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Article A DESCRIPTION OF ICELAND. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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A Description Of Iceland.
Cod , or stock-fish , more abound m these seas , than any otuer kind , and make the principal article of their fishery . They slit the cod in two , lengthways ; then dry them under coverts of boards ; afterwards string them , and carry them to the fish-ports , where they are sold to foreigners . —Whales are not scarce in these seas ; and the Icelanders master these vast animals b } cutting off their communication with the seaand driving them before them with shouting and hallooing
, , till the } 7 are stranded in some bay . The Northern meteors are no curiosity here ; the Aurora Borealis shines every night , and , in some measure , supplies the long absence of the sun , which seems to leave the inhabitants of the North .-with some regret , and may be seen longer than is warranted by the rules of astronomy ; andeven during the longest winter ' s nig
htcommu-, , nicates a lustre , which makes a kind of day , that lasts an hour and a half in four ancl twenty . The northern cold prevents not the rising of exhalations , since thunder and tempests are more common in winter than summer . Spring ancl autumn are banished from these climates . A long and tedious winter succeeds a summer , which begins not till towards the end of Juneand hardly lasts till September ;
, some of the hardest frosts are in April . The Icelanders nearly . resemble the Groenlanders ; but , by their commerce with Europeans , they seem to have contracted some of our vices , besides some of their own natural defects . Drunkenness is predominant among them ; all ages and sexes are much addicted
to drinking of brandy , though adulterated with a nauseous mixture of train-oil , or bad whey . The natives are , however , very robust , hardy , and insensible to all injuries of the . air . Distempers are very rare amongst them , and would be more so , were it not for their bad diet . They are wholly destitute of dread , and live only on fish , or flesh half-putrefied . These alcaline aliments are not duly corrected by a sufficient
proportion of acid vegetables ; whence a great inclination to putrefaction must , of consequence , prevail in their humours . Their slovenliness is insupportable : this , indeed , is the most general fault of the northern people , though excusable , in some measure , from the impossibility of keeping themselves clean and neat during the long imprisonment in which they are confined by the snows and ice . Their habitations
are very mean and despicable ; they make them under ground , to avoid the winds ; their height is not above ten or eleven feet , their breadth six , their length twenty ; and a cow ' s allantois serves , instead of glass , to cover some small holes , which deserve not the name of windows . They are mere cowards , like the Groenlanders and Laplanders
, and could never be made soldiers . Their sloth and indolence are almost invincible : none here learns a trade , but is obliged to provide himself with every little necessary , with which we are so readil y furnished by our artificers . Their trade is managed by truck , or bartering one commodity for another . The current money consists in dried fish , which must
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Description Of Iceland.
Cod , or stock-fish , more abound m these seas , than any otuer kind , and make the principal article of their fishery . They slit the cod in two , lengthways ; then dry them under coverts of boards ; afterwards string them , and carry them to the fish-ports , where they are sold to foreigners . —Whales are not scarce in these seas ; and the Icelanders master these vast animals b } cutting off their communication with the seaand driving them before them with shouting and hallooing
, , till the } 7 are stranded in some bay . The Northern meteors are no curiosity here ; the Aurora Borealis shines every night , and , in some measure , supplies the long absence of the sun , which seems to leave the inhabitants of the North .-with some regret , and may be seen longer than is warranted by the rules of astronomy ; andeven during the longest winter ' s nig
htcommu-, , nicates a lustre , which makes a kind of day , that lasts an hour and a half in four ancl twenty . The northern cold prevents not the rising of exhalations , since thunder and tempests are more common in winter than summer . Spring ancl autumn are banished from these climates . A long and tedious winter succeeds a summer , which begins not till towards the end of Juneand hardly lasts till September ;
, some of the hardest frosts are in April . The Icelanders nearly . resemble the Groenlanders ; but , by their commerce with Europeans , they seem to have contracted some of our vices , besides some of their own natural defects . Drunkenness is predominant among them ; all ages and sexes are much addicted
to drinking of brandy , though adulterated with a nauseous mixture of train-oil , or bad whey . The natives are , however , very robust , hardy , and insensible to all injuries of the . air . Distempers are very rare amongst them , and would be more so , were it not for their bad diet . They are wholly destitute of dread , and live only on fish , or flesh half-putrefied . These alcaline aliments are not duly corrected by a sufficient
proportion of acid vegetables ; whence a great inclination to putrefaction must , of consequence , prevail in their humours . Their slovenliness is insupportable : this , indeed , is the most general fault of the northern people , though excusable , in some measure , from the impossibility of keeping themselves clean and neat during the long imprisonment in which they are confined by the snows and ice . Their habitations
are very mean and despicable ; they make them under ground , to avoid the winds ; their height is not above ten or eleven feet , their breadth six , their length twenty ; and a cow ' s allantois serves , instead of glass , to cover some small holes , which deserve not the name of windows . They are mere cowards , like the Groenlanders and Laplanders
, and could never be made soldiers . Their sloth and indolence are almost invincible : none here learns a trade , but is obliged to provide himself with every little necessary , with which we are so readil y furnished by our artificers . Their trade is managed by truck , or bartering one commodity for another . The current money consists in dried fish , which must