TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



147 



Jmlf a century ago. Poverty has increased with luxury, though 

 the introduction of the latter is considered as a mark of prospe- 

 rity; but the annual importation and consumption of a great 

 quantity of groceries, wines, and brandy, has not only drained 

 the country, but rendered the inhabitants effeminate and valetu- 

 dinary, as well as caused a serious change in their morals. At 

 the present time tea and sugar are so common in this quarter, 

 that almost every peasant in decent circumstances is provided 

 with his set of china. Coffee is also much in vogue, but it has 

 not yet extended among the peasantry ; other persons, on the 

 contrary, make a daily and expensive consumption of it. These 

 do not consider their food palatable without being seasoned with 

 all the aromatic spices afforded by every quarter of the world: 

 they must have red, and French, and sometimes even more va- 

 luable wines, with their dinner; though not many years have 

 elapsed since red wine was unknown in Iceland, while the white 

 kind was used only at solemn festivals or among the first persons 

 in the country. 



SINGULAR' ACCOUNT OF A SPECIES OF SHARK. 



In this quarter of Iceland sharks form a lucrative object for the 

 fishermen, on account of the great quantity of oil obtained from 

 them. There is one species deserving of public notice, the male 

 of which is described by Artedus as follows: Squalus pinna ani 

 nulla, corpore subrotundo. We often examined the female, and 

 made a variety of remarks respecting its generation. The vagina 

 is short, but very large, and capable of great extension : the ma- 

 trix is double, and situated on each side of the rectum: its. two 

 uteri are oval, oblong, or resembling a pear; and perfectly se- 

 parate, except where they meet at the orifice. There is a narrow 

 canal which goes from the bottom of the matrix to the ovarium; 

 it is tolerably large, and situated between the pectoral fins ; is 

 regularly rounded, and contains a great number of eggs, the 

 major part of which are about the size of a pea or smaller, while 

 some are as large as a chesnut, and one or two of the biggest 

 are the size of a hen's egg. Two nerves extend from the ovarium 

 to the rectum, and lower orifice of the matrix. We found 

 three eggs at once in one of the vulva?, and four in the other. 

 The small squali are hatched in the belly of the female; and as 

 soon as they issue from the shell, the egg again closes round the 

 umbilical cord. It retains the placenta uterina; and becomes 

 filled with a thick and whitish matter similar to the first milk of 

 a cow after calving, and of rather an oily nature. Thus the 

 young squali, like many other creatures of the animal kingdom,, 

 are nourished through the umbilical cord ; and when they have 

 attained their full term, are torn from each of the vagina^ 



