﻿»• 



lAXT. 



ICELAND. 



2o0 



I 



TAXT. [Jaxt.] 



-'• IBE'RIA was the ancient name of Spain in use among the Greek 

 writers. The Iberi are said to have occupied also Southern Gaul as 

 iar eastward as the Rhone, where they bordered upon the Ligurians. 

 (Strab., Casaub., 166.) They were a distinct race from the Celta;, 

 who at a remote but unknown period had crossed the Pyrenees, and 

 occupied the central parts of the peninsula, and from whose admixture 

 with the Iberi the Celtiberi sprang. Tiie aboriginal Iberi however 

 seem to have retained possession of the south and east parts of the 

 country from the Straits of Calpe to the Pyrenees, until the epoch of 

 the Carthaginian invasion. The Lusitani were probably also of 

 rberian race. The Aquitanians, who were a distinct people from the 

 Celtic Gauls, are supposed to have been of Iberian extraction. 

 William Humboldt asserts that the Basque language is the remains 

 of the old language of the Iberian race which at one time spread 

 over Spain, Southern Qaul, part of Italy, and the islands of Corsica, 

 Sicily, and Sardinia, and he attempts to prove this by the affinity 

 between the proper names in those countries. [Spain.] 



Iberia was also the name given by the Greeks and Romans to a 

 country south of the Caucasus, having Albania to the east, Colchis 

 to the west, and Armenia to the south, and corresponding to the 

 central or principal part of modem Georgia. LucuUus and Pompey 

 first carried the Roman arms into Iberia. Eutropius (lib. viii.) says 

 that the king of the Iberi paid allegiance to Trajan, who at the same 

 time gave a king to the neighbouriui; country of Albania. In the 

 reign of Constantino the Iberians were converted to Christianity by a 

 captive woman. The country of the Iberi is described by Strabo 

 (Casaub., 499) as well peopled, and the inhabitants as having made 

 ■ome progress in civilisation. The central part was a plain drained 

 by the Cyrus (Kur) and its branches. The country was reduced to 

 the form of a province by the Persian Sapor. The Georgians, who 

 call themselves Kartli, but are called Virk by the Armenian histo- 

 rians, are the descendants of these Iberi. 



IBRaIL, IBRAILOW, or BRAKLOW, a large town in Wallachia, 

 is situated on the left bank of the Danube, 15 miles S. from Galatz, 

 103 miles N.E. from Bukharest, and has about 20,000 inhabitants. It 

 stands nearly opposite the Turkish fortress of Matchin, and is the 

 chief shipping port of Wallachia, whence the com and other products 

 of that principality are exported. The town has of late years risen 

 rapidly in extent and importance. Its population in 1S38 was 

 estimated at only 6000. The harbour, formed by an arm of the 

 Danube, is sheltered by an island. There are extensive granaries and 

 warehouses in the town. Between 600 and 700 veaaels enter and 

 leave the harbour annually. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in 

 the sturgeon fisheries of the Danube. In the wars between the 

 Turks and Russians in the 18th century the town was more than 

 once besieged and taken by the Russians, who burnt it in 1770. After 

 the peace of Kutechuk-Kainardji in 1774 the town was strongly forti- 

 fied in the European manner; but the Russians took it again in 1828, 

 and demolished its defences. It was restored to Turkey by the 

 treaty of Adrianople. 



ICARIAN SEA. [iEoKAS Sea.] 



ICELAND {Island, in the native language), a large island in the 

 North Atlantic, and a colony of Denmark, extends from 63° 24' to 

 66° 33' N. lat, 13° 25' to 24° 31' W. long. Its shape resembles 

 ■omewhat that of a heart, with the point turned towards the south. 

 Cape Mord, at its north-west extremity, is about 200 miles from the 

 east coast of Greenland. Its area is 38,200 square miles : the popu- 

 lation was estimated at 60,000 in 1850. 



