through the Sound have been levied since 1348, and therefore enjoy a
prescriptive right of more than five hundred years. They bring to the
Danish Government a yearly revenue of about a quarter of a million; and,
in consideration of the dues, the Government has to support certain
lighthouses, and otherwise to render safe and easy the navigation of this
great entrance to the Baltic. Sound-dues were first paid in the palmy
commercial days of the Hanseatic League. That powerful combination of
merchants had suffered severely from the ravages of Danish pirates, royal
and otherwise; but ultimately they became so powerful that the rich
merchant could beat the royal buccaneer, and tame his ferocity so
effectually as to induce him to build and maintain those beacon-lights on
the shores of the Sound, for whose use they and all nations and merchants
after them have agreed to pay certain duties.--ED.

{19} The Feroe Islands consist of a great many islets, some of them mere
rocks, lying about halfway between the north coast of Scotland and
Iceland. At one time they belonged to Norway, but came into the
possession of Denmark at the same time as Iceland. They are exceedingly
mountainous, some of the mountains attaining an elevation of about 2800
feet. The largest town or village does not contain more than 1500 or
1600 inhabitants. The population live chiefly on the produce of their
large flocks of sheep, and on the down procured, often at great risk to
human life, from the eider-duck and other birds by which the island is
frequented.--ED.

{20} I should be truly sorry if, in this description of our "life aboard
ship," I had said any thing which could give offence to my kind friend
Herr Knudson. I have, however, presumed that every one is aware that the
mode of life at sea is different to life in families. I have only to
add, that Herr Knudson lived most agreeably not only in Copenhagen, but
what is far more remarkable, in Iceland also, and was provided with every
comfort procurable in the largest European towns.

{21} It is not only at sea that ingenious excuses for drinking are
invented. The lovers of good or bad liquor on land find these reasons as
"plenty as blackberries," and apply them with a marvellous want of stint
or scruple. In warm climates the liquor is drank to keep the drinker
cool, in cold to keep him warm; in health to prevent him from being sick,
in sickness to bring him back to health. Very seldom is