Glaciers were formed, wherever the nature of the slope would admit of them. In some instances they seemed to approach the brink of the precipice and overhang it; but more frequently they chose places where rents, chasms, irregularities, or depressed spaces, occurring between any two mountains in the range, broke the wall, and thus afforded an incline plane all the way down to the valley.

Many whales continue to sport round the vessel, spouting up jets of water, tumbling about and showing the whole of their large tails. At times they leap nearly altogether out of the sea, and fall with a great splash. They often remain perfectly motionless for a considerable time. When diving down, both the rounded shape of the fish, and the peculiar parabolic motion with which it rises and falls, make the ridge of the back with its dorsal fins resemble the segment of a great black revolving disk, like a monster saw-wheel. Gulls, skuas, and pheasant-tailed ducks are flying about.

A lot of beer-drinking and meerschaum-smoking Danes are on board, going to Copenhagen. The smell of tobacco is felt everywhere, above, below, and at all hours. Their voices are frequently heard during the day calling for “snaps.” They consider a glass of this spirit indispensible for breakfast, and take it every morning to begin with. However, the hours passed very pleasantly on shipboard. The following

ICELANDIC STATISTICS

will interest the reader. From the last census—1855—we learn that the population of the island is 64,603; of that number 52,475 live by farming, and 5,055 by fishing, thus accounting for nearly three-fourths of the whole population. In exact figures the number is only 923 short of that proportion.

There were then in the island 65 persons deaf and dumb, and 202 blind. Curious to observe that, although there previously had been and again may be, there was not then a single watchmaker on the island. The extreme paucity of common tradesmen—less than 11 to the 1000—indicates a very primitive pastoral state of society amongst the islanders; home wants being generally supplied by home skill. The following table is constructed, from data contained in the census, to show at a glance the various occupations of the Icelanders, and also what relative proportion these bear to each thousand of the population.

Total numbers in the island at census in 1855. Proportion to each 1000 of the whole population.
Clergymen, professors and teachers at the college, and employés at churches 2,365 36.61
Civil officers 454 7.03
Do. out of office 140 2.17
Farmers who live by agriculture 52,475 812.27
Farmers who depend chiefly on the fisheries 5,055 78.25
Tradesmen as follows:
Bakers 10 0.16
Coopers 35 0.55
Gold and silversmiths 80 1.24
Carpenters 61 0.94
Blacksmiths 80 1.24
Masons 6 0.09
Millers 4 0.07
Turners 8 0.13
Boat builders 38 0.59
Shoemakers 18 0.28
Tailors 27 0.41
Joiners 174 2.69
Saddlers 46 0.71
Weavers 20 0.30
Men who live by other industrial occupations 103 1.59
Merchants and innkeepers 730 11.30
Pensioners, and people living on their own means 356 5.51
Day labourers 523 8.09
Miscellaneous occupations not classed 586 9.07
Paupers 1,207 18.68
Prisoners 2 0.3
——— ———
64,603 1000

There are only sixty-three native Icelandic surnames. Few people have got any; the custom is, after telling one’s own christian name, when asked whose son are you? to answer in old Hebrew fashion, son of, or daughter of so and so. There are 530 men’s christian names, and 529 women’s names in use; so that there need be no lack for choice of names in a large family. Many of them, slightly modified in spelling, are familiar to us, but chiefly as surnames, e.g. Kettle, Halle, Ormur, Gils, Olafur, &c.

The number of individuals bearing certain names, is all duly recorded in the last census. I note a few of them, from which the reader may infer that Casa’s droll extravaganza, depreciating the name John under its various forms, is as applicable to Iceland as to Italy; and that Sigridur, Kristin, and Helga, are favourite names among the ladies.

The figures in the following list indicate the total number of persons, in the whole island, who bear these respective names.