[128] The “frow-stack” is a skerry, resembling a woman’s skirt. Sir W. Scott (The Pirate, xxvi.) says the “Fraw-Stack,” or Maiden Rock, an inaccessible cliff, divided by a narrow gulf from the island of Papa, has on the summit some ruins, concerning which there is a legend similar to that of Danoë. Vigr (a spear, in the Orkneys Veir) describes a sharp-pointed rock.
[129] Erlendr is here a proper name: usually it is an adjective, meaning “foreign” = the Germ. Elendi.
[130] Also the single day’s passage from Reykjavik to Berufjörð is $12, or one-third of the full passage to Granton, which takes eight to nine days. The other and far more important complaints against the “Diana” have been noticed before.
[131] From Ör, negative, and Höfn, a haven: as will be seen, the plural Öræfi is also applied to a wilderness.
[132] In the Færoes the whale is written “Qual,” a pronunciation still retained in Iceland.
[133] Mr Newton’s valuable paper in the Ibis, containing all that is required quâ Iceland ornithology, has been alluded to. He quotes the works of the late Hr Petur Sturitz, of Professor Steenstrŭp (Videnskabelige Meddellser for Aaret 1855), of the venerable Richard Owen (Paleontology, 2d edit., 1861, and Trans. Zool. Soc., June 14, 1864), and of many other writers. An interesting note about the “only wingless, or rather flightless, species of the northern hemisphere,” and two recorded instances of the rara avis being kept in confinement, are given by Baring-Gould, Appendix A., pp. 406, 407.
[134] My companion, Mr Chapman, a New Zealander, who has returned to New Zealand, suggested that, despite Dr Hector, the Moa, a bird eight feet high, may still be found alive in some of the forest fastnesses of his native island.
[135] According to Barnard, the last European auk was killed in 1848, at Vardö, a Norwegian fortress on the frontier of Russia.
[136] Berufjörð is derived from Berr, of whom more presently, or from Bera, a she-bear, the animal being often floated over upon ice-floes: Bare Firth, from “berr,” bare, which has been proposed (Longman, p. 33), is a mere error. It is the longest, if not the largest, feature of this coast, except Reyðarfjörð, which lies to the north, separated by three minor inlets. The “look-out” stands, according to nautical charts, in N. lat. 64° 39´ 45´´, and W. long. (G.) 14° 14´ 15´´ (in Olsen 14° 19´ 47´´), the latter supposed to require correction. The difference of time from Reykjavik is about 30´. The variation (west) diminishes: it was laid down at 39° or 40°, but on May 18, 1872, Captain Tvede made it 35° 15´. Here local attractions, often causing a difference of half-a-point within a few hundred yards, would puzzle “George Graham of London.”
[137] Mr Watts, who is now publishing an account of his march, and who has started a third time for the Vatnajökull, gave me this list of stations: