The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-08-18
lcELANpsAppEAts FOR 4cslsa
Wanted It to Save Their Herring Har
vest After Mild WinterxA

Wanted It to Save Their Herring Har
vest After Mild WintsrS
Carrying ice to Iceland w.n appear
to most persons about ass Reasonable
IS carrying wheat to the Dakota,
cotton to Texas Or beans to Boston.
Bue according to recent press dispatch
es, the Icelanders have madesan.,ap
)eai 10 Norway the nearest European I
,oun@y, to hip them ice IN order |lat
they 5inay save their herring harvest
rom spelling because of the para.
loxes of this supposed land OF ice are
lealt with IN the fol owing bulletin
ssued by the National Geographic
Society
"phe laad which has come down IN
history as Iceland might with more
accuracy have been given a diametri
ally opposite title. and called "The
Land of Fire" The surface of no 9th
3r country, perhaps, is so deepy
worked by the whitening blasts that
well up from time to time; and in no
country Of equal area are TO be found
50 many volcanic peaks and vents
Nearly 500 square miles Of the 40 900
If the country's area are covered by
ava FLOWS
lee and Is approximately. the size
IF ONO and about 5000 square niles
| arger. thaa,Ireland, 1t is only a. short
istance OF the European coast OF
Greenland and its northernmost cape
Just touches the Artc circle. From
there the Midnight sun can be seen. In
spite OF its position so near tho
North Pole. Ice and. thanks to the
;ulf stream has re atively win
ter Climate Riykjayik, the capital
s in the same lat tude as Nome,
llaska, but has January tempera-
ure milder than that OF Munich
Germany, or Milan, Italy
Ice andic summers, however, are
cool, due to the large fields of ice tina,
float down from the north. Grain can
| iot be grown satisfactorily and all
,readstuffs must he imported Hay
potatoes and turn.ps are the on y
agricultural products Of Importance
Cattle, horses and sheep are raised In
cons derab'e numbers, and large quan
tites of fish chiefly cod and herring
ARE taken from the neighboring
yafa,s.
Though Iceland has an extensive
,rea, Tor all pracuca. purposes it might
lust as Wei be on y seventh it's &C.
tual size. Although Europeans emf
Grated to Iceland abont zoo years be-
fore Old Wolf colonies were estab
sied m the now famed North Ameri-
ca only the valleys and low.and,
tear tue coast OF the iland have ever
seen developed. This is not because
If a lack Of energy on the part of the
hardy Scandinayians who settled the
sland but because the interior. com.
Drising about IA seventls Of the totl
lrea, is waste Of lava, boulders and
aayel devoid OF yesetat on.
The island is approximately 200
niles vide ard 90) miles long, hui
hardly habitatiou can be found more
,nan 40 mi es from salt water There
IRE no railroads AMI few carriage
foads. The iuhab iants depend al
most entirely on the wstor trauspor
alton along the coast ANA in the many
cords.
iceland can be considered the half
way station between Europe and
america. Nearly zoo years before
Columbus sailed to The West Indies
through the warm south Atlantic in
us rclaG1tly large. decked sh 'ps,
lar'ng Scandinavian sea rovers in
their open boats passed from NORWAY
20 Iceland and from there TO the coasts
If Maine aud Rhode | STAND.
Though lce@aGers. faced by i'm
placab natural forces ANA conditions
have been unab to achieve any
,rcat degree OF ply ical development
IN the + lava-oC5Wed, shoitsummcred
island, they have mace notable adj
yances IN less material fie DIS A truly
remarkable literary development
sprungyup in this TAR island
II the 18th and 18th centuries. a full
hundred Years before the Renais
sance began to make itself felt in
sunny Italy. -
In more recent tines the Iceland
ers have shown themselves to be n
!, advance of many paTts OF the world
in their social and political ideas
Women had fUl political priuieges II
ICELAND earlier. probably, than IN any
other civilized country. At the pres
ent time part OF the A.thing Tn,
Ice and Parliament is elected by
proportional representation. Votes
( for women Is not the only mark
which femln IN has placed on the life
/ of Iceland. The customs of womel
retaining their own names when the,
marry is more general in Iceland. per
haps, than in any other modern coun
try
THE political statue of Ice and IL
in some ways peeul ar. In effect II
might be said to be an autonomous
state in partnership with Denmark Il
h ha8 no army or navy and is under M