‘ 
: 
terrible as the moft frightful plague ; they 
have now been exempt, however, 70 years 
from the fmall-pox. 
The temperature is neither very hot in 
fammer, nor very cold in winter; it has 
been already remarked that the fea never 
freezes on the coafts. The-airis reckoned 
to be nebulous, moift, and unhealthful ; 
in fact, mifts are very frequent, but they 
are not unhealthful, not being fetid, and 
the inhabitants feel no inconvenience from _ 
them; hefides, they are nct fo grofs as to 
eonceal the fight of the houfes, as fome 
pretend. “The winds, which get ingul- 
phed between the rocks, blow fometimes _ 
with fuch violence, that they detach large 
*ragments irom them, dafh others to pieces, 
and become fo impetuous, that perfons 
on horfeback, when they hear the whidling 
acro{s the rocks, are obliged to difmount, 
to avoid being overfet ; even perfons on 
foot throw themfelves on their face, to 
2void a more dangerous downfall. The 
wind not feldom announces its approach 
by acrack, which is heard through the 
whole houfe, and which precedes it by 
fome feconds ;—but when the-hurricane 
arrives, it has already fpenc fo much -of 
its force, that the building is not da- 
maged ; at other times, there comes on the 
back of it a fecond blaft, which, with 
frefh impetuofity, fhakes the houfe, 
pierces beneath the ficoring, and tears it 
up, or, at leaft, makes the chair or bed 
trembie, whereon the inmate repefes. 
The mof violent winds are thefe which, 
pafling acro{s and over the rocks, are re- 
flected from them with redoubled violence; 
and which, meeting oppcfite winds, ac- 
quire aconfiderable concentration, and thus 
‘ firuggle as it were in the plains’; they 
fometimes come on fo fuddenly that an in- 
ftant before the tempeft a perfon might 
wak in the open air with a candle in his 
hand,withoutextinguifhingit. ‘Thunder is 
not frequent ; but when it does teke place, 
the continued roar with which it caules 
the rocks to refound, is really tremendous. 
An opinion not a little fingular prevails 
among the inhabitants of thefe iflands, 
that the fun rifes higher, at prefent, than 
it did formerly ; in fome places the form 
and the height of the rocks- conceal the 
view of thatiuminary,curing fome months of 
the winter; there it is known exactly, 
what day it is to appear again :—in 1789 
it was feen at Qualvig, two days fooner 
thanit was expected. ‘‘Somecld men, (adds 
the author,) have affured me, that certain 
fides of the rocks, which in their youth 
were but flightly illumined by the fun, are 
new much more fo.” es 
Ferra Iflese 
[Nov. ly 
The culture of corn is comparatively 
trifing here, by reafon of the exceffive 
Jabours which it requires in a country fo 
mountainous, and where 
would be neceflary to devcte fo much care 
and application in the fpring, which is 
precifely the feafon when the fifhery calls 
for a general attention and employs alJ 
hands. Gardening muft naturally be very 
little exercifed in a country where the foil 
is fo ungrateful. Among the vegetables 
which thrive here, we muft reckon pota- 
-toes, the-cultivation of which is rapidly 
increafing ; radifhes and turnips thrive 
equally well. It is not fo with trees; of 
courfe there is no‘wood. ‘The author 
madé a number of trials on different 
plants of fruit-trees, but without fuecefs ; 
cherry-trees, altQough they put forth abun- 
dance of flowers, drop the fruit, before it 
grows to half its fize; many wild trees, 
ikewile, perifhed at the firft appearance 
of the winter. 
The principal, or we may even fay, 
enly riches of the inhabitants, confit in 
their flocks of fheep ; and, provided thefe 
pro/per, they give themfelves little trouble 
about their- bad harvefts, or unfuccefsful 
fifheries ; their fheep ferve them for food 
and furnifh them with cloathing, and a me- 
dium of exchange for the commodities of 
life, which are not very numerous with 
them. ‘The fheep are never folded, neither 
in fummer nor winter. When this laft 
feafon is not very rude, thofe animals 
maintain themfelves in tolerable condition, 
by making holes in the fuew to browze on 
the grafs which is preferved underneath ; 
but if the winter is long and rigorous, 
they often perifh. -The fhow, which 
covers the fields, obliges them tq make 
for the rocks next the fea, as being always _ 
lefs loaded with fhow ; but fometimes, 
not being able to keep their footing on 
the ice, they flide down headlong into the 
fea; or elfe, wandering along the brink, 
they are drawn into the fea with the ava- 
lanche, often to the number of 50 or 
even 100 ; or, laitly, they get enveloped 
by the fnow in the midft of the rock: in 
this laft cafe, fometimes they keep them- 
felyes for Gx or feven weeks on the little 
grafs which they find under the fhow. Here 
and there a fort of ftables have been pro- 
vided, where they are penned up toge- 
ther to kcep themfelves warm. If from 
the rigour of the feafon,*they fhould be 
left there too long; atthe end of fome 
another’s {kins. 
The chace of marine birds, which 
make their nefis in the mountains, is, 
likewife - f" 
befides it - 
