449 
NOTES ON SOME PHYSICAL FEATURES IN ICELAND. 
BY C. W. FENNELL, F.G.S. 
[Read 11th November, 1898.) 
Plate LXYII. 
In response to a request from the Council of this Society, 
I have endeavoured to put into the form of a short paper 
a few notes and recollections gathered during a visit to Iceland 
in August and September of the present year. 
Iceland just dips into the Arctic Circle in its northern 
parts, and is less than 250 miles from the coast of Greenland. 
It is a land of everlasting snow, with an area of 40,000 square 
miles, and a population of 70,000, with 20 active volcanoes, 
of which the principal are Orafa Jokull, 6,410 feet high, 
Hekla, 5,095, with Yatna Jokull, noted for the great eruption 
of 1875, and Skaptaa Jokull, which is said to have thrown out 
no less than 40,000 million tons of matter, to have killed over 
1,300 human beings, 20,000 horses, 7,000 cattle, and 130,000 
sheep in the awful eruption of 1783. The great lava streams 
that caused this havoc can readily be seen to-day. 
Iceland is a volcanic, treeless, mountainous land, wherein 
dwelleth Frost and Fire. It contains immense lava deserts and 
drear wastes, with boiling mud and hot springs, with creeping 
glaciers and snow-covered jokulls. Its bleak and sterile grandeur, 
aided by a gloriously clear atmosphere, and wonderful sunsets, 
and brilliant Aurora Borealis, is surely sufficient to stir up 
enthusiasm and poetry even in the stony heart of a Geologist. 
This island is said to be the most extensive area of volcanic 
rock known. Dr. Thorodds^n, the Geological Surveyor of Iceland 
under the Danish Government, was exceedingly kind in imparting 
his knowledge to me on many occasions, and said that 
