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748 KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
gelica as well is met with every where, it grows fo plenteoufly that the inhabitants often
live upon it themfelves, and give it to their cattle ;- itis moreover of a moft exquifite
flavor, and extraordinary fize.
But the moft fingular and valuable plant is that which is found upon the rocks, it is a
{pecies of mofs which very much refembles lungwort, or ladies’ wild-wort. Many Ice-
landers make flour of it which they prefer to wheat: it is called by them falla-gras, or
rock-grafs. M. Olave fending me at the fame time a handful of it, thus fpeaks in praife
of the plant in one of his letters. . I fend to you Sir, a herb which refembling lung’s-
-wort ferves among the Icelanders as a fuccedaneum for bread, it is called Iceland mofs,
and grows on the rocks of the loftier mountains, fo that with truth we may fay, God
gives us bread from ftones. It never grows in earth or foil of any defcription, nor cafts
forth roots. It affords us a noble feaft; the powder of it, taken moft frequently in
milk, is fo pleafant and falubrious, that I prefer it to every kind of flour; it is befides
an excellent ftomachic, and a moft fafe medicine in dyfentery.’”’ The reader will perceive
that M. Olave, who is well verfed in botany, attributes highly falutary qualities to this
lant.
ji Pulfe and fruit do not grow in Iceland, owing tothe exceflive cold, according to M.
Anderfon; and notwith{tanding what M. Horrebow may fay, who affirms that he ate
currants from the garden of the governor of Befefted, I believe it to be as difficult to
raife turnips in Iceland, as pine apples at Paris. It is at this time impoflible to grow
corn there ; and the regulations refpecting agriculture, which are ufed as an authority
for the fuppofition of its having been formerly cultivated, do not prove the fa&t; for the
wifdom of legiflators, every day provides for occurences that never happen.
There are no wild bea{ts in Iceland. Sometimes bears are brought over on fheets of
ice from Greenland; but as foon as they land and are perceived, they are fhot, or killed
with javelins: they come over of different colours, black, white, filvered, and {ftriped,
-but never have time to multiply.
The only undomefticated animals in Iceland are foxes. They are black, blue, red,
and white. In order to collect a number of thefe animals the inhabitants place in the
fields adead fheep or horfe, whofe carcafe exhaling a ftrong fmell toa great diftance,
-draws together the foxes around it ; fomewhere in the neighbourhood the {porfman fixes
himfelf, having beforehand built a place from which he can fee, without being feen,
and whence he is enabled to kill four or five foxes at a fhot.
There is a plenty of horfes in Iceland, of a {mall race, coming, according to M.
Anderfon, from Norway ; according to M. Horrebow from Scotland; probably neither
isin the right. However that may be, they are {trong and fwift. In the mountains are
thoufands of them, which for feveral years never enter a {table ; they poffefs the in{tinét
of breaking the ice in order to get their food. The faddle horfes are kept in the ftable
all the winter ; but when an inhabitant wants any for labour, he fends his fervants into
the mountains who gather them together, and take them with halters. ‘The horfes
taken in the mountains at five years old generally become the handfomeft and moft
vigourous of any.
_ The Icelanders raife numerous flocks of fheep. Every farm has its flock, and fome
farmers have as many as five fheep walks. In fome diftriéts they are left to wander all
the year about, and even during the winter, in the mountains. The only precaution
ufed is to feparate and take into folds the yearlings, who not being fo well fleeced as
the older fheep, would not be able to fupport the cold. Thefe animals are obliged to
make a hole in the fnow in order to get to their pafture : it is a very precarious poffef-
fion to the inhabitants, who oftentimes lofe the fruit of all their cares in an in(tant.
2 When
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