414 PROCEEDINGS Ot SECTION ^. 



imported from Denmark. Potatoes and turnips will ripen, 

 but are little f^Town. Turf is the common fuel of the inhabi- 

 tants, although fossil wood abounds. 



I saw in sheltered places many wildflowers. Amongst 

 those I knew were buttercups, violets, forget-me-nots, wild 

 geraniums, thyme, dog-daisy, catchfly, and pink. Apart 

 from cattle, sheep, and horses, there are few animals, wild or 

 domestic. There are cats, and dogs not unlike the Esquimaux, 

 clever as Scotch colleys in gathering in the ponies, but no 

 pigs, ducks, geese, and until lately not even the domestic 

 fowl. The blue fox is found, and a few imported reindeer. 

 In hard winters a stray bear crosses on a Greenland icefloe, 

 but is very inhospitably received. Amongst the birds ptar- 

 migan are numerous, and I also saw plover, snipe, and snow- 

 birds. The eider-duck is preserved with great care. Ice- 

 landic moss is widely distributed, whilst the double refracting 

 Icelandic spar is found but in one spot. 



There can be no doubt that the intensity of cold has much 

 increased since the Norwegian nobles colonised Iceland in the 

 ninth century. The Eyrbyggia Saga describes the settlement 

 of the relatives of Thoralf, about 900 a.d,, as rich marsh land, 

 with thick Avoods between it and the mountains. Where 

 these woods once flourished are now treacherous tussocky 

 hillocks of rank grass rising out of quaking bog. Grain also 

 could then be grown. The mean temperature now is in the 

 south 47°, and in the north 33°, but during the summer, 

 though the latitude of the north is 3° higher, the temperature 

 is about equal. This is said to be owing to a branch of the 

 Gulf Stream washing Iceland, with which the rain-clouds 

 cross, brought by the prevailing southerly wind. These rain- 

 clouds, as they pass over the island from south to north, meet 

 a I'alling temperature and discharge their moisture before 

 they reach the north, so leaving it the larger share of summer 

 sunshine, and enabling its inhabitants to raise the earliest and 

 heaviest hay crops. 



There are eighteen intermittently active volcanic mountains 

 in Iceland, and their eruptions have frequently done much 

 mischief along the seaboard. The most terrible outburst was 

 in 1783, when the Skapta Jokull threw out a mass of lava 

 greater in bulk than Mont Blanc — greater, it is said, than 

 has ever been known elsewhere in the world. It over- 

 whelmed 1300 Icelandei-s, 20,000 horses, 7000 cattle, and 

 100,000 shee]>. Its course is marked by two lava streams 

 some forty-five miles long, seven to twelve miles broad, vary- 



