Pea eb | A ON AD, 
mous height, of a flender conic form * ; but which, for want of the fii: at 
top, gave place in elegance to the tafte Ae the Icelandic fair. 
Mr. Troil awakens our curiofity about the Jcelandic antiquities; fpeaks of 
caftles, and heathen temples, and burying-places, and upright ftones, and mounts. 
OF the firft I am folicitous to gain fome further knowlege, for poflibly they 
might dire€t to the origin of the round buildings in the Hebrides, Orknies, Schet- 
land, and the north of Scotland +: others feem to me the various Scandinavian 
antiquities, admirably exemplified in Baron Dahlberg’s Suecta Antiqua ct Moderna. 
The fpecies of quadrupeds of this (ifland are very few. Small horfes of a 
hardy kind; cows in great abundance, and moftly hornlefs, the fefh and hides 
of which are confiderable articles of exportation. Sheep are met with in great 
flocks in every farm; the wool is manufactured at home, the meat falted, and, 
with the fkins, much of it is fold to the Company, at the twenty-two ports al+ 
lotted for the purpofes of traffic. It is remarkable, that the climate difpofes their 
horns to grow very large, and even to exceed the number of thofe of the fheep 
of other countries; examples of three, four, and five, being extremely frequent: 
Goats and fwine are very fcarce; the firft, for want of fhrubs to brouze, the laft 
through deficiency of their ufual food, and the fupply which the farm-yards of 
other countries afford. 
The dogs are fharp-nofed, have fhort and fharp upright cars, bufhy tails, 
and are full of hair. Here are domeftic cats; Sut numbers are grown wild, 
and multiply among the rocks, fo as to become noxious. The reader need not be 
reminded, that thefe, and every fpecies of domeftic animals, were originally in- 
troduced into Iceland by the Norwegians. 
,An attempt has been made to introduce the Rein Deer, Aré. Zool. N° 4 
Thofe which furvived the voyage have bred frequently. There can be ee 
doubt of their fucceeding, as Iceland has, in common with Lapland, moft of the 
plants for their fummer food {, and abundance of the Rein Deer lichen for 
their winter provifion. 
Rats and Mice feem to have been involuntarily tranfported. Both the domeftic 
fpecies are found here ; and the white variety of the Moufe, called inthe Jcelandic, 
Skogar Mys, is common in the bufhes. I fufpe& that there is a native ae 
allied, as Doctor PaLLas imagines, to the GXconomic, Aré?. Zool. p. 134, A. ; for, 
like that, itlays in a great magazine of berries by way of winter-ftores. “This 
fpecies }s particularly plentiful in the wood of Hu/afels. In a country where 
* Monfaucon Monum. de la Monarchie Fr. ii. tab. xlii. + Voy. Hebrides. } Confer. 
Olaffen. ii. 234. and Ameen. Acad. iv, 151. : 
gz berries 
XLIX 
Domesric Qua- 
DRUPEDS. 
Rats. 
