402 



ICELAND. 



9. Amusements. The Greeiilanders have two games of ball, — one resembling our foot- 

 ball, and the other is a struggle between two parties for the possession of the ball. They have 

 also some feats of strength, particularly of grappling, or hooking the fingers together, and pull- 

 ing in that way. They also strike each other with the hand alternately on the back, and this 

 is continued with much severity, till one party yields to the other. The women sometimes 

 dance in a circle to the sound of a drum, and to singing. The dances of the men are rather 

 matches for grinning and grimaces, in which the one tries to outdo the other in making hideous 

 faces and assuming grotesque attitudes. The great season for rejoicing is on the return of the 

 sun, and the sun feasts are held by all ; at these the viands of the country are furnished in great 

 profusion. 



An amusement of a more pastoral kind is a singing match, to which one Greenlander invites 

 or challenges another. The friends on both sides assemble and the challenger endeavors to 

 render his adversary ridiculous ; he retorts, and the friends on each side applaud their favor- 

 ite. This struggle is continued till one party is exhausted, and the victory is supposed to be- 

 long to him who has the last word. They are familiar with the use of irony, which they are 

 obliged to use from the poverty of the language in reproachful words. These singing matches 

 are said to be managed with much ability and to abound in satire. 



10. Government. There are no laws, no magistracy, no civil polity. Everything is gov- 

 erned by custom, and no man has authority over another except in his own family, and there 

 the children are never chastised. Yet there is no disorder or turbulence, and in the main, the 

 peace of society is as well preserved in Greenland, without any rule of political conduct but 

 custom, as in many countries highly civilized and with a numerous police. ~ 



CHAPTER LIE ICELAND. 



1. Sitiiaiion and Extent. Iceland is situated on the verge of the polar circle, between 63° 

 24' and 66° 30' N. latitude, and between 13° 15' and 24° 40' W. longitude. Its length is 300 

 and its breadth nearly 150 miles, and it has a superficial area of 40,500 square miles. 



2. Mountains. This island is celebrated for its volcanoes, and its mountains of ice. Jlloiint 



Hecla is in the southern part, a few miles distant, 

 from the coast, and is about 5,000 feet in height. It 

 is neither the most elevated nor the most picturesque 

 of the Icelandic mountains, but its situation renders it 

 conspicuous, and it has become famous by its '•epeat- 

 ed and tremendous eruptions. The earliest eruption 

 on record was in 1004, since which theie have been 

 about 20. More than 60 years have elapsed since the 

 last. The summit of Hecla is divided into 3 peaks, 

 the middle of which is the highest. The craters form 

 vast hollows on the sides of these peaks. The moun- 

 tain itself consists for the most part of sand and slags ; 

 the lava being confined to the lower regions, and form- 

 ing an immensely rugged and vitrified wall around its 

 base. The most dreadful volcanic eruption known in 

 Iceland was from Skaptar Yokul, an ice mountain, 



near the sources of several rivers, and composed of about 20 red, conical hills. It took place 

 ■« 1783, and caused great devastations. Orcefa Yokul, the highest mountain in Iceland, is 

 supposed to be an elevation of 6,240 feet. The Sulphur Mountain has been described as a 

 " natural cauldron of black, boiling mud ;" the sulphur exhales from it in great profusion. 



3. Climate. The cold is not more intense in Iceland than in the most favored parts of Den- 

 mark, and the thermometer seldom or never sinks to zero. What afliects the temperature most 

 is the arrival of floating ice from Greenland. This comes in immense masses, often so large 

 as to run aground in SO fathoms. When it remains for a long time on the coast, the winter 

 snows are longer in melting, the frost remains in the ground, vegetation is checked, and the 

 summer is very short. 



4. Geology^ &c. Iceland is a chain of immense rocks, in the structure of which trap and 

 basalt predominate. Their rummits are rrov,'ned with snow, though everlasting fires hurn in 



Hecla. a volcanic mountain in Iceland. 



