The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

ISLANDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.I.—THE FAROEB, ISLANDS.HE " Sheep," or " Navigators' " Islands, as the term has beenvariously interpreted, depend politically on Denmark, but haveno geographical connection with Scandinavia. Isolated in mid-Atlantic, they are surrounded by abysses several hundred yards indepth, the submarine plateau on which thej Trest forming a sort ofquadrangular support, enclosed by the deepest waters on the east or Scandinavianside, and twice as far removed from that region as from the Shetlands,Orkneys, and Hebrides. The Faroer Bank is also connected with the Hebrides bya submarine ridge, and to judge from their general direction, the islands themselvesseem to be fragments of a former range, of which Rockall is another remnant, andwhich ran parallel with the crests of the Caledonian groups and the north ofScotland.In their climate, flora, and fauna the Faroer also resemble these lauds,which, however, are all alike Scandinavian rather than British in respect of theirinhabitants.Like the Shetlands and Orkneys, they are composed of a few large and thinlypeopled islands, of some uninhabited islets affording pasture for sheep, and ofbarren rocks frequented by flocks of sea-fowl. The surface is almost everywherehilly, with bold headlands, and heights of over 2,000 feet in Stromo and Ostero,culminating with the Slattaretindur (2,756 feet), on the north coast of Ostero.The rocks, covered with a thin layer of humus, are grassy or mossy, delicatetransitions of plants, fern, and heath following in succession from sea-level to thetopmost summits.The houses, mostly scattered, take the hue of the rocks, owingto the sods of which their roofs are formed, and hence are not easily detected even atshort distances. Like those of Scotland and Scandinavia, the rocks are scored bythe action of ice, and the lines running east and west, or north and south, clearlyshow that while still little raised above the surface the Archipelago was traversedby floating bergs from the Norwegian glaciers.The islands are largely volcanic, mostly huge masses of basalt rising in successiveterraces, though some headlands, especially in Ostero (" East Island "),