118 FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA 



European Powers. Being of Scandinavian 

 origin, the inhabitants were mainly allied by 

 language, laws, and government with Nor- 

 way and Denmark, and eventually Iceland 

 became subject to the King of Denmark, 

 with Home Rule and a parliament in its 

 only town of importance, Reykjavic. 



In the fifteenth century its foreign trade 

 was chiefly in the hands of the English 

 traders, mainly the adventurous merchants 

 of Bristol, who exported wood, iron, and 

 grain, and brought back sulphur, eider- 

 down, and salt-fish. To-day we export 

 coal and other supplies for its fishing boats, 

 but our main connection with the island is 

 the fishing industry. 



Many Icelanders have never seen a 

 plough, a road, or a tree, for there is no 

 agriculture. There are only a few miles 

 of roadway near Reykjavic, and trees are 

 unknown. Sheep-rearing is the chief in- 

 dustry on land, where the sheep manage to 

 subsist on scanty patches of grass and 

 moss, The chief wealth of Iceland is not 

 in its soil, which is volcanic and barren, 

 but in the seas which encircle it. The 

 island, which is almost the same size as 



