, 1885-10-16
pEouLIAaIrIgs OF lcgGANo.
An Old story-A Region Of Utter Desola-
tion-Ths J~okuiis-The Map

An Old story-A Region Of Utter Desola-
tion-Ths Jokulis-Ths Map
iReyk1avik Cor New York Timesl
Iceland owes its existence entirely to
volcanic upheaval and has ever been
one of the most active volcanic regions
Of the globe. 1t is situated in tho north
Atlantic ocean, lust south of the arctic
circle, which ii touches, and geograph-
ically belongs to the western hemis-
phere, though the circumstance Of its
discovery and the Political changes that
took place during the ensuing centuries
cast its lot with the old World. Its
shape is that Of an irregular eclipse,
with n greater axis OF $50 miles and a
lesser one of rs miles, extending
nearly northeast and southwest. Two
capes reach far out from its western
coast, and Il large triangular PENN
sula on the northwest joins the main
land by one Of its angles. Its outline,
on all except the southern side, is very
irregular. being deeply indented by the
narrow fiords that are 80 character
istic of these and Norwegian coasts. In
area the island is about 40, 900 square
miles, or somewhat similar to the states
OF Maine and Ohio, but nine-tenths of
this is entirely uninhabited.
There is an old story that Satan, after
the creation Of the world, wished to try
his hand at the business; so, gaining the
the consent of the Almighty, he made
Iceland and was well pleased with his
work. There is not elsewhere in the
world another place so fitted to inspire
one with a sense Of awe at the powers
that slumber beneath this crust upon
which we live.
The farms and villages of Iceland are
all contained in a narrow belt that runs
around the island, and are situated in
the valleys between the mountain chains
that radiate from the high land of the
interior and extend far into the
sea. Within this inhabitable ring
the island is one vast desert, n
huge tableland that has for ages
been the trysting place of natures most
violent forces. Riven and torn and
tossed-the earthquake, glacier, and
volcano have united to produce a scene
that cannot be equaled. For an extent
of 20, 900 miles there is utter desola-
ton, inhabited by no human being.
From this tableland again rise noun
tains and volcanoes, singly or in groups,
while the snowy domes of the Jokulls
pronounced Yae'kull, and meaning a
mountain entirely covered with snow,
tower high above them all. Every cen
fury sees changes in this interior.
Hills rise where before there were val
leys; boiling springs disappear or burst
forth where they had not previously
been known, and in the mountain sides
or on the level plain huge chasms open
with reyerberating reports and beleh
forth seas of molten lava.
In the southwestern part of the ISL
and, about sixty miles from Reyklavik,
stands Hecla, a comparatively small,
though very active, volcano. Further
to the eastward is the terrible \atna
Jokull stretching its glacier arms and
riyen cliffs over the surrounding coun-
try-4.0 900 miles of ice resting upon a
nest of volcanoes that, perhaps, are
only waiting the time when they shall,
as before, open their huge Threats and
gashed sides and spread destruction
over sea and land, suffocating many
birds, animals, and men with their
noNious gases, destroying the fishes in
the sea, and sending the waters of the
rivers Kissing and screaming into the
air before the approach of the fiery
flood. The two most violent eruptions
on record have occurred from this
group, and several times have they
spread ashes and sand over the farms
that lay within the course of the wind
and over the seas for hundreds of miles.
Perhaps no country has been more
accurately mapped than Iceland. The
Danish government, under whose rule
the island has been since the fourteenth
century, seems to have paid particular
attention to surveying its coast and in
terror, and the result is one of the most
faithfully executed maps in existence.
Every rock and ford about the coast,
each village farm, and bride path, and
even the glaciers and chasms. to the
smallest line in the mountain sides, are
put down with an almost microscopic
minuteness and a regard for accuracy
and detail that would do credit to far
more important countries than this.
The Natna Jokull lone remains a blank
to mar the beauty Of the whole. De-
flying all attempts az ascent or explora-
ton, it always has been, and ever will
be, represented by only the yaguest out
lines, unless it again breaks forth with
more terrible violence, changing the
whole character Of its formation, and
perhaps killing many persons whom it
is patiently Turing into a sense of secur-
ity by years Of silence.