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found amongst the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The peculiar 

 manner in which ice and snow were found mixed up with the igneous 

 productions of its volcanoes imparted a grim beauty to its scenery that 

 we might travel the whole world over without seeing surpasssed. A 

 very short sojourn amongst the weird rocks of Iceland aroused that 

 latent superstition which would lurk in the minds of even the most 

 materialistic, and while we laughed at the mythological credulity of 

 the ancient Icelanders we could not help acknowledging that a more 

 fitting place to create an implicit belief in wraiths and demons could 

 not possibly be found, from the elf and pixy dancing amongst the 

 timid flowers whose bright eyes peeped from sheltered rocks in ancient 

 lava streams, to the hobgoblin and the ghoul moaning and shrieking 

 and performing their nameless deeds upon blasted peak and barren 

 mountain-tops, where fire strove with frost. 



This remarkable little island was colonized 1,002 3'ears ago 

 by Norwegians, though its earliest settlement was involved in some 

 obscurity. It afterwards became subject to Denmark until the year 

 before last, when it received its legislative freedom. The Icelanders 

 were upon the whole a harmless, struggling race, and like most other 

 nations that had been unable to draw upon the arteries of other 

 countries for renewed vitality, were encumbered with that contentment 

 which, however conducive it might be to domestic ease, was fatal to 

 advancement. The last twelve months, however, had introduced the 

 element of enterprise which before was onlj conspicuous by its 

 absence. This might result from their newly-acquired liberties or the 

 reflective influence of emigration ; at any rate it augured well for 

 Iceland, whose emigrants had already shewn that the Icelander con- 

 tained a good deal of the right sort of stuft' in his composition. Pre- 

 eminently perhaps in the Icelander's character stood love for his 

 country. It was a remarkable fact that the more barren and unfruitful 

 a country was, the stronger seemed to be the attachment and lo^■e of 

 the sons of its soil. That trait appeared very strongly in the Ice- 

 landers' national song, the first stanza of which runs thus — 



" "World old Iceland, beloved fosterland, 

 As long as the ocean girds our shores, 

 As long as lovers for their sweethearts sigh, 

 As long lis the sun shines upon our mountains, 

 Thy SOBS shall love thee." 



The climate of Iceland was very uncertain, but it was much 



