80 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



charina) is prized as a vegetable in a land where potatoes and turnips are but 

 rarely cultivated. 



When the first settlers came to Iceland, they found but two indigenous 

 land-quadrupeds : a species of field-vole (Arvicola oeconomus) and the Arctic 

 fox ; but the seas and shores were no doubt tenanted by a larger number of 

 whales, dolphins, and seals than at the present day. 



The ox, the sheep, and the horse which accompanied the Norse colonists to 

 their new home, form the staple wealth of their descendants ; for the number 

 of those who live by breeding cattle is as three to one, compared with those 

 who chiefly depend on the sea for their subsistence. Milk and whey are almost 

 the only beverages of the Icelanders. Without butter they will eat no fish ; 

 and curdled milk, which they eat fresh in summer and preserve in a sour state 

 during the winter, is their favorite repast. Thus they set the highest value cn 

 their cattle, and tend them with the greatest care. In the preservation of their 

 sheep, they are much hampered by the badness of the climate, by the scantiness 

 of winter food, and by the attacks of the eagles, the ravens, and the foxes, more 

 particularly at the lambing season, when vast numbers of the young animals 

 are carried off by all of them. The wool is not sheared off, but torn from the 

 animal's back, and woven by the peasantry, during the long winter evenings, into 

 a kind of coarse cloth, or knit into gloves and stockings, which form one of the 

 chief articles of export. 



" While at breakfast," says Mr. Shepherd, " we witnessed the Icelandic meth- 

 od of sheep-shearing. Three or four powerful young women seized, and easily 

 threw on their backs the struggUng victims. The legs were then tied, and the 

 wool pulled off by main force. It seemed, from the contortions of some of the 

 wretched animals, to be a cruel method ; but we were told that there is a period 

 in the year when the young wool, beginning to grow, pushes the old out before 

 it, so that the old coat is easily pulled out." The number of heads of cattle in 

 the island is about 40,000, that of the sheep 500,000. 



The horses, which number from 50,000 to 60,000, though small, are very ro- 

 bust and hardy. There being no wheel carriages on the island, they are mere- 

 ly used for riding and as beasts of burden. Their services are indispensable, 

 as without them the Icelanders would not have the means of travelling and car- 

 rying their produce to the fishing villages or ports at which the annual supplies 

 arrive from Copenhagen. In winter the poor animals must find their own food, 

 and are consequently mere skeletons in spring ;■ they, however, soon recover in 

 summer, though even then they have nothing whatever but the grass and small 

 plants which they can pick up on the hills. 



The dogs are very similar to those of Lapland and Greenland. Like them, 

 they have long hair, forming a kind of collar round the neck, a pointed nose, 

 pointed ears, and an elevated curled tail, with a temper which may be charac- 

 terized as restless and irritable. Their general color is white. 



In the year 1770 thirteen reindeer were brought from Norway. Ten of 

 them died during the passage, but the three that survived have multiplied so 

 fast that large herds now roam over the uninhabited wastes. During the win- 

 ter, when hunger drives them into the lower districts, they are frequently shot^ 



