THE WESTMAN ISLANDS. 



117 



their fishing-boats from putting to sea, they depend in 'a great measure for 

 their subsistence upon the sea-birds, in whose capture they exhibit wonderful 

 courage and skill. In the egg-season they go to the top of the cliff, and, put- 

 ting a rope round a man's waist, let him down the side of the perpendicular 

 rock, one, two, or three hundred feet ; on arriving at the long, narrow, hori- 

 zontal shelves, he proceeds to fill a large bag with the brittle treasures depos- 

 ited by the birds. When his bag is full, he and his eggs are drawn to the top 

 by his companions. If the rope breaks, or is cut off by the sharp corners of 

 the rock, which, however, happens but seldom, nothing can save the luckless 

 fowler, who is either precipitated into the sea, or dashed to pieces on the 

 rocks below. 



HOME OF SEA-BIRDS. 



At a later period in the season they go and get the young birds, and then 

 they have often desperate battles with the old ones, who will not give up fight- 

 ing for their offspring till their necks are broken, or their brains knocked out 

 with a club. Where the cliffs are not accessible from the top, they go round 

 the bottom in boats, and show a wonderful agility and daring in scaling the 

 most terrible precipices. 



In summer they get the eggs and the fresh meat of the young birds, which 

 they also salt for the winter. The feathers form their chief article of export, 

 besides dried and salted codfish, and with these they procure their few nec- 

 essaries and luxuries, consisting principally of clothing, tobacco and snuff, spir- 

 its, fish-hooks and lines, and salt. As there is no peat on these islands, nor 

 dried fish-bones in sufficient quantity, they also make use of the tough old 

 sea-birds as fuel. For this purpose they split them open, and dry them on the 

 rocks. 



The Westmans form a separate Syssel, or county, and they have a church, 

 and usually two clergymen. Their church was rebuilt of stone, at the expense 

 of the Danish Government, in 1774, and is said to be one of the best in Iceland. 



