PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 197 



North of the mountain of Lomagnupur (770 metres), which is a 

 breccia-promontory rising steeply from a sandy flat, the glaciers recede 

 from the coast and the plateau is continued as a low hilly edge as 







far as Myrdalsjokull, the snow-masses of which cover the upper part 

 of the above-mentioned southern spur of high land and which has 

 an area of about 1000 square km., reaching a height of 1666 metres in 

 the volcano of Eyjafjallajokull. Another very active and dangerous 

 volcano, Katla, also hides itself beneath the glaciers of Myrdals- 

 jokull. West of this snow-field the plateau retires again from the 

 coast; the deep valley of Markarfljot separates Myrdalsjokull from 

 Tindfjallajokull (1462 metres), and north of the latter lies the oblong, 

 volcanic Torfajokull (1400 metres) and the famous volcano Hekla 

 (1447 metres). North-west of Hekla and near Geysir, the plateau 

 retires to its greatest distance from the coast (about 80 km.), but 

 bends thence again towards the south west, outwards towards the 

 peninsula of Reykjanes. 



The lowlands of Iceland cover onlv a small area; in the north 



V 



and east there is no low land with the exception of the larger valley- 

 mouths, e. g. at the head of Hunafloi, Skjalfandi and Fljotsdals- 

 hjerad and the extreme end of the peninsulas of Skagi and Mel- 

 rakkasljetta. Larger lowland areas occur only in South and West 

 Iceland; they are however small in extent compared with the 

 mountainous country and the table-lands. Although the lowlands 

 only comprise one-fifteenth of the entire area of the country, yet 

 together with the valleys they are of very great importance because 

 tolerably favourable climatic conditions and a closer vegetation, per- 

 mitting fixed habitations and the rearing of cattle, are found almost 

 exclusively there; the inhabitants of the few dwellings which occur 

 scattered in the lower parts of the plateau must struggle with severe 

 conditions and are almost entirely reduced to sheep-rearing alone. 

 But by no means all the lowlands are grass-covered; large tracts of 

 lava, glacier-gravel and blown sand are extremely poor in plant-life. 

 On the south coast the country nearest to the sea is quite flat, from 

 Hornafjor5ur to Reykjanes, but in many places this level land is 

 so narrow that it consists only of an insignificant coastal border; 

 in other places it widens out into larger plains and extends further 

 into the country. Between Hornafjor^ur and Myrdalsjokull, below 

 Vatnajokull, the coastal country is formed by deposits from the 

 numerous glacier-rivers and consists exclusively of sand and gravel ; 

 the lowland here is often flooded by branching torrential glacier- 



