_Feroe Isles._--Here the population is from Norway, as pure as that of Iceland; and the form of speech is Icelandic also. The popular songs of the Feroe Islanders have drawn considerable attention, and been well illustrated. They read the critic a lesson of caution, in showing the extent to which a foreign subject may be thoroughly naturalized; so much so as to wear the appearance of being indigenous. Yet the subjects are those of the Nibelungen-Lied, and, as such, continental in their origin; in their immediate origin, Scandinavian, in their remote origin, German. _Norway._--The population of Norway is essentially Lapp and Norwegian, with the addition of a few Kwain settlements. The Norwegian calls the Lapplander a _Fin_, so that the district or _march_ of the Lapp population of Norway is called Fin-mark. But it is found considerably southwards as well. The following table shows the distribution of the Fin (Lapp) population of Norway in 1724, 1845, and four intermediate periods:-- +---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+ | |1724.|1756.|1768.|1825.|1835.| 1845.| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+ |Finmark |2825 |3210 |3260 | - | - |12,506| |Nordland |3928 | - | - | - | - | 1735| |North Trondjem | 478 | - | - | - | - | 181| |South Trondjem | - | - | - | - | - | 75| |Hedemarken[20] | - | - | - | - | - | 41| +---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+ No census was taken for the years and districts to which no number is assigned. The table, however, invalidates the current notion that all the so-called savage races are in a state of decrease. In the copper districts of the north of Norway there is a considerable number of Kwain settlers, chiefly employed as steady and industrious labourers in the mines. There is also a Kwain colony in the districts of Soloers called _Finskoven_ (the _Fin Wood_) in the southern part of Norway and on the frontier of Sweden. The rest of the population is of the same Germanic origin as the Danes and Swedes; though purer than either. The recent and superadded elements are but few, German being the chief; and Bergen and Christiania being the towns where they are commonest. Of the Danish elements no account is taken; the two populations being so closely allied. Jewish blood is non-existent; owing to rigorous laws of exclusion, ill-assorted with the liberal constitution of the most republican government in Europe. A Lapp population common to Russia and Norway is common to Sweden also; the districts in the last-named countries being called _Lap_-mark, and the population _Lapps_. Populations more or less allied to the Lapps, covering the southward extension of the present Lapp area were originally the native population of both Sweden and Norway. This is generally admitted. So it is that the present Germanic populations are not aboriginal.