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pieces, and bring them home: the smell of these ships is almoft infufferable. Every fifh is computed to yield between 60 and 100 barrels of oil, of the value of 31. or 41. a barrel. Though the Danes claim the country of Eaft and Weft Greenland, where these whales are taken, the Dutch have in a manner monopolifed this fishery. Of late the English have also been very fuccefsful in it.

ICELAND.

THIS ifland, which receives its name from the great masses of ice that are feen near it, lies between 63 and 67 deg. N, lat. and between 11 and 27 deg. W. long. It extends four hundred miles in length, and a hundred and fixty in breadth, containing about 46,000 fquare miles. In April, 1783, the inhabitants of Iceland obferved fomething rifing and flaming in the fea, to the fouth of Grinbourg, at eight miles diftance from the rocks des Oiseaux, which afterwards was found to be a new island. The dimenfions and fituation of this ifland are not well ascertained; but according to fome late information it was ftill increafing, and great quantities of fire iffued from two of its eminences.

It ap

POPULATION, INHABITANTS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS.] pears that a Norwegian colony, among which there were many Swedes, fettled in Iceland in the ninth century. They found there inhabitants who were Chriftians, and whom they called Papas. It is faid that the Norwegians alfo found among them Irish books, bells, and crofiers: and it is conjectured that the people who were there when the Norwegians arrived in the ifland, originally came from England and Ireland. The inhabitants long retained their freedom; but they were at laft obliged to fubmit to the kings of Norway, and afterward became fubject, together with Norway, to the kings of Denmark. They were at first governed by an admiral, who was fent there every year to make the neceffary regula tions; but that mode has now been changed for many years, and a governor appointed, who is ftyled Stiftfamtmann, and who conftantly refides in the country.

The number of inhabitants in Iceland is computed at about 60,000, which is by no means adequate to the extent of the country. It has been much more populous in former times; but great numbers have been deftroyed by contagious difeafes. The plague carried off many thousands from 1402 to 1404. Many parts of Iceland have also been depopulated by famine; for though the Icelanders cannot in general be faid to be in want of neceffary food, yet the country has feveral times been visited by great famines. These have been chiefly occafioned by the Greenland float. ing ice, which, when it comes in great quantities, prevents the grafs from growing, and puts an entire ftop to their fishing. The fmall-pox has likewife been very fatal here; for in the years 1707 and 1708 that disease de, ftroyed 16,000 perfons.

The Icelanders in general are middle-fized and well made, though not very ftrong. They are an honeft, well-intentioned people, moderately induftrious, and are very faithful and obliging. Theft is feldom heard of among them. They are much inclined to hofpitality, and exercise it as far as their poverty will permit. Their chief employment is attending to fifhing and the care of their cattle. On the coafts the men employ their time in fishing both winter and fummer; and the women prepare the fish, and few and fpin. The men alfo prepare leather, work at feveral mechanic trades, and fome few work in gold and Gilver. They likewife

manufacture a coarfe kind of cloth, which they call Wadmal. They haye an uncommonly ftrong attachment to their native country, and think themselves no where else fo happy. An Icelander, therefore, feldom fettles in Copenhagen, though the most advantageous conditions fhould be offered him. Their difpofitions are ferious, and they are much inclined to religion. They never pafs a river, or any other dangerous place, without previoufly taking off their hats, and imploring the divine protection; and they are always thankful for their prefervation when they have paffed the danger. When they meet together, their chief paftime confifts in reading their history. The mafter of the houfe begins, and the reft continue in their turns when he is tired. They are famous for playing at chefs; and one of their paftimes confifts in reciting verfes. Sometimes a man and woman take one another by the hand, and by turns fing ftanzas, which are a kind of dialogue, and in which the company occationally join in chorus. The drefs of the Icelanders is not elegant or ornamental, but is neat, cleanly, and fuited to the climate. On their fingers the women wear several gold, filver, or brafs rings. The poorer women dress in the coarse cloth called Wadmal, and always wear black; those who are in better circumftances wear broad-cloth, with filver ornaments, gilt. The houfes of the Icelanders are generally bad: in fome places they are built of drift wood, and in others they are raifed of lava, with mofs ftuffed be tween the lava. Their roofs are covered with fods laid over rafters, or fometimes over ribs of whales, which are both more durable and less expenfive than wood. They have not even a chimney in their kitchens, but only lay their fuel on the hearth, between three ftones, and the smoke iflues from a fquare hole in the roof. Their food principally confifts of dried fish, four butter, which they confider as a great dainty, milk mixed with water and whey, and a little meat. Bread is fo fearce among them, that there is hardly any peafant who eats it above three or four months in the year.

