Year: 1875




congruous, as would at first appear, than the
association of Iceland and volcanic erup-
tion. Yet the island in the Arctic Seas which
bears that name has been during the present
year the scene of one of the most terrific ex-
plosions, if we may so designate it, that has
ever been witnessed, and it is particularly
calculated to excite our sympathies at the
present time, the Icelanders having only last
year celebrated their millennial, or thou
sandth year of their Republic. The island
itself has never been of great conse-
quence in the world as political
power, but it has been the seat of
a remarkable intelligence. In area it ex-
ceeds by about one-fourth that of Ireland,
although only about seven thousand square
miles of it are habitable This portion is, as
it were, only a girdle of green investing
vast collection of volcanic mountains. In
many places this girdle is very narrow, in
deed almost entirely lost, while in other
places it expands along the banks of rivers
good way into the interior. A population
of from sixty to seventy thousand is thereon
supported, mainly by the rearing of sheep
and cattle and the catching of fish-these
latter being salmon and cod. Where pasture
lands for sheep exist the hocks are large and
the profits in wool considerable In strict
sense there is no farming although the
ordinary garden vegetables are cul-
tivated successfully The people retain
their ancient characteristics, and it
is of interest to us to remember that
tofo
we are in the habit of calling Saxon, is now
spoken only in Iceland III its original
purity Thus the Icelanders, though so
far away, are very near to u.s. About
one-third of the entire island has been,
as it were, shaken to pieces, and the most
disastrous consequences have. resulted from
the pouring forth of streams of lava and the
emission from the bowels of the earth of
vast volumes of hot sand and ashes. Nothing
has, perhaps, ever equalled it since the awful
catastrophe which overwhelmed Pompeii
and Herculaneum. The region most dis
turbed is the eastward of the centre
of the island, and, beginning in the vast un-
explored region of the Vatua J0l1ul, extends
northward to the wilds of Myvatu Most of





snow, and out from this area of frost came on
the Goth of March last a blaze of fire, show
ers of redhot lava and clouds of smoke and
ashes. So dense did the latter become that
in short time the light of heaven was OBJ
scured. Candles were lighted at MONDAY
BY four o'clock in the afternoon the shower
of ashes had somewhat abated and then
whole farms were covered from one and
half to eight inches deep with this smother
ing, sulphurous blanket. The inhabited por-
tions comprise, of course, but a small part
of the area thus covered but the pasture
lands of Jokiildal and Flotodalsh6rad, thus
converted practically into desert, embrace
three thousand square miles. Here and there
patches are found where few cows and
sheep find pasture, but the people have
mostly fed away. The safety of the
people depends upon keeping their cows
alive during the coming winter, for on milk
and what they make from it are the Iceland
ers principally dependent. The demand is
for fodder for these animals, so necessary to
the existence of the people. A single ship load
of grain and hay would be Godsend to these
unhappy dwellers in the North Sea, whom
frost and fire alike threaten with destruction
Probably there has not been within the
memory of any living man year when the
elements have wrought in various quarters
of the world greater calamities; but no sad
der plea for help comes from anywhere than
from poor, volcano-shaken Iceland