The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-31
pEcuLlARlTIEs OF ICELAND.
An Old StOry-A Region of Utter DesOla-
tiOn-The JOkuIIs-The Map.

tiOn-The JOkuIIs-The Map.
lReykjavik Cor New York Times
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 the north
Atlantic ocean, just south of the arctic
circle, which it touches, and geOgraph-
ically belongs to the western hemis-
phere, though the circumstances of its
discovery and the political changes that
took place during the ensuing centuries
cast its lot with the Old World. It's
shape is that of an irregular eclipse,
with a greater axis of $50 miles and
lesser one of 175 miles, extending
nearly northeast and southwest. Two
capes reach far out from its western
coast, and large triangular. PENN
sula on the northwest joins the main
land by one of its angles It's outline,
on all except the southern side, is very
irregular, being deeply indented by the
narrow fjords that are so 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 enths 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 q 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, a
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 scene
that cannot be equaled. For an extent
of 10000 miles there is utter desola-
ton, inhabited by no human being.
From this lakeland again rise noun
tains and volcanoes, singly or in groups,
while the snowy domes of the JokuIls
pronounced Yae'kull, and meaning
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
legs; 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 reVerberating reports and belch
forth seas of molten lava.
In the southwestern part of the ISL
and, about sixty miles from Reykjavik,
stands Hecla, a comparatively small,
though very active, volcano. Further
90 5S hn fol.riIln Notna
Jokull stretching its glacier arms and
riven cliffs over the surrounding coun-
try, 900 miles of ice resting upon
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
noxious 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
food. 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 mounta1A sides, are
put down With an almost microscopic
minuteness and regard for accuracy
and detail that would do credit to far
more important countries than this
The Vatna Jokull alone remains blank
to mar the beauty of the whole. De-
flying all attempts at ascent or explora-
ton, it always has been, and ever will
be, represented by only the vaguest out
lines, unless it again breaks forth with
more terrible violence, changing the
whole character of its formation, and
perhaps killing many persons whom 1t
is patiently Turing into a sense OF secur-
ity by years of silence.