108 
Not only Norway, but Denmark and Sweden, and Finland and Pomerania, 
all enter into the description which I have attempted to give you here. 
The Chairman. — What was the population of Iceland about that period ? 
Mr. Gosse. — It is very difficult to tell, in the absence of anything like a 
census. The present population is about 64,000, and there is no doubt 
whatever that then it had vegetation enough to keep at least double that 
population, and probably a great deal more, because they subsisted largely 
on stores from other countries, — stores of corn and meal, and various neces- 
saries of life, brought from Norway and England and the Teutonic countries 
generally. I should think 200,000 people might easily have been sustained 
on the island then, though there is nothing in the Sagas to suggest that so 
large a population actually existed. 
The Meeting was then adjourned. 
