1801.] 
The principal of thefe rocks, is about 
400 toiles in height ; the cruft of earth 
which covers them, is no where more than 
four feet in thicknefs, and is generally 
about a foot and ahalf. The naturalift 
dilcovers here the moft certain indexes of 
antient volcanic explofions ;—they had not 
efcaped the difcerning eye of the learned 
Captain Born, to whom we are indebted 
for a geological defcription of the diffe- 
rent ftrata, which here form the promon- 
tories, as likewife for a plan of thefe, 
iflands, with geographical charts, the 
whole inferted in the Memoirs of the 
Society of Natural Hiftory at Copen- 
hagen. 
The ifles' of Ferro are watered by 
many brooks or ftreams, which are gene- 
rally crofled by fording; there are few 
Jakes; the largeft is not more than four 
leagues in circumference; it abounds in 
falmon trout. Some f{prings of hot water 
are found; the beft known is that of 
Warimakielde; the author,|on examining it 
towards the latter end of the month of 
November found its water luke-warm, 
like milk juft taken from the cow, 
There are often feen perched on the 
peaks and extremities of the rocks, mnu- 
merable flocks of aquatic birds, drawn up, 
as it were, rank and file; they make their 
nefts in the clefts above the precipices, 
and are fo little accuftomed to be difturb- 
ed, that numbers of them may be kil- 
led by the difcharge of a fingle mufket, 
without caufing the others to itir. 
One of thefe ifles contains only a fingle 
habitation, and it is only in fummer, that 
the curate can go to vifit it. Even to 
enter it, one is obliged to be raifed up by 
the help of a machine, which hkewife 
ferves to defcend by; the rock is fo 
abrupt, that the iflanders cannot ufe a 
boat, and they cannot quit their ifland, 
without the affiftance of their neighbours 
who come in fearch of them. 
It was only at the commencement of 
the century jult elapfed, that coal-mines 
were difcovered in the fouthern part of 
thefe iflands. ‘The government had caufed 
many trials to be made of thefe coais; but 
it was only in 1777 that thofe trials were 
judged to be of {ufficient intereft and con- 
fequence. A commiflary named ad hoc 
determined that the quarry was about 
12,000 feet inlength, by a medium width 
of 4000, and that the height of the com- 
buftible matter was five feet, fo that it 
promifed an immenfe profit-to the ftate for 
centuries to come; but the difficulty of 
- working it appeared fo great, that the 
Ferro Pfles. 
309 
labour was abandoned. The celebrated 
profeflor Kratzenftein, of Copenhagen, ana- 
lyfed the coals, and found them to produce 
a heat more ardent and of a longer dura- 
tion than thofe of England, but that they 
were lefs eafy to kindle; he, likewife, 
found them proper for all forts of ules. 
A trial of them has been likewife made 
in Scotland, and they arenow acknowledged 
to be of a fuperior quality. One of the 
principal reafons which induced the relin- 
quifhment of an enterprize likely to be fo 
lucrative, was the difficulty and the ex- 
pence of freight, from a country fo remate 
from others, in which, moreover, wood 
and turf are every day getting dearer. 
Among other meafures fuggefted to re- 
move this obftacle, it has been propofed, 
and the idea does not appear deftitute of 
foundation, to fend there, to load with 
coal, fuch veffels as, having been employed 
in the whale-fifhery, might have made an 
unprofitable voyage. ‘The neceffary per- 
miffion for this purpofe would be eafily 
granted, and there is no doubt but the 
coal might be had at a very moderate 
price. The author of this account takes 
fome pains to fhew all the advantages 
which ‘Denmark might derive from this 
ufeful production. It likewife appears, 
that a particular fociety, not long ago 
eftablithed at Copenhagen, has undertaken 
the importation of this coal, which it 
propofes to do on a large fcale. It 
mult be granted, however, that a fifti- 
cient degree of zeal has not yet been at- 
tached to the bufinefs, or, at leaft, govern- 
ment has taken no part in it, and beftowed 
no particular attention upon it. 
Tt is a circumftance very favourable to 
the exportation of the productions of the 
country, and, at the fame time, very fin- 
guar, that, notwithf{tanding the fituation 
of thefe iflands, in the centre of the 
north, their harbours are never frozen; fo 
that the entrance to them is always free, 
and the navigation is not at all interrupted 
during the winter. It excites aftonifh- 
ment in the author that the veffels fent to 
the whale-fifhery, do not pafs the winter 
in the port known by the nameof Veft- 
mauhavn, from whence they might repair 
very eafily to their deftination in the firt 
days of {pring; the coaft is, in general, 
good ; veffels have nothing to fear from 
rocks or fhallows, and it offers many good 
havens. 
It has been remarked, that the meafles 
aid the {mall-pox only attack the inhabi- 
tants when brought there by ftrangers; 
but in that cafe, they makes ravages as 
terrible 
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