166 HERE JON STEPANSSON, PH.D., ON ICELAND : 



Let IIS approacli this wonderland. A high tableland out 

 of which rise sharp peaks and glittering ice-fields, and into 

 which run winding fjords, fringed by rocky islets on which 

 the waves break in a white line of foam. You don't miss 

 the forest which is not there, for the vivid brilliance of the 

 air shows the glacier white and volcanic black, and sunset 

 turns them to rich purple and violet. 



Iceland is a plateau region, composed of older and more 

 recent volcanic masses, not older than the Tertiary period, 

 of an average altitude of from 1,650 to 2,000 feet, occupying 

 thirteen-fourteenths of the island. It consists of basalt and 

 palagonite tufa and breccia ; the latter, the younger forma- 

 tion, in the centre and towards the south, Avhile the greater 

 part of the west, east and north coasts is of basalt, or 

 nearly two-thirds of the island. The glaciers rise like 

 broad domes from this plateau. In the south where the 

 glaciers come down to the sea there are no harbours for 

 250 miles, from Djiipivogr to Eyrarbakki, for all the fjords 

 have been filled up with detritus brought down l)y the 

 glaciers. But the basaltic regions are cut and furrowed by 

 immerous fjords. The basaltic formation is divided into 

 two strata by the " surtarbrand "* formation of the miocene 

 period, 60 to 100 feet in thickness, the fossiliferous layers 

 occurring about midway up in the vertical faces of the 

 basalt of the north-west. In these lignite strata have been 

 found the remains of a vegetation of the American type 

 when Iceland had a tropical climate.f The extensive forests 

 of Tertiary times seem to have been overwhelmed by pumice, 

 ashes and sometimes by flowing lava. Silicated tree stems 

 are found in many places. The area of glaciers or ice- 

 covered altitudes is estimated at 5,500 square miles, seven 

 times that of Switzerland (710 square miles), comparable in 

 size only to the glaciers of the polar regions. The 

 Vatnajokull alone measures 3,300 square miles. The height 

 of the snow line on the southern side of the plateau is 

 2,000 feet, on the northern side 4,300 feet, the air in the 

 interior being much drier. The appearance of these 

 glaciers is that of the Polar regions. The summits of the 

 mountains are covered Avith flat or vaulted ice-fields from 



* Surtarhrandur is tlie Icelandic name for fossilized tree trunks, a 

 convenient name for the whole of the Icelandic lignite strata. 



t This lignite band has its I'epresentative in the Island of Mull and 

 Co. Antrim. — Ed. 



