Evening star., 1941-09-06
Iceland Wears Look
OF Many Countries
As Aspect Changes
Weird Beauties Seen
Drawing Americans
When Peace Returns
(Sirteenth OF q SerieS.)
(Sirteenth OF a series.)
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
star staff Cnrrasnnnhhnt.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland. - The
ships bells ring midnight.
At the head of this Iceland fjord
1t is like O'Clock. of a late August
evening in New England There is
the sharp tang of October in the
sir. The moon is full above the
black-and-red mountain wall which
looms over the water on all sides
This moon makes path of gold
from shore to ship.
In the western sky the sun is a
pink curtain. 1t is just under the
horizon. Below this curtain the
water is pale yellow with strange
islands OF amethyst-blue Around
the moon the sky is the blue of
Georgian Bay or of Lake Winnie
pesaukee.
There is weird plnkness over
all the landscape. due to the below
horizon sun. American troops are
in the land of pink summer mid
nights.
Venus Looks Moon-Like.
Halfway up the sky Venus is red
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so big she looks like small moon.
The cliffs rising from the water
have been cut by storms into strange
contours. There are a half dozen
great stone faces. There is the
Sphinx. There are the pyramids
of Egypt. A little imagination and
the ship is lying in Egyptian wa
tars.
In a couple of hours it will be
sunrise. The pink will change to
mist of gold.
In a few months there will be
pink mondays instead of pink mid
nights. 1t is Scant wonder that If
wild old Ingolfur Arnasson, Ice
lands original settler, came up this
narrow bay of summer night he
thought he had found the prom
ised land and decided to settle down
from his sea wanderings. And when
this war is over the accounts of
returned Americans will bring
thousands of tourists-although the
1celanders are far from sure they
want them.
4Ctld41N 10 q lllAhlulO VI n 1OG VI
places. Now it is the Black Hills
of North Dakota with its sharp,
barren, black volcanic cliffs stretch
ing as far as eve can see. Now it
Is the moors of Scotland, treeless,
rolling hills reaching to the horizon
with clouds of black smokefog
rolling over them and a purplish
tint now and then which gives
suggestion CT the heather. Navy
officers say that if it were not for
the cold they would think some
times they were in Hawaiian waters.
The rolling moors make the most
perfect setting for q mystery movie
any director could ask and it is
safe bet that in few years Holly
wood cameras will be set up here,
First Impression Bleak.
Iceland strikes Americans at first
as bleak and inhospitable. After
few days however, the weird lowell
ness of the land captures them The
first bad impression comes from the
almost complete absence of trees.
When Ingolfur Arnasson settled
with his family in the neighbor-
hood of Reykiavik, and even CEN
turies later when Red Eirikur sailed
away to Greenland, there we're great
dwarf birch forests from the shore
line to the hills. Ingolfur and his
descendants chopped down these
birches for firewood and Iceland
ers never have been able to get
them back. They realize the literal
truth that "only God can make q
tree" Whenever reforestation seems
to have gotten a start with series
of good years something has hap
pened like a volcanic eruption, to
ruin all the hard work. Inland, at
the head of some of the fjords, frag-
ments of the original birch forest !
still remain and parts Of the Arctic
coast near Akureyri, town of 5000 |
and the second largest in Iceland, |
are said to be thickly wooded But |
the birches and willows never get |
over three or four feet high.
Wheat Will Not Riren.
The climate is little too cold for
comfort, even in the middle of
summer, and summer is brief. !
Wheat or maize will not ripen. Few
fresh vegetables can be grown al
though there now is a mammoth