INTRODUCTION. 
XXV11 
taken to remove their ignorance are so applied 
as to be almost wholly nugatory. One is sent 
from Copenhagen for the purpose of giving the 
necessary instructions to the rest; but her salary 
of one hundred dollars per annum is too small to 
enable her to take long journies, or to do any 
effectual good. The other nineteen receive al¬ 
together only one hundred rix-dollars per annum. 
I must not omit, in the small list of useful 
officers in the pay of government, to mention 
two Danish lieutenants who are engaged with 
respectable salaries in the survey of the whole 
island; and, to judge from one or two specimens 
of their plans that have come under my observa¬ 
tion, they are well capable of undertaking this 
important task. 
The annual expences of Iceland which are 
paid by government from various funds esta¬ 
blished in Copenhagen will be at once seen by 
the following accounts. It will be, however, ne¬ 
cessary to observe, that 2^ per cent, is deducted 
by government from all salaries paid to officers 
and others, unless the contrary is permitted by 
express order. What is called extra deduction 
in the accounts, seems to be a kind of imposition 
practiced on some particular persons, since it is 
not exacted from all alike. Another deduction 
