The Horse in Iceland and the Faroes. 299 



larger and finer specimens of the breed are sometimes sent to 

 Denmark, but there appears to be little demand for them, and it 

 is probable that they have become much scarcer since horse- 

 fighting, once a favourite amusement of the Icelanders, was 

 abolished. From enquiries in Reykjavik (1900) it appeared that 

 there was then little demand for them except among the com- 

 paratively rich people of that town. 



The history of the Faroe ponies has been similar to that of 

 the Icelandic breed, except that they have been even more neglected 

 and have never had the same importance where the distances are 

 so much shorter. They do not appear to be even mentioned in 

 the Faereyinga Saga, (3), an early Icelandic account of the history 

 of the Faroes, and Grossman (6), who visited the islands in 1895, 

 saw only two individuals. One of us saw few more in journeys to 

 different parts of the island of Stromoe in 1896, 1897, and 1898, 

 but they appeared to be distinctly less scarce in 1900 and 1903. 

 We were told that there were more in the island of Sandoe 

 than elsewhere in the group. Bruun gives the following statistics 

 for the Faroes : — 



Year Cattle Sheep Horses 



1893 99,657 3,896 631 



1898 106,465 4,516 706 



At least one cargo 1 of ponies is now exported every year from 

 Thorshavn, the chief place on Stromoe, to Great Britain and 

 Denmark. Recently Norwegian and Icelandic blood has been 

 introduced, several stallions having been brought over from 

 Scandinavia and at least one mare from Iceland, and we were 

 told last summer that it was doubtful whether any specimens of 

 pure-blooded Faroe ponies now exist, except possibly in certain 

 remote villages. 



So far as we have been able to discover, the chief, if not the 

 only difference between the Icelandic and Faroe breeds, while 

 they remained pure, was that of colour, for while the former was, 

 and still is, typically either light dun, with a dark line down the 

 centre of the back and often with dark transverse stripes on the 

 legs ; the Faroe ponies, according to Landt (7), a most trustworthy 

 observer, were, at the beginning of last century, generally red 

 and occasionally black, the skewbalds sometimes seen among 

 them at the present day being possibly descended from Icelandic 

 ancestors 2 . 



1 In 1895, nine were exported ; in 1899, sixty-two, and in 1901, eighteen. 

 (Montagu Villiers, The Trade of the Faroe Islands, Consular and Diplomatic Report, 

 No. 2984, 1903). 



2 Martin, writing at the end of the seventeenth century, stated that the 

 eighteen ponies then on St Kilda were all of a red colour. (A Voyage to Saint Kilda, 

 p. 17. Eeprint: Glasgow, 1818). Red is the typical colour of the Hebridean ponies 

 at the present day. 



