110 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



cathedral Books are freely lent for months, or even for a whole year, to the 

 inhabitants of remote districts. This liberality is, of course, attended with 

 some inconvenience, but it has the inestimable advantage of rendering a num- 

 ber of good works accessible to numerous families too poor to purchase them. 



Another excellent institution is the New Icelandic Literary Society, founded 

 in 1816. It has two seats, one in Copenhagen, the other in Reykjavik, and its 

 chief object is the publication of useful works in the language of the country. 

 Besides an annual grant of 100 specie dollars (£24) awarded to it by the 

 Banish Government, its income is confined to the yearly contributions of its 

 members,* and with this scanty means it has already pubHshed many excellent 

 works. 



Though remote from the busy scenes of the world, Iceland has three news- 

 papers, the Thyodtholfr and the Islendingury^^hich. appear at Reykjavik, and 

 the Northri, which is pubhshed at Akreyri, on the borders of the Polar Ocean. 

 The Islendingur is said to contain many excellent articles, but it would sorely 

 task the patience of those who are accustomed to the regular enjoyment of the 

 " Times " at breakfast ; as it sometimes appears but once in three weeks, and then 

 again, gs if to make up for lost time, twice in eight days. 



In spite of their ill-ventilated dwellings and the hardships entailed upon 

 them by the severity of the climate, the Icelanders frequently attain a good old 

 age. Of the 2019 persons who died in 1858, 25 had passed the age of ninety, 

 and of these 20 belonged to the fair sex. The mortality among the children is, 

 however, very considerable ; 993, or nearly one-half of the entire number hav- 

 ing died before the age of five in the year above-mentioned. Cutaneous affec- 

 tions are very common among Icelanders, as may easily be supposed from their 

 sordid woollen apparel and the uncleanliness of their huts ; and the northern 

 leprosy, or " likthra," is constantly seeking out its victims among them. This 

 dreadful disease, which is also found among the fishermen in Norway, in Green- 

 land, in the Faeroes, in Lapland, and, in short, wherever the same mode of life 

 exists, begins with a swelling of the hands and feet. The hair falls off; the 

 senses become obtuse. Tumors appear on the arms and legs, and on the face, 

 which soon loses the semblance of humanity. Severe pains shoot through the 

 joints, an eruption covers the whole body, and finally changes into open sores, 

 ending with death. He whom the leprosy has once attacked is doomed, for it 

 mocks all the efforts of medical art. Fortunately the victims of this shocking 

 complaint are rather objects of pity than of disgust, and as it is not supposed 

 to be contagious, they are not so cruelly forsaken by their relations as their fel- 

 low-sufferers in the East. In the hut of the priest of Thingvalla, Marmier saw 

 a leper busy grinding corn. Some of the poorest and most helpless of these 

 unfortunate creatures find a refuge in four small hospitals, where they are pro- 

 vided for at the public expense. 



Since a regular steam-boat communication has been opened between Ice- 

 land, Denmark, and Scotland, the number of tourists desirous of viewing the 



* Their number in 1860 was 991. During his voyage to Iceland in 1850 Prince Napoleon was named 

 honorarj' president, a distinction he shares with the Bishop of Reykjavik. Among the 46 honorary 

 members I find the name of Lord Dufferin. 



