VOYAGE TO SPITSBERGEN. 39 



lords, as before mentioned, make their lands sub- 

 servient to this trade, by setting them in small por- 

 tions to fishermen ; and, in order the more to pro- 

 pagate the human species for the purpose of fish- 

 ings the young men get premiums of small subdi- 

 visions of land, (though without lease,) on their 

 taking wives. The poor, who thus swallow the 

 matrimonial bait, getting more numerous families 

 than they can maintain, and having no way of sup- 

 porting themselves but by the fish which they take> 

 (and which they are obliged to sell to their land- 

 lords at a fixed price,) are often necessitated, either 

 to go on board such merchant vessels as call in 

 here, or to enter voluntarily into his Majesty's 

 navy. In many places, three or four families are 

 found on a farm which, thirty or forty years ago, 

 was possessed only by one. 



Unmarried men have another inducement to en- 

 ter into matrimony ; for when government requires 

 a number of men for the Navy, the proprietors 

 take good care to send off those who are unmar- 

 ried. By these factitious regulations, the popula- 

 tion has become superabundant, insomuch that 

 the produce of the islands does not support their 

 inhabitants more than seven or eight months in the 

 year. 



