ICE 



Iceland. The only wild animals are foxes, which in some parts of it 

 ^^»v— '' are very numerous, and do niucii damage to the farmers in 

 destroying their lambs and other produce. Reindeer were 

 Introduced from Sweden about the middle of last century, 

 and have since increased and run wild. The Ice'"nd horse 

 is small, but hardy, active, and capable of sustaining con- 

 siderable fatigue. Dogs and cats they have in abundance, 

 and rats and mice are proportionally numerous. The float- 

 ing ice occasionally transports a polar bear or two from the 

 Greenland coasts during spring, which, however, are no 

 sooner heard of than the neighbouring country are up in 

 arms to kill them, and they are consequently hunted down 

 and destroyed without niei'cy. The skins of the foxes, par- 

 ticularly those of the blue species, are valued as an article 

 of commerce. 



Amongst the land birds of the island are the sea-eagle or 

 erne, a very destructive bird among the eider-ducks ; the 

 falcon, which used formerly to be a valuable item in the ex- 

 ports of the island ; and the raven, which is a larger and more 

 powerful bird than those of Britain, frequently pouncing upon 

 and carrying off young lambs, and destroying poultry ; it is 

 met with in great numbers, particularly on the cliffs near the 

 sea-coast. The ptarmigan, snipe, golden plover, wagtail, 

 and curlew, are well known. Water-fowl of every descrip- 

 tion, common to northern latitudes, are met with on the 

 coasts and in the lakes. Of these the most valuable to the 

 inhabitants is the eider-duck, which is strictly preserved, a 

 penalty of half a dollar being exigible for shooting one of 

 these birds. From this circumstance they become so re- 

 markably tame, especially in the breeding season, that they 

 frequently make their nests close to the houses, and in spots 

 which have been prepared by ridges of stones artificially built 

 up for them ; and in such places, during the process of in- 

 cubation, it is not unusual fbr the female to remain on the 

 nest, and suffer herself to be fondled. The lining of their 

 nests, being the downy substance plucked off their own 

 breasts, is taken away, even a second and third time, until 

 the poor bird has plucked herself nearly naked. Their eggs, 

 too, are removed once or twice, and are eaten in the same 

 manner as plovers' eggs. Swans are very numerous in some 

 of the lakes of the central part of the island, where they re- 

 main unmolested until the ice sets in, when they betake 

 themselves to the sea-shore. The eggs, the feathers, and 

 the down of this fine bird, like those of the eider-duck, sup- 

 ply the peasantry with an article of food, and also of com- 

 merce. 



The vegetable productions of the island, as already stated, 

 are the reverse of luxuriant. With the exception of a few 

 stunted birch, and some dwarf willows, in the southern and 

 eastern districts, nothing in the shape of a tree occurs ; and, 

 even in the sheltered situations afforded by the gardens 

 surrounding the merchants' houses near Reikiavik, all at- 

 tempts to raise the most common culinary vegetables occa- 

 sionally tail. Even in good years, Dr Hooker remarks that 



I C H 



in many of these little inclosures the cabbages were so lan- 

 guid and small that a half-crown piece woukl have covered 

 the whole of the plant. It is a curious fact, however, that 

 timber has in former periods grown in more abundance, as 

 is evident from the logs so frequently met with in the mo- ^ 

 rasses and peat-bogs of the country. These the peasants 

 are in the habit of extracting and using for firewood. 



The scanty produce of the land is, however, to a great 

 degree compensated for by the abundance of fine fish which 

 occurs on the coast. In several parts of the island, par- 

 ticularly on the north and north-west, the shark fishery is 

 a regular occupation. Strong hooks fastened to chains are 

 baited and anchored a little way out to sea, and the fish 

 when caught are thus towed to shore. Of the skin shoes 

 are made, a considerable quantity of oil is extracted, and 

 some parts of the flesh are occasionally smoked and used 

 by the natives for food. The cod is very plentiful ; the 

 haddock grows to a large size ; ling, skate, flounders, and 

 halibut aie likewise very common; the herring, too, fre- 

 quents the fords in vast shoals, but this branch of the fishery 

 has hitherto been little attended to. The salmon in the 

 rivers are said to be very fine, and no country in the world 

 produces them in greater quantity. Seals are particularly 

 numerous on the shores of the Breide-fiord and the western 

 coast. 



Such is a rapid sketch of the most remarkable features 

 of Iceland. The ardour, however, with which the sciences 

 of natural history and geology are now pursued in Britain, 

 coupled with the increasing facility every year afforded by 

 means of steam navigation, will, no doubt, in the course of 

 a very {ev/ summers, present us with more minute and 

 more accurate information respecting the truly extraordi- 

 nary natural productions of this wild but wonderful island. 



(See Letters on Iceland, by Von Troil, in 1772 ; Travels 

 in Iceland, by Sir George Mackenzie, in 1810; Journal of 

 a Residence in Iceland during the Years 1814 and 1815, 

 by Ebenezer Henderson ; Visit to Iceland in the Summer 

 of 1834, by John Barrow, Esq., jun. ; and Tracings of Ice- 

 land and the Faroe Islands, by R. Chambers, 1856. 



(t. a — L — N.) (r. ch — s.) 



Iceland Moss. See Botany, Nat. Order 273. 



ICENI, in Ancient Geography, a warlike tribe of Britain, 

 inhabiting a part of the island nearly correspv>nding with 

 the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The exact limits of 

 their country are very difficult to settle, and as the point is 

 one of some importance for rightly understanding the cam- 

 paign of Ostorius, it has caused a good deal of controversy. 

 The only way of escaping the difficulty is to believe that 

 the Iceni occupied a considerably larger surface of country 

 than is usually assigned to them, and extending their fron- 

 tiers to the confines of Essex and Hertfordshire. The great 

 event in the history of this tribe is their rebellion from the 

 Roman yoke under their queen Boadicea. See Boadicea. 



ICHNEUMON. See Entomology and Mammaua. 



203 



Iceland 

 Moss 



Ichneu- 



