QUADRUPEDS. 
281 
the fisheries commence, or the season for trade 
summons their masters to Reikevio- and other 
O 
ports, they are all called into employ, and, if the 
journey be long, the natives with their tents and 
families lead, like the Nomades of old, a truly wan¬ 
dering life for nearly the whole summer, subject 
to no restraint, but taking up their abode where¬ 
soever a pleasing spot or a supply of grass for their 
cattle invites them, and neither shortening nor 
protracting their periods of rest, by any other 
consideration, but their own inclinations: truly 
happy, if the happiness of man consist in his will 
being his law! No wheel carriages of any kind 
can be made use of in the island : every thing is 
therefore transported upon horses, which renders 
a number of these animals of the greatest im- 
portance to those Icelanders who live at a distance 
from the coast. It is stated by Povelsen and 
Olafsen that the price of a horse in their time 
(about 1750 or 1760), varied according to its 
goodness from six to eight rix-dollars, and that 
it was rarely known that one sold for so much as 
ten or twelve. Now, however, they are so con¬ 
siderably enhanced in price, that I could not 
buy a good riding horse for less than thirty rix- 
dollars, and I have even known persons refuse 
one hundred for a very handsome one. 
The cows are likewise small, and are seen both 
