[22] Nothing easier than to teach the horse meat-eating and fish-eating. Where little and highly nutritious food is forced by the necessity of saving weight, the habit is acquired in youth.

[23] In this matter the last few years have seen a wonderful improvement amongst us; still, I have visited wealthy stables in England where the thermometer stood at 72° (F.), equal to Boston Hotel, or to an Anglo-Indian London Club. It is difficult to reform the evil where grooms sleep above these ovens, where hot air saves grooming coats, and where the vet. requires to make a livelihood. The perfection of horse-stabling appears to me a modification of the Afghan system—protecting the chest and body with felts, thick or thin as the season demands, and allowing the head and throat to be hardened by cold, pure air.

[24] This is a general rule: 65 for an ass, 100 for a pony, and 120-150 for an ox. The latter are not trained to carry luggage in Iceland, and it is hard to tell the reason why.

[25] Astraddle was doubtless the earliest form of feminine seat, yet Mr Newton found at Budrum a statue of Diana sitting her horse sideways.

[26] Information concerning them may be met with in Gosselin (Historia Fucorum): travellers have paid scant attention to this branch of botany. The wracks feed man and beast, and serve for fuel, bed stuffing, and other domestic purposes: consequently some forty-four kinds have been described, especially that impostor, the Zostera marina, which lies in loose heaps. The most common are the Fucus palmatus, Sacchurinus esculentus, edulis, fœniculaceus, and digitatus. The first-mentioned is the Sol, eaten in Ireland and in Scotland, where it is called Dulce: at Oreback (Eyrarbakka), it sells for 70 fishes per voet (= 80 lbs.). The second, F. saccharinus (Alga saccharifera), is the Welsh Laver, whose spirally-twisted leaves, six feet long by one broad, become straight when dry. In the Shetlands the larger fuci in general are called Tangle, Tang, and Ware, and are extensively used as manure.

[27] Dr Cowie (Shetland, 1st edit., chap. ix., pp. 165-167) gives an excellent account of “peat-casting.”

[28] Varða, in the plural Vörður, is a beacon, more generally an “homme de pierre,” a pile of stones to act as landmark or way sign; it is derived from að varða, to ward, to guard, monere (quod hîc vicus est). Our travellers generally write the word in the Danish form “Varde.” These piles, like the “‘a’úr” (Kakúr) of Syria and Palestine, are often put up by the shepherd lads, apparently for want of something else to do.

[29] Kona, of old Kwina and Kuna, is evidently the English Quean (but not Queen). It is a congener of γυνή;(Sansk. Jani), which the Rev. Wm. Ridley (p. 390, Anthrop. Journal, July and Oct. 1872) traces through Guni, Gun, Gyn, and Gin, to the Australian “Jin:” why not take it at once from the Arab. Jinn (Genie), a manner of devil? For many years, Konungr (A.S., Cynig, our King) was composed of Konr, man of gentle birth, and Ungr, young; but the Dictionary pronounces this to be a mere poetical fancy.

[30] The pint was found to contain 3·51 grains of solid matter. The specific gravity (at 60° F.) was 1000·21, and the components were:

Silica,1·04grains.
Protoxide of iron,0·24”
Lime,a trace.
Magnesia,0·2”
Soda,0·84”
Sulphuric acid,0·76”
Chlorine,0·40”
Organic matter,0·30”
Total,3·60grains.