g£ CLASSEN AND POVELSEN's 



dividing the day into hours. In the most remote ages, the 

 course of the sun and the different regions of the horizon 

 enabled men to discover a calculation of time. The first inha- 

 bitants of Iceland divided the day into eight equal parts ; and 

 gave the name of Dagsmaurk or signs of the day, to half parts 

 pr intermediate points. It is worthy of remark, that they did 

 not divide the horizon according to the four cardinal winds, 

 but according to the wants of their economical life : Our tra- 

 vellers made this observation throughout the upper part of the 

 isle, where no one has yet thought of regulating, by means of a 

 compass or sun-dial, the Dagsmaurk or signs of the day. The 

 following is the division in question. They term the time when 

 the sun is in the east, Midour-Morgeii, which is six o'clock 

 with us, while among them it is only 5 or half past 5 in the 

 morning; because we are an hour or an hour and a half earlier 

 than they. Their Dag-maal is, when the sun is in the south- 

 east, and is equal to nine o'clock in the morning with us, whereas 

 it is only half-past seven with them. Gaadegue, or mid-day, 

 when the sun is full south, or at noon, is according to their 

 calculation only half past ten or eleven. We are ignorant 

 what name they gave to the period of three o'clock, when the 

 sim is in the south-west; and their Mitour-Artan designates 

 sis o'clock in the evening, when the sun is in the west. These 

 two periods perfectly correspond with ours; except their Natl- 

 maa/y when the sun is in the north-west and it is nine o'clock 

 with us, means with them only eight. Midnatla is their 

 midnight, and Otta, three o'clock in the morning. This di- 

 vision prevails along the coasts, especially where there are many 

 parts frequented by strangers. There are even places where 

 they have two Dag-maal and Gaadague ; because the inha- 

 bitants, being informed by foreigners that their method of keeping 

 time did not correspond with ours, have regulated these signs by 

 a watch, or more frequently by a compass, though without re- 

 garding the declination of the needle. 



The inhabitants of this district, and in general those residing 

 on the coasts, calculate their hours of the day by the ebbing 

 and flowing of the sea ; and particularly when a thick and con- 

 densed atmosphere conceals the sun from them for several days. 

 They also know that this ebbing and flowing does not correspond 

 with the phases of the moon, as the highest and lowest tides 

 do not take place for two days after the changes of that planet, 

 and scarcely ever before. This natural irregularity they have 

 denominated the Efter-Stroemme or latter flux, chiefly when 

 it takes place after a considerable rise, which they distinguish 

 by the name of Stor-Stroemme. They do not, however, guide 

 themselves by this; for when they are several days without 



