Notes on Some Physical Features in Iceland

Abstract

In response to a request from the Council of this Society, I have endeavoured to put into the form of a short paper a few notes and recollections gathered during a visit to Iceland in August and September of the present year. Iceland just dips into the Arctic Circle in its northern parts, and is less than 250 miles from the coast of Greenland. It is a land of everlasting snow, with an area of 40,000 square miles, and a population of 70,000, with 20 active volcanoes, of which the principal are Orafa Jokull, 6,410 feet high, Hekla, 5,095, with Vatna Jokull, noted for the great eruption of 1875, and Skaptaa Jokull, which is said to have thrown out no less than 40,000 million tons of matter, to have killed over 1,300 human beings, 20,000 horses, 7,000 cattle, and 130,000 sheep in the awful eruption of 1783. The great lava streams that caused this havoc can readily be seen to-day. Iceland is a volcanic, treeless, mountainous land, wherein dwelleth Frost and Fire. It contains immense lava deserts arid drear wastes, with boiling mud and hot springs, with creeping glaciers and snow-covered jokulls. Its bleak and sterile grandeur, aided by a gloriously clear atmosphere, and wonderful sunsets, and brilliant Aurora Borealis, is surely sufficient to stir up enthusiasm and poetry even in the stony heart of a Geologist. This island is said to be the most extensive area of volcanic rock known. Dr. Thoroddsen, the Geological Surveyor of Iceland under the …