RELIGION.] The only religion tolerated in Iceland is the Lutheran. The churches in the caft, fouth, and weft quarters of the island, are under the jurifdiction of the bishop of Skalholt (the capital of the ifland), and thofe of the north quarter are subject to the bifhop of Hoolum. The island is divided into 189 parishes, of which 127 belong to the fee of Skalholt, and 62 to that of Hoolum. All the minifters are natives of Iceland, and receive a yearly falary of four or five hundred rix-dollars from the king, exclufive of what they have from their congregations.

LANGUAGE.] The language in Iceland is the fame as that formerly fpoken in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and has been preferved fo pure, that any Icelander understands their moft ancient traditional hiftories.

LEARNING AND LEARNED MEN.] It is faid that poetry formerly flourished very much in Iceland; and we are informed that Egil Skallagrimion, Kermack Ormundfon, Glum Geirfon, and Thorlief Jarlaa, were celebrated as great poets. But the art of writing was not much in ufe fill after the year 1000; though the Runic characters were known in that country before that period, and moft probably brought thither from Norway. After the reception of the Chriftian religion, the Latin characters were immediately adopted, as the Runic alphabet, which only confifts of fixteen letters, was found infufficient. The firft Icelandifh bishop, Ifleif, founded a fchool at Skalholt; and foon after four other schools were founded, in which the youth were inftructed in the Latin tongue, divinity, and fome parts of theoretic philofophy. From the introduction of the Chriftian religion here till the year 1264, when Iceland became fubject to

Norway, it was one of the few countries in Europe, and the only one in the North, wherein the fciences were cultivated and held in efteem.

But this period of time feems to have produced more learned men in Iceland than any other period fince. It appears from their ancient chronicles, that they had confiderable knowledge in morality, philofophy, natural hiftory, and aftronomy. Most of their works were written in the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries; and fome of them have been printed. Mr. Banks, now fir Jofeph Banks, prefented one hundred and fixty-two Icelandifh manufcripts to the British Mufeum. That gentleman vifited Iceland in 1772, accompanied by Dr. Solander, Dr. Van Troil, and Dr. Lind. Dr. Van Troil, who published an account of their voyage, obferves, that he found more knowledge among the lower clafs in Iceland than is to be met with in moft other places; that many of them could repeat the works of fome of their poets by heart; and that a peafant was feldom to be found, who, befides being well inftructed in the principles of religion, was not alfo acquainted with the hiftory of his own country; which proceeds from the frequent reading of their traditional hiftories, that being one of their principal amufements.

John Arefon, bishop of Hoolum, employed John Matthieffon, a native of Sweden, in establishing a printing prefs in Iceland about the year 1530; and the first book printed by him there was the Breviarium Nidarofienfe. He alfo printed an ecclefiaftical manual, Luther's catechifm, and other books of that kind. The Icelandic code of laws appeared in 1578, and the Icelandic Bible in 1.584. A new privileged printing-office has lately been. established at Hrappfey in this ifland, at which several valuable books have been printed.

