There is only one kind of Wadmal generally worn, but in most parts of the island, and especially in the east, there are finer qualities used for “store-clothes” and woman’s attire. The Ormadúkr is worked like drill, the Einskepta like twill. It is sold by the ell, or two Danish feet (= 2⅜ English feet), at the following rates—the breadths being 2 to 2·5 feet and the length indefinite:

Coarse or common,$030to$038per ell.
Middling,048”050”
Fine and thin (skarlat),050”100”

The manufacture varies in the several Quarters. The usual colours are grey, black, light-blue, and murret (Icel. Mórautt), the moret or russet-brown of the undyed wool; white is sometimes seen, but not the red—now confined to tradition. It is excellent stuff, durable, and, after a fashion, waterproof. The moderns prefer to this home-made article the cheap broad-cloths and long-cloths of European machinery; and so in West Africa we find the admirable “native” pagnes becoming too expensive for everyday work.

Details concerning the goldsmith’s trade will be found in the Journal. The principal is silver filagree, which will compare with that of Norway, but poorly with the work of Genoa, Malta, Delhi, and Trichinopoly.

A few hands find employment as pilots.[240] They are licensed without fee by the Sýslumenn; and in the district of a professional pilot, men cannot ply the trade without this permission. Found at all the commercial establishments, they are generally farmers; he of Vopnafjörð is a cooper: a flag hoisted at the fore is the usual signal. The pay is not settled; upon the eastern coast they demand $2 per mast; the “Queen” paid $6, her funnel, it is presumed, being counted as a mast. The Reykjavik pilot may make £10 per annum. All these gentry come or stay away as they please, even when the Danish steamer heaves in sight.

The post office, that best of standards for taking the measure of civilisation, also employs a few hands. The postmaster-general resides at Copenhagen; the departmental-chief at Reykjavik is Hr O. Finsen, an Icelander, brother to the Amtmand of the Færoe Islands. He keeps a book-store, and sells stationery, plain and fancy, in the Parson’s Green, opposite the French Consul’s; he speaks English, and nothing can exceed his civility to strangers. The tariff which he gave the author was as follows: Ship letters weighing three Danish kvints, or half-an-ounce English, pay 14 skillings for three postage stamps, one of 8, and two of 3 skillings, a total of 3½d., which is exorbitant. A similar sum is charged for every three additional kvints, or 8d. an ounce. Newspapers pay 3½d. for eight kvints; parcels 1s. 6d., and larger packages 9d. per cubic foot.

“Postal delivery” is of course unknown, even at the capital; the same was the case at New York fifteen years ago. The inland post was very poorly managed, but something was done in 1872 to remedy the main grievance. At Copenhagen the ship-postage could be paid, not the land transit; consequently the letters for the out-stations, unless re-posted by a friend, lay for an indefinite time at the Reykjavik office. It was common to see despatches written in January received on the eastern coast in July. The Althing has now established branches at the several stations where the steamers stop; and the sum of $30 per annum is paid for an immense amount of work; perhaps Iceland is not singular in this matter. There is a northern courier-road which takes five days viâ Reykholt and Arnarvatnsheiði to Akureyri, but in winter it is impassable. No regular overland communication connects the western with the eastern coast, which the postman visits a few times during the year; and if there be any duly prepaid letters for the dangerous southern shore, the same courier will run that way.

A favourite occupation in Iceland is gathering the eider down (Æðar-dún)—the Édredon so celebrated as a non-conductor of heat. It is best in the coldest climates, like Greenland; here it is good, especially after a wet season, when the birds lay most. In the Færoe Islands, and off the Northumberland coast, it is not worth collecting for sale; and the same is the case in the Orkneys and Shetlands. For instance, the people of Rousay, an island of some thirty square miles, do not preserve their “dunters” (Somateria dispar?); they eat the bird after the breeding season, in August or September, and they pickle the eggs for winter use. The eider is found in the Pacific, but only on the northern coasts of Asia and America.

The first lay of eggs, beginning in May and ending six or seven weeks afterwards, is from four to six; the second from two to four, and the third from two to three; if not carried off, they will accumulate from ten to sixteen. The duck gives about an ounce of down each time the house is robbed, or three nests yield a total of half-a-pound. After the third ponte, the drake contributes an ounce and a half of whiter material, easily distinguished; and if further outrage be offered, the unhappy couple quit the bereaved home. Older authors speak only of eggs (eggver), never of the down; and it is believed that the English trade in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought the name and the article into foreign markets. Jón í Brokey (born A.D. 1584), who learned the art and mystery of cleaning in England, introduced it here; and the rude process is still preserved. An open sieve is made of yarn stretched over a hoop, and the feathers are stirred with a pointed stick. Thus the finer material (gras-dún) remains above, the coarser stuff (thang-dún, or seaweed down) and the heterogeneous matter fall through—this operation reduces the yield to about half. The work is done by men and women, in autumn and winter. The Édredon taken from the dead fowl loses elasticity, and is of little value.

The annual supply of Iceland was 2000 lbs. in 1806; it gradually rose to 5000 or 6000, valued at about £5000; and in 1870 it was 7909 lbs. The two islets, Yiðey and Engey, off Reykjavik, have produced as much as 300 lbs. in a year. About 1½ lbs. are required for an average coverlet. The clean lb. in 1809 cost $3; in 1854 (Pliny Miles), 50 cents = 2s. 2d.; in 1860 (Preyer and Zirkel), from $2·66 to $4·53; in 1862 (Shepherd), 12s. to 15s.; and in 1872, $7 to $8. As the cleaned material sells in England for 18s. to 19s. per lb., and the uncleaned for 8s., little profit can be made out of it. In “Some Notes on Greenland, etc.” (Alpine Journal, Aug. 1873), Mr Edward Whymper says still more: “At Copenhagen, eider down is worth 20s. per lb., yet in London, quilts weighing 4½ lbs. are sold for 36s. How much chopped straw and old feathers has the British tradesman to insert in order to realise his honest profit?”