ICfiLAMDiC NOTES, 413 



past ages had sullenly forced its way from some volcanic 

 centre hidden inland ; on the other flank the monntain fell 

 in rugged black ]n'ecipice, until it softened into the grassy 

 bed of an upland valley, where the sun shone on a low farm- 

 stead and a large flock of scattered sheep. 



The seaboard only of Iceland is inhabited, and an island 

 larger than Ireland has a population of but 80,000, now 

 decreased by emigration, to which tiie Icelanders have been 

 compelled by the increasing rigour of the climate. Except 

 where some poor pasture struggles up the valleys of the 

 larger .rivers, a lava desert covers nine-tenths of the whole 

 island. In one part 4000 square miles are covered with one 

 vast white mass of lava mountains, glaciers, and snow-fields. 

 Elsewhere are isolated black hills, standing out of rugged 

 lava plains, barren and waterless, interspersed with swelhng 

 belts of volcanic sand. Where patches of earth are found 

 they are absolutely bare of vegetation, without even the tiny 

 fern frond or willow shrublet, which, nearer the sea, may be 

 found in the lava cracks, the one witness to the power of life 

 in this great wilderness of death. Across the central desert 

 there are three passes between the northern and southern 

 capitals ; but of these two are hardly ever, and the third but 

 seldom used. Even of the habitable seaboard but one-third 

 of the soil will s:row even the coarsest herbaae. From the 

 seaboard plains rise abruptly here and there black detached 

 conical hills of comparatively recent tufa, or long flat-topped 

 basaltic ridges. In these plains there are many lakes, with 

 low shelving banks. 



The rivers, too, are many, running often within deep pre- 

 cipitous channels, with strong cui'rents, fed by the snows of 

 the central desert. Salmon, trout, and other fish abound, 

 but in summer very persistent mosquitoes are a drawback to 

 the pleasure of a fisherman. 



Although black and white are tlie prevailing colours of 

 Icelandic scenery, there is yet a third, the yellowish green of 

 the scanty vegetation. The unenclosed jiasture lands of 

 coarse grass support 400,000 sheep antl a large number of 

 very diminutive but excellent ponies. This grass will not 

 keep cattle, but a few are pastured in well-manured enclosures 

 close to the farmsteads. The ex))ort of sheeji and ponies has 

 been of late years considerable, chiefly to Scotland. Here 

 and there some bushes of willow and birch struggle for life, 

 but there is only one tree throughout the south of Iceland, 

 and no grain ripens. The Icelanders' bread is made of rye 



