HAWKING. 151 



caught by persons who arc licensed, and are native 

 Icelanders. About midsummer, these catchers bring 



7 O 



their birds, on horseback, holding a pole, with 

 another fixed across it, on which ten or twelve sit 

 all capped, that is, with their heads covered with 

 caps or hoods. This pole is held in their hand, and 

 rested on the stirrup. The falconer examines them 

 very carefully, and returning those that are of an 

 inferior sort, sends off the best to Denmark. During 

 the voyage, they arc arranged between the decks, 

 tied to poles, two rows of a side ; these poles are 

 covered with coarse cloth over a stuffing of straw, 

 and lines are strung from one side to the other, 

 pretty close, that they may have something to catch 

 hold of in case of the ship's rolling. The catchers 

 receive a written testimony of their respective good 

 qualities, by virtue of which, they are paid by the 

 king's receiver-general, about three pounds for the 

 best, which are white ; about two pounds for the 

 second best, and from eight to ten shillings for the 

 remainder : latterly the prices have been raised, but 

 in former days, when they received rather more, 

 and money was not so plentiful, this price may be 

 considered as very great. But this price is nothing 

 in comparison with the sums quoted by historians, 

 as given about 200 years ago in England, when a 

 Goshawk, a bird far inferior to these Iceland Hawks, 

 was sold for one hundred marks, or nearly seventy 

 pounds sterling. It is further said that a certain 

 Sir Thomas Monson, about that period, gave no less 

 than a thousand pounds for a cast of Hawks, con- 

 sisting of two birds. 



In the Orkney Islands, a little to the north of 



