ITS HISTOllY AND INHABITANTS, 1G7 



which glaciers branch out. The glacier explosions (jiikul- 

 hl((up, glacier leap) are peculiar to Iceland. They occur 

 when there is an eruption of an ice-covered volcano. On 

 such occasions extensive tracts of country are inundated 

 and converted into an eddying current filled with floating 

 ice. Within historical times fjords and bays have in this 

 way been filled up. During the glacial epoch Iceland was 

 completely overlain Avith an ice-roof or covering of at least 

 2,500 feet in thickness. Scorings and striations point to 

 more than one glacial period in Iceland. There are many 

 traces of the shifting of the shore in Post-glacial times, 

 especially in the north-west ; the highest shore line or raised 

 beach being 250 feet above sea-level. There is a double 

 raised beach in the north-west, aud the coast is still 

 receding. 



On the harbourless south and south-east coast people live 

 in little oases, isolated as islands, cut oiF from the rest of 

 the isle by sand deserts and glaciers which come to their 

 very door and threaten them perpetually — and under these 

 sleep volcanoes. It is pleasant to find in this howling 

 wilderness oases bright with flowers and fragrant with 

 thyme and meadowsweet. Between the Skaptafellsjokull 

 and the SkeiSararjokuU willows, angelicas and birches 21 to 

 22 feet high nestle in clusters, and there is even a mountain 

 ash 30 feet high. All round every quarter of an hour is 

 heard the thundering crash of ice blocks falling down on the 

 muddy sands or into the yellow waters of Skei^ara, which 

 changes its bed continually, moving over a mile, sometimes 

 often in a day. Nowhere is it possible to study so well the 

 geological conditions prevailing towards the close of the 

 glacial epoch in Europe. 



Iceland is the centre of a suboceanic volcanic region, and 

 no region of the earth has an equal title to be called the 

 Land of Fire. It owes its very existence to volcanic agency 

 continued to-day and may be truly called the abode of 

 subterraneous heat. No spot on the surface of the globe of 

 its extent exhibits marks of fire in such a multitude, in such a 

 variety and of such a magnitude. None contains an equal 

 number of volcanoes. Nowhere have eruptions of such 

 magnitude occurred. Dr. Thoroddsen has counted 107 vol- 

 canoes, 83 of which are a series of low craters or crater-chains, 

 eight are of the Vesuvius shape, and IG of the Sandwich 

 islands lava-cone shape ; 5,000 square miles of land are 

 covered Avith lava. The post-glacial lava alone would cover 



