TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



105 



frosts, and, at intervals, to moist and cloudy weather : it also 

 snows and freezes in the midst of summer. The grass is thin, 

 and difficult to dry ; and the cattle are lean, and often shed their 

 hair : on the other hand, the inhabitants are very liable to leprosy 

 and the itch. We shall mention a remarkable circumstance; 

 which is, that as long as the masses of ice are not fixed, but are 

 moved backwards and forwards in the sea, the weather remains 

 variable and stormy ; while the currents, and the ebbing and 

 flowing of the tide, are affected and altered in an astonishing 

 manner ; but as soon as the ice is fixed to the bottom of the 

 sea, and the waters carry off the detached lumps, then every thing 

 seems^ to gain its level ; the weather becomes calm, and the air 

 moist and foggy. This conveyance of ice exposes the country 

 to other very serious inconveniences : the bears come over on the 

 ice to hunt for sharks ; but when it breaks, they are taken by 

 surprise, and carried off on the detached lumps. Before, how- 

 ever, this takes place, they commit great ravages among the 

 sheep ; which obliges the inhabitants to unite in troops to destroy 

 them with their lances. These' bears, nevertheless, do not pass 

 the summer in Iceland ; but take advantage of the time when 

 the ice, driven towards the west of the island, begins to break 

 off, and make towards it to reimbark. Much has been said of 

 the cunning and instinct of this animal ; and it is asserted, that 

 when the ice begins to return, and thus leaves it by surprise, it 

 climbs to the summit of the mountains to discover in what di- 

 rection the masses are moving off, and immediately swims after 

 them. The colour of these bears is generally white, or rusty. 



With respect to the advantages which the inhabitants derive 

 from these masses of ice, though they do not always drift on their 

 coasts, — these consist in their affording them a quantity of float- 

 ing timber, which they convey in their course ; and a number 

 or whales, as well dead as living. The latter, being caught with- 

 in the fragments of the ice, take advantage to slip out at every 

 aperture, in order to respire ; and when they come near to land, 

 the inhabitants kill thein with their lances, or with blows of 

 the hatchet : but they are obliged to take care not to perforate 

 the belly, in which case the whale would sink to the bottom. 

 This ice also cdnveys with it a number of sharks, which are 

 taken upon the ice itself: for when thus embarrassed, they suffer 

 persons to approach them without resistance. The inhabitants 

 procure, besides, various other species of fish ; but particularly the 

 stock-fish, which assemble and keep near those masses of ice that 

 sink deep in the water. These fish always remain with one side to- 

 wards the ice, in consequence of w hich they become blind on that 

 side ; for on observing them, the eye next to the ice is found to 

 be entirely dimned, and covered with a viscous matter- The 



ol afsen.1 o 