MOUNTAINS, VOLCANOES, AND NATURAL CURIOSITIES.] Though this ifland is fituated fo far to the north, earthquakes and volcanoes are more known than in many countries in much warmer climates. The former have feveral times laid the country almoft defolate, particularly in the years 1734, 1752, and 1755, when fiery eruptions broke out of the earth and produced very fatal effects. Many of the fnowy mountains have alfo gradually become volcanoes. Of these burning mountains, Heckla is most known to foreigners. This mountain is fituated in the fouthern part of the island, about four miles from the fea-coaft, and is divided into three points at the top, the highest of which is that in the middle, which is computed to be above 5000 feet higher than the fea. This mountain has frequently fent forth flames, and a torrent of burning matter. Its eruptions were particularly dreadful in 1693, when they occafioned terrible devallations, the afhes being thrown all round the ifland to the distance of 180 English miles. An eruption of Mount Heckla happened in 1766. It began on the 5th of April, and continued to the 7th of September following. Flames proceeded from the mountain in December 1771, and 1772; but no ftreams of lava.

But the greateft of the eruptions of Iceland, and, in fact, the most tremendous of any recorded in hiftory, was that in 1783, which, we are affured, on the authority of Mr. Pennant, extended ninety-four miles in length and fifty in breadth, dried up twelve rivers, and overwhelmed not only all the villages it found in its way, but likewife many hills. The perpendicular height of the fides of this current was from eighty to a hundred feet, fo that the entire furface of the country was in a state of fluidity, and formed a lake of fire, refembling a mass of melted metal.

Among the curiofities of Iceland, none are more worthy of attention than the hot spouting water-fprings, with which this ifland abounds. The hot fprings of Aix-la-Chapelle, Carlsbad, Bath, and Switzerland, and

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feveral others found in Italy, are confidered as very remarkable; bat, excepting in the laft-mentioned country, the water no where becomes fo hot as to boil; nor is it any where known to be thrown fo high as the hot fpouting water-fprings in Iceland. All thofe water-works that have been contrived with fo much art, and at fo enormous an expenfe, cannot by any means be compared with thefe. The water-works at St. Cloud, which are thought the greatest among all the French water-works, caft up a thin column eighty feet in the air; while fome fprings in Iceland fpout columns of water, of feveral feet in thickness, to the height, as many affirm, of feveral hundred feet. Thefe fprings are of an unequal degree of heat. From fome, the water flows gently as from other fprings, and it is then called a bath from others, boiling water fpouts with great noife, and it is then called a kettle. Though the degree of heat is unequal, yet Dr. Van Troil fays that he does not remember ever to have obferved it under 188 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. At Geyfer, Reynum, and Laugarvatn, he found it at 212 (the boiling heat); and in the laft place, in the ground, at a little hot current of water, 213 degrees. It is very common for fome of the fpouting-fprings to ceafe, and others to rife up in their ftead. Frequent earthquakes, and fubterranean noifes, heard at the time, caufe great terror to the people who live in the neighbourhood. In feveral of thefe hot fprings, the inhabitants who live near them boil their victuals, only by hanging a pot, into which the flesh is put in cold water, in the water of the fpring. They alfo bathe in the rivulets that run from them, which by degrees become lukewarm, or are cooled by their being mixed with rivulets of cold water. The cows that drink of thefe fprings are faid to yield an extraordinary quantity of milk; and they are likewife efteemed very wholesome when drank by the human fpecies.

The largest of all the fpouting-springs in Iceland is called Geyfer. It is about two days' journey from Heckla, and not far from Skalholt. In approaching towards it, a loud roaring noife is heard, like the rufhing of a torrent, precipitating itself from ftupendous rocks. The water here ipouts feveral times a-day, but always by fits, and after certain intervals. Some travellers have affirmed that it spouts to the height of fixty fathoms. The water is thrown up much higher at fome times than at others; when Dr. Van Troil was there, the utmost height to which it mounted was computed to be 92 feet.

