VIDOE. 
53 
occupied with the nests of these birds, which 
are so numerous, that we were obliged to walk 
with the greatest caution, to avoid trampling 
upon them; but, besides this, the Stiftsampt- 
man has a number of holes cut in the smooth 
and sloping side of a hill, in two rows, and, in 
every one of these, also, there is a nest. No 
Norfolk housewife is half so solicitous after her 
poultry, as the Stiftsamptman after his eider 
ducks, which, by their down and eggs, afford 
him a considerable revenue; since the former 
sells for three rix dollars (twelve shillings) a 
pound. Cats and dogs are, at this season of the 
year, all banished from the island, so that nothing 
may disturb these birds. One year a fox got 
over upon the ice, and caused great alarm; he 
was, however, though with difficulty, taken, by 
bringing another fox to the island, and fasten¬ 
ing it by a string near the haunt of the former, 
by which means he was allured within shot of 
the hunter. Such an island as Vidoe is well 
bestowed on the present owner, by the Danish 
government, for the services done to his country, 
during the fifty years that he was in office. It 
is considered worth one hundred dollars (twenty 
pounds) a-year, in addition to which, the full 
pension of fifteen hundred dollars is continued 
to him, as if he were still actual governor; nor is 
it as a magistrate alone that this gentleman is 
