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Unfortunately the two clergymen to whom the spiritual care of the islanders is confided seem to have but a very indifferent flock, for their neighbors on the mainland give rather a bad character to the inhabitants of Heimaey, describing them as great sluggards and drunkards.

The population, which was formerly more considerable, amounts to about 200 souls, but even this is more than might be expected from the dreadful mortality which reigns among the children. The eggs and the oily flesh of sea-birds furnish a miserable food for infants, particularly when weaned, as is here customary, at a very early age; but the poor islanders have nothing else to give them, except. some fish, and a very insufficient quantity of cow's or sheep's milk. This unhealthy diet, along with the boisterous air, gives rise to an incurable infantile disease, called Ginklofi (tetanus). Its first symptoms are squinting and rolling of the eyes, the muscles of the back are seized with incipient cramps and become stiff. After a day or two lock-jaw takes place, the back is bent like a bow, either backward or forward. The lock-jaw prevents swallowing, and the cramps become more frequent and prolonged until death closes the scene. The same disease is said to decimate the children on St. Kilda in consequence of a similar mode of life.

The only means of preserving the infants of Heimaey from the Ginklofi, is to send them as soon as possible to the mainland to be reared, and thus a long continuance of bad weather is a death-warrant to many.

Who would suppose that the Westman Islanders, doubly guarded by their poverty and almost inaccessible cliffs, could ever have become the prey of freebooters? and yet they have been twice attacked and pillaged, and well-nigh exterminated by sea-rovers.

I have already mentioned, in a previous chapter, that before the discovery of the banks of Newfoundland, the English cod-fishers used to resort in great numbers to the coasts of Iceland, where some of them-now and then-appeared also in the more questionable character of corsairs. One of these worthies, who, like Paul Clifford, or Captain Macheath, so effectually united the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, as to have merited the name of "Gentleman John,” came to the Westmans in 1614 and set the church on fire, after having previously removed the little that was worth taking. After this exploit he returned to Great Britain, but King James I. had him hung, and ordered the church ornaments which he had robbed to be restored to the poor islanders. It was, however, written in the book of fate that they were not to enjoy them long, for in 1627, a vessel of Algerine pirates, after plundering several places on the eastern and southern coasts of Iceland, fell like a thunderbolt on Heimaey. These miscreants, compared with whom John was a “gentleman" indeed, cut down every man who ventured to oppose them, plundered and burnt the new-built church, and every hovel of the place, and carried away about 400 prisoners-men, women, and children. One of the two clergymen of the island, Jon Torsteinson, was murdered at the time. This learned and pious man had translated the Psalms of David and the Book of Genesis into Icelandic verse, and is spoken of as the "martyr" in the history of the land. The other clergyman, Olaf Egil

son, with his wife and children, and the rest of the prisoners, was sold into slavery in Algiers. The account of his sufferings and privations, which he wrote in the Icelandic language, was afterwards translated and published in Danish.

It was not until 1636, nine years after their capture, that the unfortunate Heimaeyers were released, and then only by being ransomed by the King of Denmark. Such was the misery they had endured from their barbarous taskmasters, that only thirty-seven of the whole number survived, and of these but thirteen lived to return to their native island.

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FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE.

Mild Climate of the Norwegian Coast.-Its Causes.-The Norwegian Peasant.-Norwegian Constitution.Romantic coast Scenery.-Drontheim.-Greiffenfeld Holme and Väre.-The Sea-eagle.-The Herringfisheries.-The Lofoten Islands.--The Cod-fisheries.-Wretched Condition of the Fishermen.-Tromso-Altenfiord.—The Copper Mines.-Hammerfest the most northern Town in the World.-The North

Cape.

