I. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY. GEOLOGY. 



I 



CELAND is a large island in the North Atlantic. It stretches from 

 63V2 to 66V2 N. lat. and from 13 27' to 24 30' W. long. fr. 

 Gr. ; consequently, the Arctic Circle touches its northernmost points, 

 and as a result, along the northern coast, the midnight sun turns 

 night into day for a short time during summer. In the most 

 northerly districts the sun is above the horizon for a week; at 

 Reykjavik the longest day is 20 hours 56 minutes, the shortest 3 

 hours 58 minutes. The distances from Iceland to the neighbouring 

 countries are as follows: - to Norway 950 km., to Scotland 900 km., 

 to the Faroes 450 km., to the east coast of Greenland 330 km., and 

 to Denmark 1500 km. The length of the island from east to west 

 is 490 km., and the breadth from north to south is 312 km. Its 

 area is about 104,000 sq. km. 



Iceland is a very mountainous country although it has not any 

 true mountain-chains; it is most properly described as a continuous 

 table-land with an average height of 700 1000 metres above sea- 

 level: besides, there are only narrow borders of coastal land, valleys 

 which cut into the table-land from all sides, and a few small areas 

 of level land towards the south and west. Scarcely one-fifteenth of 

 the country can be reckoned as lowland. Owing to its northern 

 situation, its height above sea-level, and the resulting severe climate, 

 only a relatively small part of the country is inhabitable. More 

 than two-thirds of the entire area of the country is situated at so 

 great a height above sea-level that almost no vegetation can thrive 

 there. The sandy and stony deserts of the interior plateau, the lava 

 tracts, and the glaciers are not fit dwelling places for human beings: 

 therefore it is almost exclusively the coasts and the valleys which 

 are inhabited. 



