 inhabitants. 

 There was here formerly a mart for Danish East 

 and West Indian goods, and a considerable trade 

 carried on with Scotland ; but this has almost en- 

 tirely ceased since the termination of the American 

 war. 



The Feroe islands, it is believed, were first peo- 

 pled by some Norwegians in the ninth century, who 

 retired thither from the sway of the renowned 

 Harold Harfazer, king of Norway, and supported 

 themselves, after the manner of their fathers, by 

 piracy. It is evident, however, from their lan- 

 guage, which is a corrupted mixture of old Danish, 

 Finnish, and other northern dialects, that, subse- 

 quently, these were joined by emigrants from Fin- 

 land, and other parts of Scandinavia. Magnus the 

 Good, Harold's successor, afterwards reduced these 

 islands to obedience, and they continued to belong 

 to Norway until, upon the union of the crowns, 

 they were annexed to Denmark. During the last 

 war, some British privateers landed and plundered 

 various of these islands ; but the British govern- 

 ment, on learning the circumstance, issued an order 

 of counsel, declaring that the inoffensive islanders 

 were not to be molested in consequence of the war 

 between Great Britain and Denmark. 



FEATHERS, (a.) If we had never seen the 

 covering of birds, we could have formed no con- 

 ception of anything so perfect and beautiful ; and 

 which, by uniting in the highest degree the quali- 

 ties of warmth, lightness, and least resistance to 

 the air, forms a vestment so appropriate to the life 

 which tha animal is to lead. While we observe 

 the general aspect of the feathered world, we must 

 admire the wisdom and goodness of the Deity in 

 this part of his creation ; and our admiration will 

 be increased by further examination. Every feather 



is a mechanical wonder. If we look at a quill, we 

 find two properties not easily brought together, 

 strength and lightness. There are few things more 

 remarkable than the strength and lightness of the 

 pens with which we write. If we look at the up- 

 per part of the stem, we see a material made for 

 the purpose, used in no other class of animals, and 

 in no other part of birds, tough, light, pliant, and 

 elastic. The pith, also, which feeds the feathers, 

 is unlike any other animal substance ; it is neither 

 bone, flesh, membrane, nor tendon. But the arti- 

 ficial part of a feather is the beard, or, as it a 

 sometimes called, the vane. The beards are fastened 

 on each side of the stem, and constitute the 

 breadth of the feather, and we usually strip them 

 off, from one side or both, when we make a pen. 



The separate pieces, or laminae, of which the 

 beard is composed, are called threads, sometimes 

 filaments, or rays. The first thing to be observed 

 is, how much stronger the beard of the feather 

 shows itself to be, when pressed in a direction per- 

 pendicular to its plane, than when rubbed either up 

 or down in the line of the stem ; and the struc- 

 ture which occasions this difference is, that the 

 laminae, of which these beards are composed, are 

 flat, and placed with their flat sides towards each 

 other, by which means, while they easily bend for 

 the approaching of each other, as you may perceive 

 by drawing your finger ever so lightly upwards, 

 they are much harder to bend out of their plane, as 

 that is the direction in which they have to en- 

 counter the impulse and pressure of the air, and 

 in which their strength is wanted, and put to the 

 trial. 



This is one peculiarity in the structure of a 

 feather, and a second is still more remarkable. If 

 you examine a feather, you cannot help taking no- 

 tice, that the threads, or laminae, of which we have 

 been speaking, in their natural state unite ; that 

 their union is something more than the mere oppo- 

 sition of loose surfaces ; that they are not parted 

 asunder without some degree of force ; that never- 

 theless, there is no glutinous cohesion between 

 them ; that therefore, by some mechanical means 

 or other, they catch, or clasp among themselves, 

 thereby giving to the beard, or vane, its closeness 

 and compactness of texture. Nor is this all : when 

 two laminae, which have been separated by acci- 

 dent or force, are brought together again, they im- 

 mediately reclasp; the connection, whatever it was, 

 is perfectly recovered, and the beard of the feather 

 becomes as smooth and firm as if nothing had hap- 

 pened to it. Draw your finger down the feather, 

 which is against the grain, and you break, probably, 

 the junction of some of the contiguous threads ; 

 draw your finger up the feather, and you will re- 

 store all things to their former state. 



The threads, or laminae, are interlaced with one 

 another, and the interlacing is performed by means 

 of a vast number of fibres or teeth, which the 

 laminae shoot forth on each side, and which hook 

 and grapple together. A person counted fifty of 

 these fibres, in one-twentieth of an inch. These 

 fibres are crooked but curved, after a different man- 

 ner ; for those which proceed from the thread on 

 the side towards the extremity of the feather, are 

 longer and more flexible, and bent downward there, 

 as those which proceed from the side towards the 

 beginning, or quill-end of the feather, are shorter, 

 firmer, and turn upwards. When two laminae are 

 pressed together, so that these long fibres are forced 

 far enough over the short ones, their crooked parts 



