40 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



Before the proprietors of land became so deeply en- 

 gaged in the fishing business, juvenile or premature 

 marriages were, in these islands, looked on as next 

 to a crime, because thereby the population might 

 increase to such a degree as to become ruinous and 

 oppressive to the whole community. For this rea- 

 son, a regulation was made against marriage, un- 

 less when the parties could produce evidence that 

 they possessed L.40 Scots, or L.3, 6s. 8d. Sterling. 

 This salutary law is now never enforced, to the 

 great prejudice of the whole inhabitants. It is 

 curious to observe how the principles of Mr. Mal- 

 thus accommodate themselves to, and receive illus- 

 tration from* the smallest societies.' 



The secluded inhabitants of these solitary isles 

 are very unhealthy, and seem to complain of one 

 general disorder, which is of a phthisical and scro- 

 phulous nature, the cause of which evidently seems 

 to be this : the men are exposed to intense cold at 

 the fishing, where they remain twenty-four, thirty, 

 and sometimes forty-eight hours in open boats ; get 

 their feet wet : and when they come home have but 

 very sorry cheer to accommodate themselves with ; 

 nor is their daily employment sufficiently laborious 

 to prove a healthful exercise. Hence proceed colds, 

 coughs, phthisis pulmonalis, and every thing which 



