142 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
his courser than they are of their little ponies, or re¬ 
verence more deeply the sacred rights of hospitality; 
while the solemn salutation exchanged between two 
companies of travellers, passing each other in the desert 
*—as they invariably call the uninhabited part of the 
country—would not have misbecome the stately courtesy 
of the most ancient worshippers of the sun. 
Anything more multifarious than the lading of 
these caravans we met returning to the inland districts— 
cannot well be conceived: deal boards, rope, kegs of 
brandy, sacks of rye or wheaten flour, salt, soap, sugar, 
snuff, tobacco, coffee; everything, in fact, which was 
necessary to their domestic consumption during the 
ensuing winter. In exchange for these commodities, 
which of course they are obliged to get from Europe, 
the Icelanders export raw wool, knitted stockings, 
mittens, cured cod, and fish oil, whale blubber, fox 
skins, eider-down, feathers, and Icelandic moss. During 
the last few years the exports of the island have 
amounted to about 1,200,000 lbs. of wool and 500,000 
pairs of stockings and mittens. Although Iceland is 
one-fifth larger than Ireland, its population consists 
of only about 60,000 persons, scattered along the habit- 
