A visit to Iceland, by way of Tronyem, in the "Flower of Yarrow" yacht, in the summer of 1834 / By John Barrow.
- John Barrow Jr.
- Date:
- 1835
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A visit to Iceland, by way of Tronyem, in the "Flower of Yarrow" yacht, in the summer of 1834 / By John Barrow. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Chap. IX.] STATISTICS. 281 3. Q. What are the laws of descent ? A. The same as in Norway, Obs.—The law of descent in Norway excludes primogeniture. Ifa person dies intestate, the property is sold or valued, and divided among the children, so as to give equal shares to the sons, and half shares to the daughters; and where wills exist, they seldom deviate from this rule. If any one of the brothers can pay the shares to his brothers and sisters, it is generally arranged that the freehold estate should be made over to him, in order to retain it in the family. A. Suchasare called twenty hundreds, or which are of the value of 300 to 400 specie dollars, and can feed six cows, eighty sheep, and eight horses, are in the interior considered middle-sized estates, Obs.—This reckoning by hundreds would appear to be peculiar to Iceland. The amount of a man’s property, or substance in the State, by an ancient regulation, was estimated according to the number of ells of vad or wad, or, as we are pleased to call it, wadmal, which his family was able to manufacture or consume in the course of a year. Every hundred ells was liable to a tax, and accord- ing to the number of hundreds was the estate PHS](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33280022_0327.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
