36 



ISLANDS OF TKE NOETII ATLANTIC. 



artesian wells sunk near the coast. The heavier salt water penetrating through 

 the deep fissures slowly upheaves the lighter fluid, which again subsides with the 

 ebb. These land tides are generally one hour behind those of the sea. 



The Iceland seaboard is indented with numerous fiords, and the north-west 

 peninsula especially presents a striking example of such diversified shores. But 

 as a whole the coasts are less varied in this respect than Norway, Greenland, 



Fig. 15. — Nokth-West Peninsula of Iceland. 



Scale 1 : 1.50,000. 



20 Miles. 



North Scotland, or the Hebrides. This is probably due to the frequent volcanic 

 eruptions, and to the consequent more rapid distribution of the alluvia. The 

 ashes thrown up by the volcanoes, and the sudden floods produced by the melting 

 of the snows about the craters, combined with the torrents of lava, have filled in 

 most of the fiords on the south side, where nothing now remains except a few 

 estuaries, or even basins already separated from the sea by narrow strips of sand. 



