Iceland

Iceland (Dan. Island) is a volcanic island in the North Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles from Scotland, and 250 miles from Greenland. It has a length of 300 miles, and a breadth of 200, the area being about 39,200 square miles. All the central portion is occupied by a vast plateau raised about 2,000 feet above sea-level and presenting a dreary expanse of sand and lava broken by jokulls or ice-mountains reaching in some cases a height of 6,500 feet. The largest of these, Vatnajokull, lies to the S.W. and covers 4,000 square miles. Its E. margin approaches closely to the sea, but on the other side the country opens out into valleys until, on passing the ridges of Hecla, the Torfajokull and the Eyafjallajokull, the Rangarvalla, an extensive and well-watered plain, is reached. This communicates with the valleys that fringe the bay of Faxafloi, in the S. bend of which stands Reykavik, the capital. The promontory of Snafellsness divides Faxafloi from the Breidifjordur inlet, and the N.W. corner of the island consists of a rugged peninsula. The N. coast beyond is deeply indented with fiords, whilst the S. shore offers but scanty harbour accommodation. The inhabitable portion of the island seldom extends more than 50 miles from the sea, and the soil yields little but grass, on which the sheep, cattle, and ponies - the chief sources of livelihood - are pastured. Spade husbandry produces a few potatoes, carrots, and turnips. Fish abounds both in the sea and the numerous streams, and the down of eider-duck supplies a valuable export. There are no industries, save the spinning and weaving of coarse woollen fabrics. A little sulphur is worked, and the bogs yield peat for fuel, but such mineral resources as exist - iron, aluminium, spar and lignite - hardly pay for development. The climate, especially in the S., is by no means severe, the winter temperature averaging about 30° Fahrenheit, but the N. littoral is colder and dryer. The air is clear, bright, and invigorating. Traces of volcanic agency of older or later date are discernible everywhere, and within the memory of man at least twenty-five craters have been in active operation, but Hecla has been quiescent since 1846, and the Katla was the scene of the last eruption in 1860. Earthquakes occur frequently, being felt most sharply in the W., and geysers are found in several quarters.

The recent constitution, dating from 1874, bestows the legislative power on the King of Denmark and the Al-thing or Representative Assembly, which is made up of 30 elected members and 6 others, nominated by the Crown, and is divided into two chambers. A governor-general, two lieutenant-governors, for the two parts of the island, and a number of sheriffs form the executive and judicial staff, whilst there are local councils for the administration of the poor law and for similar purposes. A secretary at Copenhagen acts as an intermediary between the colonial and the home government.

Ethnology. It appears from the Norse records and other indications that the first inhabitants of Iceland were a few Irish Christians, who, however, were all expelled by the pagan Norsemen who, flying from the tyranny of the Norwegian usurper Harald Haarfager, arrived in the island soon after 872. Others followed, also mostly from Norway, down to the year 1000, when all accepted the teachings of the Christian missionaries Gizur and Hialti. Then immigration virtually ceased, or was later restricted to a few Danish officials and others when the island passed from Norway to Denmark by the treaty of Kalmar (1397). Thus it happens that the great bulk of the present inhabitants are direct descendants of those early Norwegian settlers, whom they still resemble in physique and language. The modern Icelanders are generally of tall stature, with round faces, blue or grey eyes, long flaxen or brown hair, coarse figures and ungainly carriage. Infant mortality is high, even excessive in some districts, and appears due partly to the increasing rigour of the climate, partly to close unions, unsanitary conditions, premature weaning, and coarse and unwholesome food. This, combined with emigration to the United States and Canada, tends to keep the population stationary or even to reduce it (71,300 in 1876, 72,438 in 1880, 70,927 in 1890).

The Icelanders are distinguished by their intelligence, love of study, personal dignity, reserve and courage; but they are said to be excessively suspicious, quarrelsome and apathetic at home, though active and enterprising abroad. Thanks to their isolated position and the general spread of education, they have preserved with little change the old Norse (Norwegian) language of the 9th century, which was considerably cultivated, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries. From this period dates the composition of all their literary monuments collectively comprised under the name of sagas ("sayings"), and embodying mythological and national epics and other poems, histories, as well as didactic prose works, such as the prose Edda attributed to the poet and historian Snorro Sturleson, and containing treatises on mythology, grammar, rhetoric and the laws of Norse versification. The poetic forms were exceedingly complex and artificial, so that poetic composition soon degenerated into literary tours de force lacking all natural feeling and retaining merely the dry bones of the early national poetry. In more recent times the Icelanders have distinguished themselves in other branches of art and science, and the father of the Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen was a native of Iceland.

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