Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-04
plsMAl ICELAND.
Recent Misisr,uAss u Iis lseAl%ss lahab.
iiaWto.

report; and an interesting little report
1t is. though somewhat dismal one,
for misfortunes have been rife in the
island of late. At the best Of times
the lcelanders have hard fight to
make both ends meet: for If ever there
was God-forsaken land it is theirs.
Nothing will grow there but grasses,
and they none Of the best. You may
go through the island from end to end
without seeing single tree. To try
to cultivate wheat or barley would be
a sheer waste of time: why. even what
rye is needed must be brought from
over the seas. Nor are there any rich
mines to compensate the natives for
the poorness of their soil. All the coal
they burn must be imported: the pc
troleum, too, and even the salt where
with to preserve their fish. The only
thing the land yields them is rough
grass; and even this was for the most
part, lost last year. for just when the
hay harvest was ready for loading
there came a series of earthquakes.
For whole fortnight the island
trembled and shook. and nearly {,
thousand buildings were wrecked.
WI NIlCiI Sottd6Sso Oil
their heads the people. naturally
enough, paid but little heed to then
crops, and the consequence was that'
when the earth settled down to rest
again. most of the hay was spoiled.
For one disaster that has petaiieh
Iceland England as a nation is re-
sponsible, according to The Pall Mall
Gazette" though through no fault d
her own A large percentage OF the
population have made their living for
the last 20 years by rearing sheep for
the English market. Sometimes they
have sent as many as 10000 sheep in
the course of one season. and have re-
ceiyed in return f50,o00. Now in that
mart of the world, it must be remenl-
bered, $4,000 is regarded as huge
sum of money: it represents. indeed,
the value of about one-seventh ~
everything the island exports in year.
Little wonder therefore. there was
CONSERVATION throughout the island
when it became known last year that
the British home office had decided to
prohibit the entrance Of live sheep
into England. The result of this de-
cree will be to reduce hundreds Of
small Icelandic farmers from com.
raratNely easy circumstances Id
poverty. They are left with their
sheep on their hands; for they have
no arrangements for transporting
them dead: and in this our day new
markets cannot be found at mo-
mert's notice.
The loss of the sheep trade is, how
ever, but small misfortune compared
With another with which the Iceland
ers are now threatened Their one real
SOURCE of wealth. the only commodity
they have on which they can count TO
provide them with the means where
with to pay their way in the world. has
hitherto been fish. ''Sixty-twO per
cent. of the average value of the ex-
ports of Iceland is the produce of the
fisheries" it is said in the report
Fishing and the sailing. drying and
packing of fish, indeed, is the chief
work to which the islanders devote
themselves.
They send large cod to Spain. small
cod to Italy, herrings to Norway and
cod, place, haddock and halibut. to
England; for until within quite recent
monopoly Of the finest fisheries in the
world. But. unluckily for them. this
state of things is now changing.
Foreign smacks have begun to hover
about the shores of Iceland: and, what
is still worse. foreign trawlers-British
for the most part-have taken up their
station there. Last year FAKE Bay, the
best fishery district Of all, was thronged
with them. This threatens to be a
serious matter for the native fisher
men, as the fishing banks of FAKE Bay
are too limited in extent to afford room
beth for the boat-fishers and the
trawlers; and the former"-the Ice
landers fish in small boats by means of
handlines. long lines and nets-.being
the weaker, must yield. When
trawlers are constantly steaming back
and forward. dragging their travis
over the limited area Of the fishing
banks, it is impossible for the native
fishers to set their lines or nets on these
banks without exposing them to the
inevitable fate of being caught and
torn away by the travis. Trawlers
and net-and- line fishermen cannot
work alongside each other and as the
greater part of the fishing banks in
FAKE Bay lie outside the three-mle
limit, it is impossible for the native
fishermen to confine themselves within
territorial waters which the trawlers
may not enter. To do so would be the
same thing as to abandon fishing en-
t.rely, and this would involve their
utter ruin and the depopulation of the
district" Thus. look which way they
will. these luckless people see nothing
but misfortune before them.
The Icelanders certainly merit better
treatment than they receive from the
fates for they are a frugal, hardworking
race. who strive hard to walk in the mar
row path and do their duty to their
neighbors. They are eminently law
abiding. There are only two policemen
in the whole country. and of these the
one is too old and delicate to be able to
go out in bad weather. while the other
finds time in which to write novels. Their
procedure for dealing with criminals is
\ quaint to say the least of it. Surprising
man is to be arrested. instead OF send
ing some one to arrest him. Icelandic
magistrates dispatch to him little note
calling upon him to deliver himself up to
them at the prison door by a given date.
And oddly enough. the man, as d rule.
obeys the summons: although sometimes.
instead OF doing so, he writes or sends a
n 6vn 11of ha ran no,