The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-08-14
MISCELLANY.
ICELAND.
A Northern Wonderland.


when he beheld the work of creation and
how he strove to surpass it. He toiled
and toiled with the earth and the water,
and 10 he produced Iceland. The old
legend is less complimentary to lis sub
iect than such stories generally are, with
ont containing more truth. Iceland is
not paradise. The warmest patriot or
the keenest huntsman will hardly claim
that it is ;; but it is a country with wierd,
fierce, appalling beauties of its own-an
old laboratory of the ice and fire kings,
where they worked together, welding
the elem ents with Titanic might, and
torturing the earth into the widest and
unearthliest forms The surface IS BRO
ken into plateaus of sceria and lava, aw-
full chasms, and volcanic mount aims. 1t
is inhabited by the children of the bFav-
est and noblest of the old Mortimer, and
it has history and literature TO he
proud of.
Just south of the arctic circle, touch
ing it only in the north, the island con-
tains abort 81, 900 square miles, 30S Eng
Iish miles in length, and 100 miles in
bre~d Its shape is very Irregular
slightly resembling heart, with'a con-
siderable peninsula on the northwest
united to the maula"d by an extremely
narrow reck of land. J ae cosrI.i7. wide
and 6esolate beyond description Dl the
south there is group of rugged little
ypceks, t.e Westuarn Islands, o..ly one
Of which Is INHABITED and that by lew
ponr fisllei men, who are seldom aDle 10
communicate with the mainland, owing
10 he frequent gales. Near tie harhor
oil tae capital, Kcy ykjaviN, there isan i'm
mense eulamnar rock of ba-alt called the
IN ..-acix," upon which living man has
never Isnded, nor can lanu-sharp nee
dies, projecting near she water-liae, and
breaking the sea into an everlasting tu-
mnlt. The great aux, a bird as scarce
as the dodo, is said to live on the top !;
and flocks of other birds nestle in the
seams, min Cling their shrill cries with
the eterImlly melancholy beat Of the
sea
Elsewhere the coast is varied by ellis
of basalt and far-relching marshes and
swamps. Shattered blocks of black lava
worn into fantastic and curious forms,
are seen in greatest prOfusion. In some
places the sea has worked them into M T.
ural arches, through which the wind
sweeps with terrible shrieks; and in 9TH
er places they have the form of immense
spires, turrets and cupolas. On the
northwestern coast there is bold pro-
montorv, about 2,0CO feet in height, and
scarcely more than fifty degrees out of
the perpendicuIar. 1t fronts on one of
the bays, and across its fall there is a
perilous pass called Bulaudshofdi, which
looks like a mere thread or telegraph
wire. 1t affords a dangerous passage for
a man and horse; and it is seldom trav-
e'ed, as layers of the rock on the face of
the cliff are semi-detached, and often
tumble down at the touch of the wind.
Except at such points as these where the
coast is high, there is a background of
several ranges of snow-cappad noun
tains, which exhibit the most beautiful
effects under the changing light Of the
artic hetvens.
Only 1000 square miles OF this won
der land are inhabited. The rest of the
country is desert of lava fields and vol
canoes. You may travel mile after mile
without finding trace of Vegetation OF
q patch of fresh, brown earth. There are
some small forests of pinched, stunted,
precarious growth; bnt the largest tree
in the country is only thirty feet high
and is pointed out as a marvel. The
mountains are of two classes, the "fells'
and the ''yokulls," the former being free
from snow in the summer, while the lat.
ter are wrapped in perpetual ice. Their
forms are exceedingly varied and beau
tiful, most of them reaching upward by
easy gradltions to 4 sharp pinnacle that
has probably spouted lire within the
memory of living man. The ''yokulls'
generally have rounded heads of ice
resting on abrupt ianks of rock. The
"fells" are of uniform elevation, and are
rounded at the top, but do not support
ice-felds. The principal "yokull'' is
Osoefa, which is 6,341 feet above the lev
ell of the sea, and there are four Others
almost as large, the smallest being 4,571
feet above the sea level. Both "yokulls'
and "fells" are volcanic, and the havoc
they have caused is manifest in every
part of the country. Hecla, the bes
known of the 'fell~," has been in erup
tion twenty-six times since the year 1904
The last eruption occurred in 1S45-'46
and it is said that masses of the cinders
were carried as far as the Orkney Is
lands.-Appleton' journal.