Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1968, Page 68

76
Oyðing av rottum og músum í Føroyum
er at átala tí viðvrkjandi. Landsstýrið kann so eftir 8. § seta
í verk tær atgerðir, sum tað beldur vera hóskandi, fyri kom-
mununinar rokning.
Tað er at vóna, at tey ymiii9su ikki rættiliga greiðu punktini
í núgaldandi lógini verða bøtt við komandi endurskoðan,
smb. 11 § í lógimi.
SUMMARY
Rats anđ mice are the only wild mammals to be found in the Faroe
Islands. The latter are presumably brought to the country by the Irish
hermits. Mice are not to be found on all the islands and the damage
caused by them is not so extensive as to require special legislation.
The black rat has presumably come to the Faroe Islands in the Middle
Ages, as an epidemic like the Black Death could hardly develop without
the presence of rats. There is some indication that the rats — apart from
Tórshavn — have disappeared from the islands after the Black Death,
and that only towards the middle of the 17th century they have gained
ground again.
It is supposed that the brown rat came to the Faroe Islands in 1768.
It soon spread over most of the islands and crowded out the black rat.
It caused serious damage at the beginning, but it looks as if the damage
has been less in the 19th century. In 1895 and 1902 there are granna-
stevnur (meetings of the landowners of a village) which deal with
matters concerning rat extermination. In 1907/08 the question of the
coming into force of the Danish Rats and Mice Destruction Act of
March 22, 1907, is submitted to the Løgting (the Faroese Parliament),
the members of which take no interest in it. The subsequent Danish Rats
and Mice Destruction Act of April 18, 1910, is put into force by
promulgation without having been submitted to the Løgting, but it be-
comes of no importance. On the other hand, in 1915/16 the Løgting
deals with a matter concerning the rat nuisance but leaves extermination
to private enterprise, and from 1916/17 there are a couple of regulations
adopted at grannastevnur concerning rat extermination. The Danish Rats
and Mice Destruction Act of March 29, 1924 is put into force in the
Faroe Islands without submission to the Løgting, but as was the case
with the Act of 1910, it acquires no importance. It has hardly been
realized that it was in force in the country, which, among other things,
appears from the discussion of the Løgting in 1937/38 on the organization
of rat extermination in the Faroe Islands.
In the last part of the paper the author goes through the Løgting