Iceland: Horseback tours in saga landRussell, W. S. C. (Waterman Spaulding Chapman)
History
Iceland: Horseback tours in saga land
Russell, W. S. C. (Waterman Spaulding Chapman)
Iceland -- Description and travel; Sagas -- History and criticism
The cliffs are the property of the Danish Crown and are rented annually
in sections at a price ranging from sixty to seventy-five dollars. The
laws governing bird catching are well defined and strict. The season and
method of capture of each species is explicitly stated. A gun can never
be used under any circumstances. No act can be committed which would in
the least disturb the birds. The eider duck can never be killed except by
a man who can prove that he was actually starving with no other means of
procuring food. But above all the laws and rendering laws unnecessary is
a sound public opinion.
All the birds are very tame. Tens of thousands of puffins sit upright
along the tops of the crags, many of them still holding rows of little
fishes in their great beaks. The catchers station themselves at definite
intervals along the cliffs and catch them in a net as they fly past.
Their necks are broken with a sudden twist as the net is unloaded and the
birds left in piles along the ground or thrown to the bottom of the cliff
to be gathered by the boys and women who pluck them. The breast is used
for food. The remainder of the birds are strung on long lines and hung
upon the fences or festooned from the gables of the houses to dry and to
furnish fuel. A single puffin is worth when first captured about a cent
and a half. The down is sold at the trader’s store for thirteen cents per
pound. About 40,000 puffins are taken on these cliffs each season.
The fulmar is nearly as important as the puffin. About 30,000
are captured during the open season. The fulmar, “foul-gull,” is
appropriately named. When captured or disturbed it spits a large quantity
of oily fluid, rank with the odor of putrid fish. These birds are taken
by the simple act of knocking them over with a club. Several men usually
work in unison. One man has a long rope fastened to his waist and then
twisted around each thigh. Suspended in the air, or with his feet against
the face of the cliff he ascends or descends the sides of the rock,
kicking himself outward. The rope is managed by three or four men at the
top of the cliff and sometimes secured by an iron ring fastened in the
rock.
The fulmars are plucked, the heads and wings cut off, the body split
open, the interior fat cleaned out, and then the birds are either smoked
or packed in salt for winter use. The fat is boiled down to a thick oil,
spiced and used as a substitute for butter. Ten fulmars will yield a
liter of oil. The oil is used in the native lamps. The entrails, heads,
wings and legs are dried and used for fuel. It is so difficult to free
the feathers from the oil that they are of little value. When thoroughly
cleaned they are worth only twelve cents per pound. The birds themselves
when cured are worth four cents each.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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