116 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



on one of these islands. The Arcturus touches twice a year to deliver and re- 

 ceive a mail. On the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with a hardy-look- 

 ing crew of Danes to receive the mail-bag. It was doubtless a matter of great 

 rejoicing to them to obtain news from home. I had barely time to make a 

 rough outline of the islands as we lay of£ the settlement. The chief interest at- 

 tached to the Westman group is, that it is supposed to have been visited by 

 Columbus in 1477, fifteen years prior to his voyage of discovery to the shores 

 of America." 



The puflSn, or the screeching sea-mew, seem the only inhabitants for which 

 nature has fitted the Westmans, and yet they have a history which leads us 

 back to the times when Iceland itself first became known to man. 



About 875, a few years after Ingolfr followed his household gods to Reyk- 

 javik, a Norwegian pirate, perchance one of the associates of that historical 

 personage, landed on the coast of Ireland, attacked with fire and sword the de- 

 fenseless population, captured forty or fifty persons, men, women, and children, 

 and carried them oif as slaves. The passage must have been any thing but 

 pleasant, for it gave the Hibernians such a foretaste of the wretchedness that 

 awaited them in Iceland, their future abode, that, taking courage from despair, 

 they rose on their captors, threw them overboard, and went ashore on the first 

 land they met with. 



A day of rare serenity must have witnessed their arrival on the Westmans, 

 a spot which of all others seemed most unlikely to become their home. Why 

 they remained there, is a secret of the past ; most likely they had no other al- 

 ternative, and freedom on a rock was, at all events, better than slavery under a 

 cruel viking. 



Thus these weather-beaten islets were first peopled by men from the west, 

 whence they derive their name, and it is supposed that the present inhabitants 

 are the descendants of those children of Erin. No one will be inclined to envy 

 them the heritage bequeathed to them by their fathers. 



The Westmans are fourteen in number ; but of these only one, called Hei- 

 maey, or Home Island, is inhabited. It is fifteen miles from the coast of Iceland, 

 and forty-five from Hecla. Though larger than all the others put together, its 

 entire surface is not more than ten square miles. It is almost surrounded with 

 high basaltic cliffs, and an otherwise iron-bound shore; its interior is covered 

 with black ashy-looking cones, bearing undoubted evidence of volcanic action ; 

 in fact, the harbor, which lies on its north-east side, and is only accessible to 

 small craft, is formed out of an old crater, into which the sea has worn an en- 

 trance. The inhabitants are located in two villages ; Kaufstathir, on a little 

 grassy knoll near the landing-place, and Ofanleyte, on the grassy platform of the 

 island. Only three of the other islets produce any vegetation or pasturage, and 

 it is said that on one of these the sheep are hoisted with a rope out of the 

 boats by an islander, who, at the risk of his neck, has climbed to the top of the 

 precipitous rock. The others are mere naked cliffs or basaltic pillars, the abode 

 of innumerable sea-birds, which, when accessible, are a precious resource to the 

 islanders. For, as may well be supposed, the scanty grass lands afford nourish- 

 ment but to a few cows and sheep ; and as the unruly waters too often prevent 



