ISLANDS OF THE NOETH ATLANTIC. 



I.—THE FAEOER ISLANDS. 



HE " Sheep," or " Navigators' " Islands, as the term has been 

 variously interpreted, depend politically on Denmark, but have 

 no geographical connection with Scandinavia. Isolated in mid- 

 Atlantic, they are surrounded by abysses several hundred yards in 

 depth, the submarine plateau on which they rest forming a sort of 

 quadrangular support, enclosed by the deepest waters on the east or Scandina- 

 vian side, and twice as far removed from that region as from the Shetlands, 

 Orkneys, and Hebrides. The Faroer Bank is also connected with the Hebrides by 

 a submarine ridge, and to judge from their general direction, the islands themselves 

 seem to be fragments of a former range, of which Rockall is another remnant, and 

 which ran parallel with the crests of the Caledonian groups and the north of 

 Scotland. In their climate, flora, and fauna the Faroer also reseoable these lands, 

 which, however, are all alike Scandinavian rather than British in respect of their 

 inhabitants. 



Like the Shetlands and Orkneys, they are composed of a few large and thinly 

 peopled islands, of some uninhabited islets affording pasture for sheep, and of 

 barren rocks frequented by flocks of sea-fowl. The surface is almost everywhere 

 hilly, with bold headlands, and heights of over 2,000 feet in Stromo and Ostero, 

 culminating with the Slattaretindur (2,756 feet), on the north coast of Ostero. 

 The rocks, covered with a thin layer of humus, are grassy or mossy, delicate 

 transitions of plants, fern, and heath following in succession from sea-level to the 

 topmost summits. The houses, mostly scattered, take the hue of the rocks, owing 

 to the sods of which their roofs are formed, and hence are not easily detected even at 

 short distances. Like those of Scotland and Scandinavia, the rocks are scored by 

 the action of ice, and the lines running east and west, or north and south, clearly 

 show that while still little raised above the surface the Archipelago was traversed 

 by floating bergs from the Norwegian glaciers. 



The islands are largely volcanic, mostly huge masses of basalt rising in suc- 

 cessive terraces, though some headlands, especially in Ostero (" East Island "), 



