34 
REIKEVIG. 
many of the rural occupations described in it 
are by no means applicable to Iceland. If I 
mistake not, it was written by one Povelsen, an 
ancestor of Magnus Finnusen, who had himself 
translated it into Danish verse. As a proof of 
the talents of this young man, it may not be 
amiss in this place to mention, that though, at 
the time of our arrival, he did not know a word 
of English, yet he made so rapid a proficiency 
in it, that, during the stay of the Talbot sloop 
of war, only two months after, he submitted a 
copy of English verses to one of the officers of 
that vessel for his correction. An exceedingly 
long complimentary ode, also, in Icelandic poetry, 
was presented by him to Captain Jones of the 
Talbot, with a latin translation by the side. 
Saturday, To-day the captain of our vessel 
and Mr. Savigniac accompanied me to 
the little island of Akaroe, situated in the bay, 
at a short distance from the town of Reikevig, 
Conveniat, quae cura bourn, qui cultus habendo 
ft Sit pecori ? apibus quanta experientia parcis: 
(( Hinc canere incipiam.” 
The oxen and the flocks are all he could have found in 
Iceland: the corn and the vines assuredly do not exist there; 
and even the acuteness of my friend, Mr. Kirby, would have 
been puzzled to have found one of his two hundred and 
twenty-two species of bees in the island. 
