ICELAND. 



43 



hamlets, isolated farmsteads, and islets on the seaboard, and Arne Magnusson 

 has left a portion of his fortune to aid in the publication of all the literary monu- 

 ments of his native land. Primary instruction is so diffused that the pastors 

 refuse to marry unlettered couples, and the island has for over a century enjoj^ed 

 a periodical press and a literary society. 



Besides the national speech, Danish is current in Reykjavik and all other 



Fie:. 17- — Reykjavik. 



trading centres ; but elsewhere Icelandic is exclusively spoken, though polite 

 expressions in Latin introduced by the clergy are still in vogue. 



A relatively large number of the people reside abroad, and many, after 

 graduating in Copenhagen, settle in Denmark, as did the father of the illustrious 

 Thorwaldsen. There is a considerable stream of emigration to America ; Icelandic 

 is now heard on the shores of the Canadian lakes, in Michigan, Wisconsin, 



