ICELAND'S FUTURE PROSPERITY MAY BE WRITTEN IN WATER The development of the nation's tremendous reservoir of water power into hydroelectric energy would pave the way for innumerable manufactures. SHE LOOKS FORWARD TO THE DAY WHEN HER COUNTRY WILL NEED FEWER BARRELS Her fisheries will always be an important item in the island kingdom's list of exports, but Iceland fishermen hope that the time is not distant when much of their catch can be sent fresh by refrigerator steamers to England and other consumer countries, whereas now the harvests of the sea must all be sold as dried or salt fish. I BY EARL HANSON CELAND'S name naturally suggests to the prospective visitor that he will find a frozen waste. And when his map shows this island to lie across the very threshold of the Arctic Ocean, hard by the glacial coast of Greenland, and 300 miles farther north than bleak Labrador, he is almost prepared to come upon a land of polar bears and of fur-clad folk living in snow igloos. Iceland is libeled both by nomenclature and maps. On many charts the most important physical fact in its life does not appear. Up from the south flows the warm Gulf Stream to enfold the island and work the magic of whisking it, in effect, nearly a thousand miles toward the Equator; so that its climate is not that of the polar regions, but of southern Canada or northern United States (see map, page 470). On Iceland's coasts are thriving towns with buildings of stone, gabled roofs and church steeples, busy streets and electric lights. In the streets are men and women garbed much as are the inhabitants of Copenhagen and Glasgow, Ottawa and Minneapolis. One's eyes tell him that here is the same civilization that Europe and America know. And immaterial factors proclaim the truth still more unmistakably than do material things. Here, in this far northern land, a worthy national literature and stable national institutions were developed when much of Europe was floundering in the Dark Ages. Here the lamp of a Nordic Renaissance burned and lighted its own region before the beacon of the Latin Renaissance was held aloft to light the way for the world. This northern light has never failed. To-day the literacy rate is higher in Iceland than in many countries of Europe. FIRE AND ICE HAVE CONTENDED FOR It is true that physically Iceland's best foot is forward. Its most pleasant aspect is its fringe of coast. Inland it is in nowise a pretty country, though the distinction may be made that it possesses much scenery of beauty-a weird, magnificent beauty coupled beauty coupled with desolation; for, though Iceland is not the icy waste that distant popular fancy would make it, it fared less fortunately at the hands of another of Nature's great forces, fire. The land is actively volcanic, and in the interior, on every hand, are the evidences of great fiery outbursts of the past. To tourists it presents none of those scenes which have made other lands popular: no forests, no rich meadows, no prosperousappearing farms with beautiful gardens. Ages ago Iceland was thrown up from the ocean by volcanic action. The most famous of the island's hundred-odd volcanoes is Hekla-perhaps because it was so effectively used in the preachings of the medieval monks and missionaries to symbolize the descent into hell. Its eruptions often have been accompanied by tremendous earthquakes and have wrought great destruction to life and property. Earthquakes are inescapable in a volcanic region, and Iceland has had its full share of these devastating tremors. EARTHQUAKES REVIVIFIED THE ISLAND'S DORMANT GEYSERS The shocks of 1896, while destructive in the main, had at least one by-product that might be classed as constructive. They breathed new life into the worldfamous Great Geysir (see page 475), which, if not entirely dead, had at least become a rather indifferent performer. It was suddenly rejuvenated and all the smaller geysers in the vicinity spouted simultaneously. Several new ones were also formed. Lord Dufferin describes the land in the immediate vicinity of Geysir as being infested with many tumors and boils, for in a hundred places are seen the bare spots and mounds of wet clay or siliceous rock, where the hot springs bubble up, either crystal clear or gray and heavy with mud. Hot springs are not, however, confined to the vicinity of Geysir; they are found throughout Iceland, and in almost every valley are seen clouds of white steam. These fuming springs have had a marked THE "ISLAND" LOADING HERRING AT ISAFJÖRDUR Iceland's salted and spiced herring find a ready market in Sweden; the dried cod go to Spain. Illiteracy is practically unknown in Iceland. The inhabitants speak an old Norse language. and they have kept their tongue so pure throughout the centuries that the average Icelander of to-day is able to read his literature of the 12th or 13th century with greater ease than an American or an Englishman can read an early edition of Shakespeare's works. HANDLING THE DAY'S HERRING CATCH AT SIGLUFJÖRDUR The fresh herring are brought in from the fishing ground by trawlers. As a boat approaches the harbor it hoots to a prearranged code, then, according to the factory to which the trawler is going, a corresponding hoot from the factory is given. In three minutes the jetty that was deserted is crowded with several hundred men and women ready to deal with the catch, which is unloaded into huge troughs on the quay. Girls cut off the heads and clean the fish, then toss them into hampers. These are taken to washing tanks, where the fish are thrown in and washed thoroughly, ladled out, and taken to other girls who have stacks of trays containing approximately equal parts of sugar and salt, about a twentieth of mixed spice, and a quantity of bay leaves. The packing now proceeds, with alternate layers of fish and spiced salt, until the barrels are full. Then coopers put heads in them and they are rolled off to a storeroom, where two girls complete the job, one drilling a hole in each barrel, the other filling it with as much water as the contents will absorb, after which a bung is driven home, and the shipment is ready for Sweden. effect on the nomenclature of the land. Reykjavik means "Smoking Harbor"; Reykjanes; "Smoking Point." Reykholt, the home of the historian Snorre Sturlusson, means "Smoking Hill." On every side is found that Reyk, meaning "smoke." A LIFE OF ISOLATION ON THE HAY FARMS Owing to the absence of good roads in the island kingdom, the mail service is hardly calculated to keep one freshly in touch with the world and its affairs. Once a month a postal caravan traverses a fixed route, leaving the letters at a few designated farms, from which the rest of the inhabitants must do their own collecting. No wonder the Icelandic farmer, leading such an isolated life, is glad to receive the stranger, shelter him, and ask him LACK OF FUEL IS ICELAND'S GREATEST There is a curious custom throughout Iceland of calling the living-room, which is also the sleeping-room for the whole family, the "bathroom." This is said to have come about in the following way: According to the sagas, the island was once full of forests, which furnished ample fuel for the comfort-loving Vikings. They loved their hot baths, and in each home the favorite room was the one which contained the sunken tub. Stones were heated in bonfires and thrown into the water to bring it to the right temperature. The harbor entrance is distinguished by bold masses of lava contrasting with bands of red tufa. These barrels are ready to be filled with the catch at Siglufjördur. Both Siglufjördur and Isafjördur, the herring capitals of the island, are within half a degree of the Arctic Circle. The herring trawlers which frequent these ports are equipped with nets 115 fathoms long and 23 fathoms broad. An ordinary day's catch is 600 barrels (see, also, page 501). |