298 THORODDSEN 



predominant if the farm were to be abandoned. Small willow-shrubs 

 (Salix phy lid folia and S. glauca) had grown out from several pieces 

 of turf which had been used for making the walls of the houses. 

 On account of the large number of sheep the plant-growth of the 

 whole valley had degenerated. The luxuriancy had entirely dis- 

 appeared; no plants of any height were to be seen, the willow 

 shrubs had become smaller and flatter in growth, as during winter 

 the sheep nibble off the uppermost shoots which protrude through 

 the snow; here it had not been possible to procure sufficient hay 

 for winter-fodder, therefore, during winter the sheep had been left 

 to shift for themselves with the result that they had attacked the 

 willow coppices and a neighbouring birch coppice in Kollumuli. 



But the destruction of the coppice-woods has exerted the greatest 

 influence upon the vegetation. The Icelandic author Ari frodi (born 

 1067) says in his "Islendingabok" that when the first settlers came 

 to Iceland it was wooded from the sea to the mountains or inner 

 plateau ("milli fjalls ok fjoru"). But this statement is doubtless due 

 to exaggeration. Arngrimur, the Abbot of Thingeyrar, writes in 

 1350 about Iceland "woods do not occur except birch, and that is 

 low in growth." At the first colonization of Iceland manv mountain- 



*/ 



sides were probably coppice-clad right to the verge, likewise many 

 ridges, gravelly stretches and old lavas on the plains, which are 

 now bare. The coppices spread over a great part of the coastal 

 districts and the valleys, but nowhere extended up on the plateau 

 above a height of 600 metres, and probably even at that time the 

 northern peninsulas and the extreme points of land were woodless. 

 In the lowlands also many tracts of sand, bogs and new lavas were 

 undoubtedly bare of wood as in the present time, and probably not 

 more than 4000 5000 square km were covered with coppice at the 

 beginning of the 10th century. The birch stems found in the bogs 

 also show that the trees of olden times were not larger than those 

 now found in the best preserved patches of wood. From the Sagas 

 it can be seen that even during the first centuries the woods had 

 suffered greatly. Space was cleared for farms and home-fields, and 

 the best stems were used as laths for the support of the turf-roofs, 

 etc., of smaller houses, although the greater part of the building- 

 wood was imported from Norway, at any rate in districts where 

 there was not easy access to drift-wood which at that time was 

 found in quantities along the northernmost coasts. Moreover, trees 

 were recklessly felled for fuel and in addition, wood in olden times 



