FAROE ISLANDS

FAROE ISLANDS, a group of 22 islands of basaltic formation, about 200 m. NW. of the Shetlands; originally Norwegian, they now autonomous but within Denmark since 1948; agriculture is limited, and fishing and sheep-farming chiefly engage the natives; there is an export trade in wool, fish, and wild-fowl leathers. The people, who still speak their old Norse dialect, although Danish is the language of the schools and law courts, are Lutherans, and enjoy a measure of self-government, and send representatives to the Danish Rigsdag.