of his dependants, will easily account fot
the crowded names of places which we see
in the best maps of the island, and which
might lead to a most erroneous idea of
its present or former population, unless accompanied
by the explanation that in the
greater number of instances they are to
be understood as the appellations of mére
farms*, and never of what in England would
be entitled to be called a village. The present
place, which, if I recollect well, bears
the name of Farit, stands in a singular and
interesting situation; being near the head
* “ Lands áre tere divided into estates, which are
never subdivided, and are held in three different kinds
of tenure:
“ King’s Land,
" Church Land, and
“ Freehold.
“ King's land, is given by the Landfogued to whomsoever
he pleases, and the family who occupy it possess
it as long as they have an heir and can pay the rent,
which is very small, and a tax of one rix-dollar per
annum.
“ Church land is given away by the Bishop and Ampt-
man, and held in the same manner.
“ Freehold is as in other countries, each estate paying
one rix-dollar per annum to the King, in lieu of land-
tax.” Sir Joseph Banks' MSS. Journal.
of Hval-fiord, so that from it we had a noble
and extensive view of this arm of the sea,
on which were innumerable quantities of the
black divers (Colymbus Troile) and many
flocks of swans. From the agitated surface
of the water the violence of the wind raised
great bodies of spray, which were driven,
like a dense mist, into a valley that opened
to the south. In an opposite direction, and
near the extremity of the fiord, a mountain
of no great elevation afforded us a curious
spectacle of another kind ; for here a cloud,
of snow, which was passing nearly over our
heads in an unbroken mass, being impeded
in its progress by this hill, in a few seconds
of time enveloped in a white covering, as
with a sheet, its previously brown and barren
sides, for nearly half way down. Our encampment
was fortunately provided with
sufficient shelter from the storm by a lofty
and jierpendicular rock,
“ Huge as the tower, which builders vain
" Presumptuous piled on Shinar’s plain,”—
the whole so strange in form, and so broken
into recesses and projections, that fancy