30 ICELAND. 



(be stronger brine. This Ice never yields pure 

 water, but if the brim- be first drained oil', tltc icy 

 man will yield a brackish liquid, which may some- 

 tinea be drunk. Sea-water usually congeals at about 

 27 of Fahr. Within the arctic circle, the congela- 

 tion begins by the first of August, and a sheet of ice, 

 perhaps of an inch thick, is formed in a single night. 

 In a short time, the whole extent of the polar seas is 

 covered with a vault several feet thick. As soon as 

 the summer heat commences, it is softened, and, with 

 i..r MM - .1 of tin- ocean, breaks up, ami the fit-Ills 

 of the saline ice are thus annually formed and de- 

 stroyed. The whalers call a large expanse of saline 

 ice field; one of smaller dimensions, afioe; when a 

 field is much broken up, it is called a pack. If the 

 ship can sail freely through the floating pieces of ice, 

 it is called drift-ice. A portion of ice rising above 

 the common level is called a hummock, being pro- 

 duced by the crowding of one piece over another. 

 The ice-blink is a whitish appearance in the horizon, 

 occasioned by fields of ice, which reflect the light 

 obliquely against the atmosphere. Much ice is 

 exported from Boston to the West Indies and the 

 Southern States of the United States. The exporta- 

 tion began in 1805, and has been increasing ever 

 since. In 1819, when ice was scarce in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Boston, a vessel was sent to the coast of 

 Labrador, in order to take ice from an iceberg, and 

 succeeded, though with some damage, in procuring a 

 cargo, which she carried to Martinique. 



Artificial Ice. The Greeks and Romans used 

 various means to preserve snow and ice to cool 

 their drinks ; still they never carried this art to such 

 perfection as the moderns have done. We are now 

 better acquainted with the means of producing arti- 

 ficial cold. Experience teaches us, that cold arises 

 from the evaporation of liquids. With vitriolic ether, 

 and still better with nitric ether, artificial ice may be 

 produced in this way, in the middle of summer, and 

 on the warmest days. Ice is formed in the East 

 Indies, in Calcutta, and other places, principally by 

 evaporation. In the level countries there, snow and 

 frost are never known ; but in order to have cooling 

 materials in the heat of summer, the inhabitants col- 

 lect snow and ice, during the winter, from the high 

 mountains, and throw portions of it into small 

 earthen pans, unglazed, which at sun-down are 

 filled with water. The pans are inserted in the 

 earth, two feet deep, covered with dry straw, and 

 evaporation is then suffered to go on. In clear 

 weather, so much caloric is absorbed from the 

 remaining water by this evaporation, that, with the 

 help of the snow floating in it, the whole becomes 

 ice ; this is then put in deep caves before sunrise, 

 and preserved for summer. About the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, the custom of cooling drink 

 with saltpetre was introduced into Italy. Afterwards, 

 the method of increasing the cold of snow and ice by 

 a mixture of saltpetre became common. The prepa- 

 ration of artificial ice gradually became more usual ; 

 and what was at first only an experiment, at length 

 became an object of luxury. In the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, ice-cups were introduced, 

 and fruits frozen in ice were brought upon the 

 tables. Soon after, the French began to freeze the 

 juices of all savoury fruits for desserts. 

 . ICELAND, an island in the Atlantic ocean, on the 

 confines of the polar circle, between lat. 63 23' and 

 P 33' N., and Ion. 13 15' and 24 40' W., area 

 about 40,000 square miles, is supposed by many to be 

 the Ultima Thule of the Romans. About A. D. 860, 

 Naddoir, a Norwegian pirate, was driven on the coast. 

 Gardar, a Swede, circumnavigated it in 864 . Floke, 

 a Norwegian, remained on it two winters, and gave 

 It its name from the quantities of ice which drifted 



into the bays. The first Norwegian colony arrived 

 there in 874. Christianity was introduced in 081, 

 and formally adopted in 1000. In 1261, the islanders 

 submitted to the king of Norway. 



Iceland affords the spectacle of a peaceful, religious, 

 and even literary society, existing for centuries under 

 all the disadvantages of soil and climate. In its 

 physical structure, the action of fire is every where 

 evident. No stratified rocks have been seen, nor 

 any of which the igneous origin is generally contested. 

 Lava covers a large portion of the island. The 

 interior of Iceland (not less, perhaps, than 26,000 

 square miles) is a dreary waste, only partially known 

 to the natives, who are sometimes obliged to explore 

 it in search of lost sheep, for the most part presenting 

 only a dark surface of lava, without any trace of 

 vegetation. In the south are extensive tracts of 

 melted rock, through which rents, 100 feet wide, 

 extend for several miles. Above these wilds are 

 lofty mountains, with volcanic rocks, protruding 

 through eternal snows. The glaciers or yoekula 

 cover a great part of the island. The most exten- 

 sive is tliat called Klofa ycekul, behind the mountains 

 of the east coast, forming, with little interruption, a 

 chain of ice and snow mountains, supposed to fill a 

 space of 3000 square miles. The progressive move- 

 ment of the glaciers is observed here as well as in 

 Switzerland, and the moraine, or rampart of debris, 

 heaped together by its descent, has been seen, in 

 some places, 60 feet high, and composed of large 

 rocks. The Snaefell, by a late survey of the island, 

 is found to be 6862 feet high, and is supposed to be 

 the loftiest mountain on the island. Most of the 

 high mountains are slumbering volcanoes. Hot 

 springs and boiling fountains are found every where. 

 The volcano of Krabla, between 1724 and 1730, 

 poured forth streams of lava, which covered several 

 square leagues. In 1755, Katlegiaa, on the eastern 

 shore, burst forth with tremendous fury. The erup- 

 tion was accompanied with earthquakes so violent, 

 that the people thought the destruction of the island 

 at hand. The detonations of the mountain were 

 heard 30 leagues, and showers of ashes fell on the 

 islands of Feroe, 100 leagues distant. Fifty farms 

 were destroyed, and rocks of pumice-stone and lava, 

 carried down into the sea, formed promontories 

 extending three leagues from the shore. These 

 rocks still project above the sea, where formerly 

 were 40 fathoms of water. In 1783, an eruption 

 from mount Skeidera covered with lava some of the 

 best districts of the island ; the clouds of ashes 

 impregnated the air with noxious particles; the 

 waters were corrupted, the fish driven from the 

 coasts, and famine and pestilence ensued. The 

 miseries which succeeded this eruption destroyed, in 

 two years, 9000 people (a fifth part of the popula- 

 tion), with 28,000 horses, 190,500 sheep, and more 

 than 11,000 head of cattle. The eruptions of mount 

 Hecla are rather numerous than violent. The last 

 took place in 1823. The height of Hecla is 5210 

 feet. Some of the low mountains are covered with 

 coarse grass, affording summer pasturage for the cat- 

 tle ; but the only permanently occupied spots are 

 along the shore. The rivers are numerous and of 

 considerable size, especially on the northern side. 

 There are also many lakes in the interior. Springs 

 or jets of boiling water are frequent : those named 

 the Geysers are most famous, perhaps on account of 

 their accessibility. They are about 30 miles N. N. 

 W. of Hecla, in a plain covered with hot springs 

 and steaming apertures. The Great Geyser rises 

 from a tunnel-shaped basin, lined and edged with 

 siliceous depositions. The pipe at the bottom, from 

 which the jet issues, is about 10 feet in diameter, 

 and the basin, at its outer edge, is about 56. The 