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F all the lands situated either within or near the Arctic Circle none enjoys a more temperate climate than the Norwegian coast. Here, and nowhere else throughout the northern world, the birch and the fir-tree climb the mountain-slopes to a height of 700 or 800 feet above the level of the sea, as far as the

70th degree of latitude; here we still find a flourishing agriculture in the interior of the Malanger Fjord in 69°. On the opposite side of the Polar Ocean extends the inaccessible ice belt of East Greenland; Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla are not 400 miles distant from Talvig and Hammerfest, and yet these ports are never blocked with ice, and even in the depth of winter remain constantly open to navigation. What are the causes which in this favored region banish the usual rigors of the Arctic zone? How comes it that the winter even at the North Cape (mean temperature +22°) is much less severe than at Quebec (mean temperature +14°), which is situated 25° of latitude nearer to the equator?

The high mountain chains which separate Norway from Sweden and Finland, and keep off the eastern gales issuing from the Siberian wastes, while its coasts lie open to the mild south-westerly winds of the Atlantic, no doubt account in some measure for the comparative mildness of its climate; but the main cause of this phenomenon must no doubt be sought for in the sea. Flowing into the Atlantic Ocean between Florida and Cuba, the warm Gulf Stream traverses the sea from west to east, and although about the middle of its course it partly turns to the south, yet a considerable portion of its waters flows onward to the north-east, and streaming through the wide portal between Iceland and Great Britain, eventually reaches the coasts of Norway. Of course its warmth diminishes as it advances to the north, but this is imparted to the winds that sweep over it, and thus it not merely brings the seeds of tropical plants from Equatorial America to the coasts of Norway, but also the far more important advantages of a milder temperature.

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The soil of Norway is generally rocky and sterile, but the sea amply makes up for the deficiencies of the land, and with the produce of their fisheries, of their forests, and their mines, the inhabitants are able to purchase the few foreign articles which they require. Though poor, and not seldom obliged to reap the gifts of nature amidst a thousand hardships and dangers, they envy no other nation upon earth.

The Norwegian peasant is a free man on the scanty bit of ground which he has inherited from his fathers, and he has all the virtues of a freeman-an open character, a mind clear of every falsehood, a hospitable heart for the stranger. His religious feelings are deep and sincere, and the Bible is to be found in every hut. He is said to be indolent and phlegmatic, but when necessity urges he sets. vigorously to work, and never ceases till his task is done. His courage and his patriotism are abundantly proved by a history of a thousand years.

Norway owes her present prosperity chiefly to her liberal constitution. The press is completely free, and the power of the king extremely limited. All privileges and hereditary titles are abolished. The Parliament, or the "Storthing," which assembles every three years, consists of the "Odelthing," or Upper House, and of the "Logthing," or Legislative Assembly. Every new law requires the royal sanction; but if the Storthing has voted it in three successive sittings, it is definitively adopted in spite of the royal veto. Public education is admirably cared for. There is an elementary school in every village, and where the population is too thinly scattered, the schoolmaster may truly be said

to be abroad, as he wanders from farm to farm, so that the most distant families have the benefit of his instruction. Every town has its public library, and in many districts the peasants annually contribute a dollar towards a collection. of books, which, under the care of the priest, is lent out to all subscribers. No Norwegian is confirmed who does not know how to read, and no Norwegian is allowed to marry who has not been confirmed. He who attains his twentieth year without having been confirmed has to fear the House of Correction. Thus ignorance is punished as a crime in Norway, an excellent example for far richer and more powerful nations.

The population of Norway amounts to about 1,350,000, but these are very unequally distributed; for while the southern province of Aggerhuus has 513,000 inhabitants on a surface of 35,200 square miles, Nordland has only 59,000 on 16,325, and Finmark, the most northern province of the land, but 38,000 on 29,925, or hardly more than one inhabitant to every square mile. But even this scanty population is immense when compared with that of Eastern Siberia or of the Hudson's Bay territories, and entirely owes its existence to the mildness of the climate and the open sea, which at all seasons affords its produce to the fisherman.

It is difficult to imagine a more secluded, solitary life than that of the "bonders," or peasant proprietors, along the northern coasts of Norway. The farms, confined to the small patches of more fruitful ground scattered along the fjords, at the foot or on the sides of the naked mountains, are frequently many miles distant from their neighbors, and the stormy winter cuts off all communication

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