PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 193 



names. In East Iceland there are also many larger and smaller 

 bays and fjords; the largest and best- known are Vopnafjor5ur, 

 Hjeradsfloi, Sey5isfjor5ur, ReydarfjorSur and Berufjordur. Although 

 the coast of Iceland is so cut up by fjords, it is not especially rich 

 in islands; only in Brei5ifjor5ur is there a number of islands and 

 islets, in two large groups or collections; otherwise, the islands along 

 the coast of Iceland are few and scattered, and are usually high 

 and rocky. To the SSW. of Iceland are situated the volcanic islands, 

 the Vestmannaeyjar and Fuglasker, and north of Iceland, in the 

 Arctic Ocean, the Isle of Grimsey, 45 km. from the coast. 



The north, east and north-west coasts of Iceland, which abound 

 in fjords, are everywhere rocky, and rise steeply from the sea like 

 black walls 300 500 metres in height, composed of from 30 to 

 100 layers of basalt, distinguishable as narrow ledges or steps. 

 Numerous small streams have excavated channels in the rock-sides, 

 and leap in small cascades from ledge to ledge. The foot of the 

 mountain and the narrow coastal-land are usually green and grassy 

 in places \vhere the rocks are not too steep, but the mountain itself is 

 chiefly of dark rocks, covered with gravel, and w r ith white patches of 

 snow in the higher regions. At the head of the fjords, whence the 

 various valleys branch off into the interior of the country, there usu- 

 ally occur several or a fe\v groups of mountains with crests, ridges 

 and peaks often of the most fantastic form, while the edge of the 

 mountains along the fjords resembles w'alls with bastions and battle- 

 ments. At many of the fjords there are trading-stations with the 

 wooden houses painted white or red, while scattered under the sides 

 of the mountains the white gables of the farm-houses peep forth 

 amidst the sap-green home-fields. On the south coast the mountains 

 retreat and the strand is bounded by sandy and pebbly flats; along 

 these tracts the mountains are usuallv more rounded and softer in 



%J 



outline, as they are composed of tuff and breccia. The highest parts 

 of the plateau are covered by snow-fields (Vatnajokull, Myrdalsjokull) 

 from \vhich large and small glaciers come down through every cleft, 

 and extend to the level country. 



Iceland consists of two distinct table-lands, one large (about 

 88000 square km.) and one much smaller (about 9000 square km.), 

 the north-w r estern peninsula, which is attached to the mainland by 

 a narrow 7 neck of land only, forming a table-land by itself. The 

 large table-land which almost entirely occupies the remaining part 

 of the island is highest towards the SE. where the sno\v-masses of 



