wool is extremely fine and short, but, as the
winter approaches, a longer and coarser kind
is mixed with it, which is said, by writers
on Iceland, to be employed in making
buttons and garters at Copenhagen, and to
be sold for a manufactory of camel’s hair.
The finest of the Icelandic wool is selected by
the merchants at Copenhagen, and considered
far superior to the best that Zealand produces.
In the neighborhood of Reikevig,
sheep sell at from three to four dollars a
head, but in the interior of the country they
may be bought at very much less. I have
paid one dollar for a good sheep, and the
peasant has been more than satisfied. For a
lamb of a moderate size, two marks (is. Ad.)
is a fair price. These animals seem to be
fond of various species of sea-weed, which
they eagerly devour at the ebb tide upon
the shores; but it is only when they are
greatly distressed for other food, that the
natives give them the refuse of the stock and
wolf-fish. They are also said at those times
to feed them with small narrow pieces cut
from the belly of the shark.
Goats, which were formerly abundant in the
island, are now but seldom seen, and, I believe,
are principally confined to the northern
and eastern parts of the island, where some
farmers keep small flocks of them. To judge
from the skins that I procured of two of these
animals, they arrive at a large size, and, from
their extreme hardiness, I should have supposed
they w'ould have answered well to an
Icelandic peasant. Rein-deer I have already
noticed as having greatly increased in the
mountainous and less frequented districts;
and there is reason to hope that at some future
period they may be of real importance to the
Icelanders. Hogs are no where to be met
with, the country unfortunately furnishing
no food for their support.
The dark nights which immediately preceded
our departure from Iceland gave me an
opportunity of seeing the Aurora Borealis
in a degree of perfection unknown to the inhabitants
of milder climates, though, according
to the report of the natives, it was even
then very much inferior to what it appears
in the still darker and longer evenings of
winter. I do not at ail recollect observing
the light occupying any of the northern
hemisphere, but various parts of the east,
west, and south were frequently illuminated.