xliv 
INTRODUCTION. 
store of this butter, which was packed down in 
chests, each thirty or forty feet long, by four or 
five feet deep, and was thence distributed among 
the most necessitous of the natives during seasons 
of famine or scarcity. Milk is converted into 
Syra , or sour whey, which is preserved in casks 
till it has undergone the process of fermentation 
before it is used as a beverage. The same mixed 
with water is called Blanda . Striugur is whey 
boiled to the consistency of curd; and Skiur the 
same from which the liquid has been expressed. 
The flesh of either sheep or bullocks and rye-bread 
is only brought to the table of the superior class 
of people. Birds of various kinds, especially water- 
fowl and the larger inhabitants of the deep, are 
of course only occasionally procured, and cannot 
be taken into account, while speaking of the ge¬ 
neral mode of subsistence of the Icelanders, any 
more than the native vegetable productions which 
are occasionally prepared for food; such as the 
Angelica Archangelica , Cochlearice , Ru m ices, 
and Dryas octopetala , with Lichens and Fuci of 
two or three kinds. The Lichen islandicus alone 
is sometimes eaten in considerable quantity; but 
more is gathered for exportation. 
The Icelandic language * has been considered 
* Pinkerton’s Geography. 
