156 
SKALHOLT. 
able to the use of woollen clothes*, and to the 
mode of living and habits of the natives; for they 
take but little exercise, except in the fishing sea¬ 
son, when they are continually wet with salt 
water; and their food is peculiarly calculated to 
promote scorbutic affections, consisting, at the 
time of fishing, almost entirely of fresh fish, and 
at other times of dried fish, generally unaccom¬ 
panied with vegetables. The inhabitants of the 
canton of Bardestrand, and those who live near 
Patrixfiord, are said to be in the habit of making 
use of antiscorbutic vegetables, and to be, con¬ 
sequently, more free from the disease. The plants 
that I met with about Skalholt, were such as I 
had elsewhere seen, excepting only one or two 
grasses, which appeared new to me. Ranunculus 
lapponicus was here very abundant, as was* the 
Konigia , and a new species of Carex , which I 
had before met with near Reikevig. On the 
walls of the houses grew Draba contorta and 
Tortula subulata: Angelica archangelica ., too, 
was not less plentiful here than in very many 
other parts of the country; but, although cer¬ 
tainly employed as an esculent plant, both fresh, 
* The elephantiasis used to be equally prevalent in Great 
Britain, previous to the introduction and adoption of linen* 
instead of the woollen clothes then universally worn. 
