lement was thirty rowers, which in
warships made sometimes a third and sometimes a sixth of the crew. All
round the warships, before the fight began, shield was laid on shield,
on a rim or rail, which ran all round the bulwarks, presenting a mark
like the hammocks of our navy, by which a long-ship could be at once
detected. The bulwarks in warships could be heightened at pleasure, and
this was called "to girdle the ship for war". The merchant ships often
carried heavy loads of meal and timber from Norway, and many a one of
these half-decked yawls no doubt foundered, like Flosi's unseaworthy
ship, under the weight of her heavy burden of beams and planks, when
overtaken by the autumnal gales on that wild sea. The passages were
often very long, more than one hundred days is sometimes mentioned as
the time spent on a voyage between Norway and Iceland.

As soon as the ship reached the land, she ran into some safe bay or
creek, the great landing places on the south and south-east coasts being
Eyrar, "The Eres," as such spots are still called in some parts of the
British Isles, that is, the sandy beaches opening into lagoons which
line the shore of the marsh district called Floi; and Hornfirth, whence
Flosi and the Burners put to sea after their banishment. There the ship
was laid up in a slip, made for her, she was stripped and made snug for
the winter, a roof of planks being probably thrown over her, while the
lighter portions of her cargo were carried on pack-saddles up the
country. The timber seems to have been floated up the firths and rivers
as near as it could be got to its destination, and then dragged by
trains of horses to the spot where it was to be used.

Some of the cargo--the meal, and cloth and arms--was wanted at home;
some of it was sold to neighbours either for ready money or on trust, it
being usual to ask for the debt either in coin or in kind, the spring
after. Sometimes the account remained outstanding for a much longer
time. Among these men whose hands were so swift to shed blood, and in
that state of things which looks so lawless, but which in truth was
based upon fixed principles of justice and law, the rights of property
were so safe, that men like Njal went lending their money to overbearing
fellows like Starkad under Threecorner for years, on condition that he
should pay a certain rate of interest. So also Gunnar had goods and
money out at interest, out of which he wished to supply Unna's wants. In