The coasts of Iceland, especially the western part, are deeply 

 indented with fiords, or inlets of the sea, which are the aestuories of 

 the rivers which flow from the numerous mountains and glaciers of 

 the interior. The island is crossed from east to west by ridges of 

 rugged and irregular mountains, which nm nearer to the south than 

 to the north coast, the longer rivers flowing towards the north. From 

 thcM ridges numerous offsets branch out in all directions towards the 

 coast, run through the various peninsulas, and terminate in high and 

 ■teep promontories. Between these off^^ts in the vicinity of the 

 fiords are fine valleys, in which the inhabitants have erected their 

 dwellingi ; and many of the low mountains are covered with a coarse 

 grate, which affords summer pasture to their cattle. The best 

 mhabited spots are on or near the banks of the fiords, where factories 

 are built for the purpose of trade and shipping. But the majority of 

 the inhabitants live in detached cottages or farms, a certain number 

 of which constitute a parish, having a church and an incumbent of 

 the episcopal Lutheran communion .is in Denmark. The interior of 

 the island is a dreary desert, through which one may travel 200 miles 

 without meeting any trace of human existence.' It consists partly of 

 mow mountains called Yokuls, or Jukuls, many of which arc aho 

 Tolcanoes, and partly of vast tracts covered with lava, scorise, and 

 Tolcanic sand. There are also several lakes, the largest of which, 

 called Myvatn, is about 40 miles round ; its banks are barren and 



gloomy, and infested by clouds of gnats. The most extensive mass 

 of icy mountains is that called Klofa Jbkul, in the south-east part of 

 the islaud, which lies behind another range of mountains that line 

 the coast, and forms a mass of ice and snow estimated to cover no 

 less than 3000 square miles. Magnificent glaciera cover the sides of 

 the mountains, beginning at a great height, and sloping with a very 

 rapid descent to^vards the plains. These icy masses are often rent by 

 the internal heat and eruptions of the volcanoes, and fall down in 

 terrible avalanches upon the plains. The glaciers present the same 

 phenomena of progressive motion as those of Switzerland, and they 

 deposit their moraines of large fragments of rocks. Vast agglome- 

 rations of basaltic pillars are seen in many places, as well as of tufa, 

 and some mountains are covered with thick incrustations of sulphur. 



There are numerous boiling springs, such as the Geysers in the 

 south district of the islaud, which throw up at periodical intervals 

 columns of boiling water to a considerable height. That known as 

 the Great Geyser ejects a column mora than 10 feet in diameter, 

 which is estimated by many writers to reach above 200 feet in height ; 

 but Mr. Barrow asserts that it never attains 100 feet. The eruptions 

 are preceded by a loud report like that of artillery. The Reykium 

 and the sulphur springs of Krisuvik are neur the south-west coast ; 

 those of Reykiadal in the west district; and those of Reykiahwerf 

 and Krabla in the north. There are also floods or bogs of boiling 

 mud, numerous cones and craters of volcanoes now quiescent, and 

 columns of dense smoke and steam issuing from many spots in the 

 immediate vicinity of the Geysers. Tke whole islaud appears to be 

 of volcanic formation, and there are still numerous volcanoes in full 

 activity : occasionally eruptions of fearful violence occur, such as 

 that in 1755 from the volcano of Katlegia, near the east coast, which 

 destroyed 50 farms ; and one in 1783 of a still more terrible character 

 from the Skeidara and other volcanoes of the Klofa Jokul ridge, 

 which covered several fertile districts with lava, while the ashes and 

 the effluvia corrupted the water and the atmosphere all around, the 

 fishes were driven away from that part of the coast, and famine and 

 pestilence followed, which in two years carried off 9000 people, and 

 destroyed thousands of horses and cattle. Ttje eruptions of Mount 

 Hecla are frequent, but not so violent or destructive : one lasted from 

 the 2nd to the 4th of September 1846, when ashes ejected from it 

 were carried as far as the Orkney Islands. The highest mountain in 

 Iceland is believed to be the Snaefell Jiikul, which rises in one of the 

 western peninsulas near the village or factory of Stappen, and was 

 reckoned by early travellers to be 6862 feet high, but by later 

 observations has been reduced to 4600 feet. Mount Hecla has been 

 reckoned at 5210 feet; but according to recent observations it is only 

 4500, or even 4300 feet On the southern and western coasts volcanic 

 islands have risen from the sea, some of which still remain, while 

 others have disappeared. In 1783 one rose from the sea on the west 

 co.>st ; it disappeared in the course of a month. 



Formerly there were many forests in Iceland, but they have 

 disappeared. The trees that now exist appear stunted in their 

 growth, and seldom rise above 10 feet, and wood has become very 

 scarce. It is alleged, but without sufficient reason, that the climate 

 has become colder, and is less favourable to vegetation. It often 

 happens in the spring that vast miuses of floating ice drifted from the 

 coast of Greenland are impelled by the wind and current against the 

 western coast of Iceland, where they do considerable mischief and 

 affect the temperature of the atmosphere. Instances have oociured 

 of icebergs having been stranded of such a size as to have required 

 several years to melt, and which have not only injured the hay harvest 

 by cooling the atmosphere, but have driven away the fish from the coast 

 by chilling and freshening the sea. Polar bcara are carried on these 

 masses to Iceland, and commit depredations among the cattle, and 

 even attack men ; they are however soon hunted down and destroyed. 



It appears that corn was once cultivated to a considerable extent, 

 but the inhabitants now find it more to their advantage to attend exclu- 

 sively to the rearing of cattle. The number of farms is about 6000 : 

 rent is paid either in money or produce. The number of horned 

 cattle in Iceland is estimated at about 40,000 ; sheep, 600,000 ; 

 horses, 55,000: about ],000,000lbs. of wool arc annually exported. 

 Hay is the great harvest of Iceland. Those who live on the coast 

 attend to fishing, which is very productive. There are no manu- 

 factures, properly so called ; but coarse cloth, gloves, mittens, and 

 stockings, with furniture and other articles required for domestic use, 

 are mode. Fancy silver triukets, displaying considerable ingenuity, 

 are also made by the peasantry. The common food of the people is 

 butter, milk, and fish ; fresh meat and rye bread are holid.iy fare. 

 The Lichen Islandicua, or Iceland Moss, is a common article of food. 

 Coffee, wine, and other luxuries are obtained in the factories on the 

 coast, and are used by the wealthier class. The exports consist of 

 cod and other dried fish, whale oil, salted mutton, wool, eider-down, 

 and sulphur, which is abundant. Turf is the common fuel of the 

 inhabitants ; fossil wood impregnated more or less with bitumen 



