298 Messrs Marshall and Annandale, 



certain, that the original stock from which the Icelandic and 

 Faroe ponies came was imported partly from Norway and 

 partly from the Hebrides and Ireland, but the probable pro- 

 portion from the first of these sources is lessened by the fact that 

 many of the colonists of the second batch paid long visits to the 

 Hebrides on their way north-west. The effective settlement of 

 the Norse islands and districts of North- Western Europe only 

 took place, except in the case of Iceland, after much bloodshed 

 and confusion, but in Iceland it was peaceful ; for Harald Fairhair, 

 King of Norway, who fought and defeated his rebellious or 

 fugitive vassals in the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, 

 and perhaps the Faroes, went no further north, so that there 

 was less chance of the breeds of domestic animals, including the 

 horses, being exterminated or neglected during the colonisation 

 of Iceland than was the case elsewhere in the Scandinavian 

 settlements. Iceland has been more or less cut off from the rest 

 of Europe since the twelfth or thirteenth century, and it is 

 improbable that any foreign blood was introduced among the 

 ponies until the second half of the nineteenth. During the 

 interval they had been used merely as beasts of burden and as 

 riding horses, and as late as 1806 (4) they do not appear to have 

 been considered as possible objects of export trade. The following 

 statistics, taken from Mackenzie's Travels in the Island of Iceland, 

 show that they were formerly, as this author remarks, of less 

 importance than horned cattle : — 



Number of horses, horned cattle, and sheep at different dates 

 in Iceland : 



Date Cattle Horses Sheep 



1703 35,860 26,909 279,812 



1783 21,457 36,408 — 



1804 20,325 26,524 218,818 



In 1896, according to Daniel Bruun (5), the number of horses 

 was 43,235, giving an average of 400 for every thousand of the 

 population. It is probable that they have increased considerably 

 since that date. 



In 1868 an English firm commenced to export ponies from 

 Iceland to Great Britain, and for many years sent over from 

 800 to 1,000 annually. Attempts have lately been made to 

 improve the breed by the introduction of Norwegian stallions, 

 but it is probable that the majority of the animals used for stud 

 purposes are still of pure Icelandic blood. In any case, it is not 

 desired to depart greatly from the established type as regards size, 

 as it is a small breed which is wanted in the Cumberland coal- 

 mines, to which most of the Icelandic ponies imported into 

 Great Britain, by far the largest market, are dispatched. The 



