38 ISLANDS OF THE XOETH ATLANTIC. 



The disappearance of the fiords is also in many places due to another cause — 

 the o-eneral upheaval of the coast lands. On the northern seaboard recent shells 

 and drift-wood have been found over 200 feet above the present beach, and 

 according to Ulafsson and Palsson this upheaval is still going on at a tolerably 

 rapid rate. On the shores of the Breidi-Fjor^r, in the north-west, the inhabitants 

 point out a number of islands, islets, and rocks which made their appearance 

 durino- the course of the last century. Amongst the deposits thus raised to the 

 surface are half- carbonised timbers embedded in the tufas and lavas, and still 

 furnished with their leaves and cones, which certainly come from the ancient 

 forests of the land, and which are known to the natives by the name of 

 surturhrandur. As many as three successive layers of these fossil woods, indicating 

 a like number of forest growths, have been recognised by Olafsson and Palsson on 

 the same spot, including several stems 1 foot in diameter. In the surturhrandur 

 of the south-west Steenstrup has recognised the foliage and seeds of ten species 

 allied to those of Canada and Xew England, including conifers, the birch, willow, 

 maple, elm, and tulip-tree, "When these plants flourished in Iceland the climate 

 was certainly milder than at present, as seems also evident from the fossil molluscs 

 associated with these surturhrandur. 



Climate, Flora, and Fauna. 



Yet even the present climate is far less severe than might be supposed from 

 the name of the island. The surrounding seas are constantly warmed by the 

 currents from the tropics, whose mean temperature at Reykjavik is about 42° Fahr. 

 Cooled by the neighbouring polar seas, the atmosphere is naturally colder than the 

 water, though still warmer than that of any other country under the same 

 parallel except Xorway, The average climate of Reykjavik is the same as in 

 Central Russia or Nova Scotia, and even Grimsey, an islet within the arctic 

 circle to the north of Iceland, is temperate enough to be inhabitable. 



Xevertheless there is a marked contrast between the east and west of the 

 island, the latter being influenced by the warm tropical currents, the former by 

 the cold polar stream. And it is remarkable that the southern shores are colder 

 than the northern, Durins: severe seasons masses of floating ice have often drifted 

 to these shores, bearing with them the white bear. But these animals never pass the 

 summer in the island, and after having ravaged the flocks, again embark on the 

 floating masses, often swimming great distances to reach them. As many as 

 thirteen have been killed in a single year. 



The variations of the polar stream, and the irregular arrival of the drift ice, 

 render the climate extremely changeable, probably more so than that of any 

 other country. The temperature varies at times from 5° to G^ on the west, 

 and probably still more on the north and north-east coasts. The most disagree- 

 able season is spring, owing to the fierce snow-storms from the north-east. The 

 winters are long, and rendered more trying by the long nights than by the 

 cold, although the western skies are often lit up by the northern lights. In 



