INTRODUCTION. 
lxi 
the country; and in the eastern Klofa, Skaptar, 
and Torf Jokul, the latter esteemed the most 
stupendous mountains in the whole island. 
Rivers and fresh-water lakes abound; the latter 
of very considerable extent and well supplied 
with fish; the former, though of sufficient width 
in many instances to admit of navigation, are 
too much obstructed by rocks and shallows to 
be employed to this important object. The bays 
and harbors are both numerous and safe, though 
their entrances are but little known, except by 
those who are frequently in the habit of visiting 
the coasts. 
The annals of the island describe the country, 
than which nothing can possibly be now more 
bare, as having been once covered with impervious 
forests; and the quantity of bog-wood and sur- 
turbrand which is continually dug up afford the 
most decisive proof in favor of the truth of such 
assertion. Even now, too, the name remains, 
though the reality has long ceased to do so, and 
places are called forests that produce only a few 
miserable and stunted birches. All attempts of 
recent times to cultivate even the most hardy 
trees have proved ineffectual, so that for his ne¬ 
cessary supply of wood the Icelander is obliged 
wholly to depend upon importation from Nor- 