Bafaltine pillars are likewife very common in Iceland, which are fuppofed to have been produced by fubterraneous fires. The lower fort of people imagine thefe pillars to have been piled upon one another by giants, who made ufe of fupernatural force to effect it. They have generally from three to feven fides, and are from four to feven feet in thickness, and from twelve to fixteen yards in length, without any horizontal divifions. In fome places they are only feen here and there among the lava in the mountains: but, in fome other places, they extend two or three miles in length without interruption.

There are immenfe maffes of ice, by which, every year, great damage is done to this country, and which affect the climate of it; they arrive commonly with a N. W. or N. N. W. wind from Greenland. The field ice is of two or three fathoms thickness, is feparated by the winds, and leis dreaded than the rock or mountain ice, which is often feen fifty and more feet above water, and is at least nine times the fame depth below water. Thete prodigious matles of ice are frequently left in thoal water, fixed, as it were, to the ground, and in that state remain many months, nay, it is faid, even years, undiffolved, chilling all the ambient part of the atmosphere for many miles round. When many fuch lofty and bulky

maffes of ice are floating together, the wood that is often drifted along between them is fo much chafed, and preffed with fuch violence together, that it takes fire; which circumftance has occafioned fabulous accounts of the ice being in flames. The ice caufed fo violent a cold in 1753 and 1754, that many horfes and sheep were killed by it; and, through want of food, horfes were observed to feed upon dead cattle, and the sheep to eat of each other's wool. A number of bears arrive yearly with the ice, which commit great ravages, particularly among the fheep. The Icelanders attempt to deftroy these intruders as foon as they get fight of them: and fometimes they affemble together, and drive them back to the ice, with which they often float off again. For want of fire-arms, they are obliged to make use of spears on thefe occafions. The government encourages the natives to deftroy thefe animals, by paying a premium of ten dollars for every bear that is killed. Their fkins are alfo purchased for the king, and are not allowed to be fold to any other person.

It is extraordinary that trees do not thrive in Iceland; nay, there are very few to be found in the whole island, though there are certain proofs that wood formerly grew there in great abundance. Nor can corn be cultivated here to any advantage; though cabbages, parfley, turnips, and peas, may be met with in five or fix gardens, which are faid to be all that are in the whole island.

TRADE.] The commerce of this ifland is monopolifed by a Danish company. The foil upon the fea-coaft is tolerably good for pafture: and though there is not any confiderable town in the whole ifland, the Icelanders have feveral frequented ports. Their exports confift of dried fish, falted mutton and lamb, beef, butter, tallow, train-oil, coarfe woollen cloths, ftockings, gloves, raw wool, fheep-fkins, lamb-fkins, fox-furs of various colours, eider-down, and feathers. Their imports confift of timber, fishing lines and hooks, tobacco, bread, horfe-fhoes, brandy, wine, falt, linen, and a little filk, exclufive of fome neceffaries and fuperfluities for the more wealthy.

STRENGTH AND REVENUE.] As Iceland affords no incitement for avarice or ambition, the inhabitants depend entirely upon his Danish majetty's protection; and the revenue he draws from the country amounts to about 30,000 crowns a year.

THE FARO OR FERRO ISLANDS, So called from their lying in a cluster, and the inhabitants ferrying from one inland to another. They are about 24 in number, and lie between 61 and 63 deg. N. lat. and 6 and 7 deg. W. long. from London. The space of this clufter extends about 60 miles in length and 40 in breadth, 300 miles to the weftward of Norway; having Shetland and the Orkneys on the south-eaft, and Greenland and Iceland upon the north and northweft. The trade and income of the inhabitants, who may be about 4000 or 5000, add little or nothing to the revenues of Denmark.

NAME, BOUNDARIES,

AND EXTENT.

NORWAY.

Containing 458,400 fquare miles, with less than 4 inhabitants to cach. THE natural fignification of Norway is, the Northern-way. It is bounded on the Youth by the entrance into the Baltic, called the Scaggerac, or Categate; on the weft and north by the Northern Ocean; and on the eaft is di vided from Sweden by a long ridge of mountains, called at different parts by different names; as Fillefield, Dofrefield, Runfield, and Dourfield.

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