NOTES ON TRAVEL 237 



=4.0. It had been found that morning and had been packed, 

 but the overseer opened his box to show it us. ... We had a 

 long tramp back and arrived nearly starved at the village, except 

 for a glass of milk (mjolk) from a girl, surrounded by her brothers 

 and sisters, 8 in all, at a little farm hut. The natives aren't 

 pretty, but they are good-humoured looking. I took some 

 samples of rock from the neighbourhood of the mine, lest per- 

 chance it might contain helium. 



The head man, Karl Gubelius, was introduced to me and made 

 several pretty speeches in Icelandic. To which I did my best 

 to answer in Danish. That is the court language here." 



Calling at several places on the way north, the steamer 

 put in to Voporifjord on the north coast, a little town 

 more picturesque than the others. While some of the 

 party went ashore here to attend a wedding, Ramsay 

 had a little adventure of his own. " The captain of 

 one of the French fishing boats came on board wanting 

 if possible to get letters." Here Ramsay was able to 

 help by interpreting for him, and the captain invited 

 him to visit his ship. 



"The schooner is, I should think, about 200 tons. The 

 cabin is a wee place lined up with six bunks and rather dirty, 

 and the crew looks savage enough ; but they were very polite. 

 I procured a handful of cigars from the steward as a tip and 

 they were very acceptable. We drank each other's health in 

 a deep red liqueur. He tells me that he will have made about 

 200 by his adventures this summer from March till now and it 

 has not been a very good year. One of the schooners, he says, 

 has made 25,000 fr. They carry provisions and salt in their 

 barrels, and when they are empty they fill them with salt, which 

 is carried in the hold, and salt their fish, which is then packed 

 in the hold. They had a bad storm and had the roof of their 



