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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



animal races a strong inclination for a closer 

 association of the sexes, as well among in- 

 dividuals as in the whole group, under which 

 the members of a society, of the whole spe- 

 cies or family to which they belonged, were 

 impelled to assist each other in the struggle 

 for existence. He had observed numerous 

 instances in which, after the death of the 

 male, the female died, and conversely, or 

 parents with the greatest self-denial sacri- 

 ficed themselves for the protection of their 

 young. All such examples showed that the 

 reproductive instinct bound groups of related 

 animals to each other through the law which 

 he had enunciated. The principle was not 

 limited to sexual association, but was ex- 

 hibited wherever mutual help appeared to 

 be necessary. As an example, the case was 

 cited of a group of beetles which would 

 combine their forces with severe exertion to 

 drag away a dead mouse. Further, ants and 

 bees illustrate the operation of the law in a 

 high degree. The principle is developed 

 with especial prominence in mankind. Only 

 by the most powerful cooperation could men 

 have succeeded in reaching the degree of 

 civilization which the race has attained. 



Iceland. Mr. C. G. W. Lock, in a re- 

 cent lecture before the British Society of 

 Arts, on Iceland, mentioned that the island, 

 so far from being small, as it is erroneously 

 called, is considerably larger than Ireland 

 or Ceylon. Its situation is such that its 

 whole northern coast is shut in nearly every 

 year by the descent of masses of ice from 

 the north. The southern and western shores 

 are affected by ice in very exceptional in- 

 stances only. The country is essentially 

 volcanic and mountainous ; but Hecla, which 

 monopolizes the geographical knowledge of 

 most students on the subject, does not pos- 

 sess a single characteristic to place it above 

 its fellows. The whole central plateau is a 

 wild waste of lava and volcanic sand, and the 

 only habitable parts of the island are a nar- 

 row fringe of coast land and a few of the.lar- 

 ger river valleys. The great ridge of ice-clad 

 hills, stretching across the island, acts as a 

 refrigerator to the moisture-laden winds from 

 the southwest, and produces two distinct 

 climates : the northern, generally dry ; and 

 the southern, generally wet, and more tem- 

 perate than the other. The fact that colo- 



nists from Great Britain participated in the 

 settlement of Iceland more than a thousand 

 years ago is attested by the identity of many 

 words that are used by the people with British 

 words. Ponies are the chief animal prod- 

 uct of the island. From them the stocks 

 of the " Black Country " of England are re- 

 cruited. The sheep furnish a fine mutton, 

 and a wool which is made up into excellent 

 fabrics at home, or is exported. Profitable 

 trades are driven in skins, catgut, fox-fur, 

 and eider-down ; the cod-fisheries are very 

 important, and considerable trade is carried 

 on in cod-liver oil and shark-oil. The salm- 

 on-fishery has been shamefully abused by 

 the excessive employment of barbarous meth- 

 ods of taking the fish. It, however, is the 

 one great attraction the island offers to 

 sportsmen ; and more profit might be gained, 

 directly and indirectly, by letting out the 

 streams, as in Norway, to English fly-fishers, 

 than by contracting with fish-curers. The 

 island was at one time well wooded, and 

 supplied itself largely, if not entirely, with 

 cereals, but the climate has deteriorated and 

 the soil become sterile in consequence of the 

 cutting away of the trees, and every grain 

 of corn is now imported from Denmark. 

 The principal mineral product is sulphur, 

 which is deposited in a very finely divided 

 state around the volcanic vents by the va- 

 pors issuing through them. It is the cus- 

 tom to describe the sulphur-mines of Sicily 

 and the sulphur-mines of Iceland as some- 

 what similar, but for all practical considera- 

 tions they are as distinct as a coal-seam and 

 a forest. The Sicilian mines consist of de- 

 posits formed in past geological ages, now 

 lying at great depths, and utterly devoid of 

 reproductive power ; the Icelandic beds are 

 the work of to-day, lie on the very surface 

 of the ground, and live and grow with un- 

 abated energy, replacing the deposit as fast 

 as it is removed. The area comprised in 

 the Icelandic sulphur districts collectively 

 amounts to, perhaps, a dozen square miles. 

 The sulphur forms a layer of varying thick- 

 ness, covered by an earthy crust and under- 

 laid by clays containing sulphur mixed with 

 various acids and salts, and is invariably 

 wet, in consequence of the steam condensed 

 within it. The crystals are almost absolute- 

 ly pure, but impurities are mechanically 

 mixed with them. Other mineral products 



