8114 



Birds. 



has been suggested that the remaining quarter was shared by the 

 church of Stadr in Grindavik ; but most likely it was left to reward 

 the bold adventurers who resorted thither. In 1628 twelve men were 

 drowned at the Geirfuglasker, no doubt in a fowling expedition ; and 

 in 1639* four large boats (three from Sudrnes, the district between 

 Skagen and Osar, and one from Grindavik) proceeded thither ; two of 

 which, those from Stafnes and Marsbudum, were lost at the skerry, 

 while the other two, from Hvalsnes and Stadr, only returned with dif- 

 ficulty. It might have been some such disaster as this that prompted 

 a metrical effusion composed by Sera Hallkiell Stephansson, the cler- 

 gyman of Hvalsnes, who flourished between 1655 and 1697, of which 

 it is feared only two lines have been preserved to posterity. In these 

 the poet says that he has never trusted himself to Geirfuglasker, as, 

 on account of the surf, boats were broken by the waves there. In 

 1694 a French vessel was wrecked on the island, but the crew landed 

 in their boats at Midnes. 



Soon after our arrival at Reykjavik we were pleased to learn that 

 the public library there contained a short but beautifully written 

 manuscript account of the Heykjanes Geirfuglasker. For a know- 

 ledge of its existence we are indebted to the kindness of Professor 

 Konrad Maurer of Munich, well known as one of the most dis- 

 tinguished Icelandic scholars, and the pleasure of whose company we 

 enjoyed during our voyage to the North, and part of our residence in 

 the capital. The liberality also of the librarian, in allowing us the 

 free use of, and permission to copy, this curious document, must not 

 pass unnoticed here. From the penmanship and the paper on which 

 it is written, it is believed by good judges whom we consulted to be 

 probably a copy. From internal evidence, which need not now be 

 detailed, I venture to express my opinion that the original must have 

 been composed within a few years of 1760. It commences abruptly 

 by giving a somewhat minute description of the rock and its unques- 

 tionably volcanic origin ; making, however, no reference to its neigh- 

 bouring islands. It then proceeds to relate the marvellous numbers 

 of birds found upon the rock, adding that the " gare-fowl is there not 

 nearly so much as men suppose that the space he occupies " can- 

 not be reckoned at more than a sixteenth part of the skerry," and 

 this only at the two landing-places ; " further upwards he does not 



* There is an apparent misprint of " 1439 " for the above date in Professor Steen- 

 strup's reference to this event (1. c., p. 83, note). The particulars mentioned in the 

 text were supplied to us by Sera S. B. Sivertsen, the clergyman at Utskala, to whom 

 we were indebted for many similar acts of kindness. 



