the Author in Full Dress of the Faroese,
Frontispiece
|
|
Cutting up Whale Meat at Thorshavn,
|
38
|
|
Heads of the Bottle Nose Whale,
|
38
|
|
Helgafell, Volcanic Cone, Vestmannaeyjar,
|
56
|
|
A Chain of Basalt Pyramids in Faroe,
|
56
|
|
The Hay Market and the Harbor at Reykjavik,
|
66
|
|
An Odd Corner in Reykjavik,
|
66
|
|
The Latin School at Reykjavik,
|
72
|
|
The Thinghús, Parliament Building, Reykjavik,
|
72
|
|
Foot of the Öxerá in Almannagjá,
|
96
|
|
Lögberg, Mount of Laws, between the Rifts, Ármannsfell in the Distance,
|
96
|
|
Bridge River, Brúará, near Geysir,
|
114
|
|
Tube of Geysir Filling, Photographed from within the Basin,
|
114
|
|
Favorite Ponies, Sunlocks and Greba,
|
158
|
|
Mountains of Sulfur, Solfataras, at Krisuvik,
|
158
|
|
When the Fog Lifted—Entrance to Seyðisfjörðr,
|
184
|
|
Washing Split Cod at Faskrudsfjörðr,
|
184
|
|
Goðafoss, the Icelandic Niagara, on the Skjalfandafljöt,
|
204
|
|
Island Craters in the Mývatn, from Skútustaðir,
|
204
|
|
Fording a Shallow Arm of the Mývatn, Turf Cottage in the Distance,
|
218
|
|
Contorted, Twisted and Crumpled Lava at Skútustaðir,
|
218
|
|
A Hot Water Fall at Hveravellir, (Hot Spring Valley),
|
226
|
|
Slútness, Crater Island in the Mývatn, Home of the Golden Eyed Duck,
|
226
|
|
Flag of the Arctic Club of America On the Summit of Krafla,
|
238
|
|
Obsidian Ridge, Hrafntinnuhryggr, near Summit of Krafla,
|
238
|
|
Thverá, a Highland Home in the Öxnadalr,
|
248
|
|
Vatnsdalshólar, Numberless Conical Hills in Vatnsdalr,
|
248
|
|
The Glacier of Láng Jökull in the Kaldidalr,
|
276
|
|
Glaciers and Moraine on Arnavatnsheiði,
|
276
|
|
Árhver, River Hot Springs near Reykholt,
|
292
|
|
Reykholt, Ancient Stead of Snorri, Typical Icelandic Farm,
|
292
|
ICELAND
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL
Table of Contents
Atossa.—And who is set over them as a shepherd of the flock, and is master of the army?
Chorus.—They call themselves the slaves of no man, nor the subjects either.
—Aeschylus.
Historically, Iceland is unique. Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Mexico—each has a prehistoric period of human habitation, when man loved and hated, and competed with the brutes for existence. He fashioned his instruments from stone and made self-preservation his first and only law. A sturdy race, little removed from the highest brutes, filled with animal vigor and endowed with brute passions, held all known lands in prehistoric time. Step by step, cycle upon cycle, brute force submitted to reason; culture and refinement, mental acquisition and spiritual attainment characterized an evolutionary race of human beings in which each developing cycle was founded upon the decadence of the prehistoric.
Not so with Iceland. A myriad centuries the Atlantic had rolled its billows against these basalt cliffs, the Arctic packed its ice upon these shores, the beetling mountains cast their rugged outlines upon the quiet fiords, the great Plutonic candles flamed in the Arctic air and guttered the land again and again with scorching streams of molten rock. The seal basked in the sunshine of the lengthened summer, the salmon sported in the glacial streams and millions of birds congregated on the lofty cliffs. All life was blissfully ignorant of its great enemy, man.
There
