8o 



milder than might be expected from its latitude. This was doubtless 

 owing to its insular position, and the influence of the Gulf Stream, 

 one arm of which washed its southern shore. The summer began in 

 June, and ended in September, and during those months the climate 

 was much similar to that of the North of Scotland. The rainfall, 

 especially in the south of Iceland, was very great during the summer, 

 but thunderstorms seldom occurred, except in the winter. Upon the 

 mountains the climate was still more variable, and he had sometimes 

 experienced a variation of sixty degrees between day and night 

 upon the snows of the Vatna Jokull, at the height of some 

 4,oooft. above sea level. But few vegetables could now be 

 grown in Iceland,— a modicum of potatoes, turnips, radishes, and 

 cabbages alone eking out a struggling existence against an adverse 

 climate, and .seldom attaining to what we should consider maturity. 

 The trees of Iceland were mere bushes of birch, willow, and a little 

 ash, and even these were but rarely met with. The chief exports of 

 the country were fish, wool, horses, sheep, and Iceland spar ; but it was 

 to be hoped (now the sulphur mines in the north of Iceland were about 

 to be worked) that in the course of a year to these might be added 

 sulphur. The imports were all the necessaries of life and a good many 

 of its luxuries. 



So much for Iceland itself; he would dwell no longer on its 

 histoty, people, exports and imports, but forthwith consider its 

 physical characteristics ; these might be defined as the volcanoes of 

 Iceland and their product, the hot springs, the Jokulls or ice mountains, 

 and their effects upon the climate. Iceland contained no fewer than 

 22 mountains that had been witnessed in active eruption during 

 historical times. The best known volcano was Hekla. This remark- 

 able mountain rose directly from a plain that had been devastated by its 

 repeated eruptions. As the mountain was approached from the north- 

 west its form appeared to be that of an oblong cone ; it was about 20 

 miles in circumference, and s,oooft. in height ; it was capped by three 

 smaller cones, the product of recent eruptions. Its craters were all 

 upon the west and south-west sides, and most of its lava streams had 

 flowed in that direction. The next best known of the Icelandic 

 volcanoes was perhaps Katlugia, which had erupted no less than i S 

 times since the year 900. It now presented nothing but a deep valley 

 filled with snow, cutting into the very heart of Myrdals Jokull ; it was 

 one of the largest examples of breached craters in the world. The 



