ICELAND: ITS HISTORY AND INHABITANTS. 277 



by numerous fjords. The basaltic formation is divided into two 

 strata by the " surtarbrand '' " formation of the Miocene period, 60 

 to 100 feet in thickness, the fossiliferous layers occurring about mid- 

 way up in the vertical faces of the basalt of the northwest. In these 

 lignite strata have been found the remains of a vegetation of the 

 American type when Iceland had a tropical climate.'^ The extensive 

 forests of Tertiary times seem to have been overwhelmed by pumice, 

 ashes, and sometimes by flowing lava. Silicated tree stems are found 

 in many places. The area of glaciers or ice-covered altitudes is esti- 

 mated at 5,500 square miles, seven times that of Switzerland (710 

 square miles), comparable in size only to the glaciers of the polar 

 regions. The Vatnajcikull alone measures 3,300 square miles. The 

 height of the snow line on the southern side of the plateau is 2,000 

 feet, on the northern side -1,300 feet, the air in the interior being much 

 drier. The appearance of these glaciers is that of the polar regions. 

 The summits of the mountains are covered with flat or vaulted ice 

 fields from which glaciers branch out. The glacier explosions 

 {jokulhlaup, glacier leap) are peculiar to Iceland. They occur when 

 there is an eruption of an ice-covered volcano. On such occasions 

 extensive tracts of country are inundated and converted into an eddy- 

 ing current filled with floating ice. Within historical times fjords 

 and bays have in this way been filled up. During the Glacial epoch 

 Iceland w^as completely overlain with an ice roof or covering of at 

 least 2,500 feet in thickness. Scorings and striations point to more 

 than one glacial period in Iceland. There are many traces of the 

 shifting of the shore in post-Glacial times, especially in the north- 

 west, the highest shore line or raised beach being 250 feet above sea 

 level. There is a double raised beach in the northwest, and the coast 

 is still receding. 



On the harborless south and southeast coast people live in little 

 oases, isolated as islands, cut off from the rest of the isle by sand 

 deserts and glaciers, which come to their very door and threaten them 

 perpetually, and under these sleep volcanoes. It is pleasant to find 

 in this howling wilderness oases bright with flowers and fragrant 

 with thyme and meadoAvsweet. Between the Skaptafellsjokull and 

 the Skei6ara]jokull willows, angelicas, and birches 21 to 22 feet high 

 nestle in clusters, and there is even a mountain ash 30 feet high. All 

 round, every quarter of an hour, is heard the thundering crash of ice 

 blocks falling down on the muddy sands or into the yellow waters of 

 Skei6ara, which changes its bed continually, moving over a mile 

 sometimes often in a day. Nowhere is it possible to study so well 



a Surtarbrand ur is the Icelandic name for fossilized tree trunks, a convenient 

 name for the whole of the Icelandic lignite strata. 



6 This lignite band has its representative in the island of Mull and County 

 Antrim. — Ed. 



