263 
tained from three nests, but in the nest it 
is mixed with a deal of grass and other 
foreign matters, and therefore forty pounds 
of such feathers, does not produce more 
than fifteen pounds, that are perfectly 
clean. At Hamburgh a pound of clean 
down costs sometimes three dollars. Von 
Troil in his letters on Iceland says that 
the down from the dead birds, is accounted 
of little worth having lost much of its 
elasticy. " There are ( says the same au- 
thor) generally exported fifteen hundred 
or two thousand pounds of down on tho 
company's account, exclusive of what is 
privately sold.** [' The young ones quit 
only three quarters of an ounce, but was so elastic as to 
fill the crown of the largest hat." 
It appears from this extract, that the quantity of 
down which lines the Eider's nests is mnch smaller on 
the Farn Islands than in Iceland and the more northern 
countries; a proof that these birds are able to accomo- 
date themselves according to situation and climate. 
* Montagu is of opinion that it is a mistaken notion 
that only Eider Down is used by the more opulent 
for coverings for beds, &c. u It is true all the down 
which is taken by the natives of the more northern re- 
gions is sold for such, but many others of the Duck 
tribe afford down not inferior to that of the Eider, but 
