TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



67 



keep tliem together for some time, before they could be sent to 

 their stalls, where they had scarcely rested, till they had to per- 

 form a long and tedious journey to reach the markets, which 

 reduced them to one half of their value while at pasture. It 

 has been ascertained by experience, that the first two days' 

 journey emaciates them very considerably, insomuch, that a 

 fat sheep which has ten pounds ot suet, loses half a pound a day 

 while on the journey; so that when they arrive at the ports, 

 they do not fetch a price at all proportionate to their former value. 



It is worthy of remark, that fresh grass in Iceland generally 

 induces a diarrhoea in sheep, particularly in moist pastures, which 

 often cause their death. This disease is principally attributed 

 to the marsh trefoil; and they use to cure it the A: bum greeewn 

 in powder, which is given to the animals in milx, either fresh 

 or skimmed. The sheep are also subject to the taenia or tape- 

 worm, which fixes to the intestines and occasions diarrhoea, and 

 which they destroy by giving to the animal the powder of birch 

 charcoal. In this country, the sheep and cows are also afflicted 

 with a very severe swelling of the udder and belly, which makes 

 them very ill: the cows in particular at this time cannot be 

 milked, and the disease often causes the death of the animal. 

 The common people attribute this malady to subterraneous 

 spirits, who come at night, and suck the dug of the animal, or 

 draw the milk, to make butter; others attribute it to a little 

 bird, which we learned was the Mot a cilia oznanthe, which picks 

 the teats of these animals. There are several other diseases in- 

 cidental to cattle, which are peculiar to these districts, and con^ 

 secjuently not deserving particular notice, 



FOXES. 



The number of cattle here attract whole herds of foxes, which 

 the inhabitants endeavour to destroy by every possible means. 

 They hunt them principally in winter, and some use guns, while 

 others catch them in snares, or in their earths. When they find 

 a fox-hole, one of the hunters conceals himself near it with a 

 gun, and watches for the fox, always killing the male in pre- 

 ference to the female ; because the latter is more easily taken, 

 though she remains almost always in her kennel. But if on the 

 contrary, they kill the female first, the male and the young ones 

 collect in the earth, and can only be expelled by hunger, besides 

 which, when the male is away from the earth, he always ap- 

 proaches it with the greatest precaution. The hunter frequently 

 takes the litter of foxes by opening the ground, and preserves 

 one of them alive, which he pinches to make it cry, and this 

 induces the male, as it were by instinct, to approach the hole. 

 When they cannot succeed in driving either the young or old 



OLAFSEN.] H 



