19 



Besides the large Coal-fish fishery, which takes place here 

 in the summer, the island has economically speaking, two glories. 

 If one lands here on a beautiful spring-like day in June, almost 

 the entire surface will be white with the large corollae of the 

 cloud-berry (Rubus chamamorus).* And when autumn comes, 

 these millions of plants will bear their large yellowish-red berries, 

 which can hardly anywhere else reach a more luxuriant develop- 

 ment than in favourable years they do here. 



The second glory of the island is its supply of eggs and 

 down. This island is the nesting-place of one of the largest 

 colonies of Eider Ducks in the country ; and as soon as the 

 ducks have settled under the small tussocks of ling, or between 

 the crevices in the layers of peat, the valuable down is stripped 

 (as a rule only once) from each nest; and when the "down-har- 

 vest," is complete, the proceeds fill an entire room up to a man's 

 height. As the island belongs to the jurisdiction of the chief 

 magistratef of Finmarken, the lessee, who is its only inhabi- 

 tant, must deliver annually two casks:}: of cloud-berries and 48 

 kilograms of thoroughly-cleaned down, out of the produce. 



The island is therefore strictly watched during the breeding- 

 season, for there are many poachers among the more vagrant 

 fishermen and Laplanders, and no one is allowed to set foot on 

 it before the young Eiders have taken to the sea. 



Numberless gulls, belonging both to the black-backed (Larus 

 marinus and L. fuscus), and to the blue-backed species (L. argen- 

 tatus and L. canus), nest in colonies all over the island, each 

 species commonly occupying a space to itself, in which none of 

 the others occur. Hard by there breed a considerable number 

 of Grey-lag Geese (Ansev cineveus], but the two remaining 

 species of Wild Geese (the Bean Goose, A. segettim, and the 

 Lesser White-fronted Goose, A. erythroptts), belong to the inland 

 parts of the country. These gulls and geese supply the tenant 

 with many thousands of eggs annually. 



Among all these swarms of birds there breed numerous other 

 species, which enjoy the advantage of the quiet which prevails 



* It is impossible for anyone unacquainted with Norway to understand the 

 extreme appreciation in which these berries are there held. Transl. 



t Amtmand. \ Tender, see foot-note, p. 7. 3 qrs. 21 Ibs. 13^ oz. 



