ICELAND. 



81 



ICELANDIC HORSES. 



but no attempts have been made to tame them : for, though iudisiiensable to the 

 Laplander, they are quite superfluous in Iceland, which is too rugged and too 

 much intersected by streams to admit of sledging. They are, in fact, generally 

 considered as a nuisance, as they eat away the Icelandic moss, which the island- 

 ers would willingly keep for their own use. 



The Polar bear is but a casual visitor in Iceland. About a dozen come 

 drifting every year with the ice from Jan Mayen, or Spitzbergen, to the north- 

 ern shores. Ravenous with hunger, they immediately attack the first herds 

 they meet with ; but their ravages do not last long, for the neighborhood, aris- 

 ing in arms, soon puts an end to their existence. 



In Iceland the ornithologist finds a rich field for his favorite study, as there 

 are no less than eighty-two different species of indigenous birds, besides twenty- 

 one that are only casual visitors, and six that have been introduced by man. 



The swampy grounds in the interior of the country are peopled with legions 

 of golden and king plovers, of snipes and red-shanks ; the lakes abound with 

 swans, ducks, and g^se of various kinds ; the snow-bunting enlivens the soli- 

 tude of the rocky wilderness with his lively note, and, wherever grass grows, 

 the common pipit {Atithzis pratensis) builds its neat little nest, well lined A^•ith 

 horsehair. Like the lark, he rises singing from the gi'ound, and frequently 

 surprises the traveller with his melodious warbling, which sounds doubly sweet 

 in the lifeless waste. 



The eider-duck holds the fii'st rank among the useful birds of Iceland. Its 

 chief breeding-places are small flat islands on various parts of the coast, where 

 it is safe from the attacks of the Arctic fox, such as Akurey, Flatey, and Videy, 



