200 THORODDSEN 



The mouths of the contributory valleys are often situated at a 

 higher level than the bottom of the main valley and along the 

 mountain-sides a series of cirques are often found. Hundreds of 

 streams carry gravel and rock-fragments down to the foot of the 

 mountain and to the valley, and below each notch in the mountain 

 there is, therefore, a flat cone of gravel which extends down the 

 side of the mountain to the bottom of the valley; each little cirque 

 and each notch has, like an hour-glass, according to the law of 

 gravitation, emptied its contents upon the level land below. The 

 foot of the mountain is covered with plants, but any aggregate of 

 vegetation has rarely been able to extend higher than half-way up 

 the mountain -side; only on ridges between clefts and hollows, 

 where neither floods, rock-slips nor avalanches can do harm can 

 the plant- covering extend upwards in longer tongues, while the 

 upper half of the mountain-side consists but rarely of anything ex- 

 cept bare rock-ledges or rock-faces or heaps of stones. On a closer 

 investigation, a few individual plants will however be found seeking 

 cover, shelter and foothold among the blocks of rock and in the 

 crevices. In places where springs are trickling out in a row from 

 between rock- strata there is often a luxuriant vegetation of yellowish- 

 green mosses which form soil and pave the way for the higher 

 plants. Even on the most precipitous valley-sides, sheep are seen 

 scattered about seeking the mountain-plants which peep forth be- 

 tween the stones. Upon the north-western peninsula there are no 

 lowlands, but only a narrow 7 border of coastal land which is due 

 to the action of the breakers at a time when the sea-level was 

 higher than at present. Only the narrow coastal land along the 

 sides of the fjords is inhabited, and the inhabitants are chiefly de~ 

 pendent upon the sea for subsistence. Where the land which fringes 

 the coast becomes somewhat broader and the valleys more grassy, 

 as along the north coast of Brei5ifjor5ur, the inhabitants' chief 

 means of sustenance is sheep-rearing; where the fjords are small, 

 the mountains steep, and the coastal land has disappeared, as along 

 the coast south of Cape Nord, the inhabitants maintain themselves 

 almost entirely by the catching of birds upon the steep sea-cliffs. 



Glaciers. The snow- and ice-covered mountains (Jokulls) 1 of 

 Iceland, taken together, cover an area of 12700 square km. and 



1 In Iceland, by 'MokulT' a glacier-bearing mountain is usually meant, but 

 sometimes the term is used for the masses of snow and neve upon the mountain. 



