The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

28 ISLANDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.perfect cone at the extremity of the peninsula, on the north side of Faxa Bay, itssnowy crest forming a prominent landmark, visible to the navigator as he roundsthe bluffs of Reykjanes, on the south-west side of the island. The great northwesternpeninsula, connected with the rest of the land by an isthmus 5 miles wide,is also very mountainous, many of its numerous headlands rising from 700 to 2,000feet above the water. The northern capes are mostly also commanded by abruptescarpments, while on the east side are several peaks over 3,000 feet high, whosesharp outlines are visible at a great distance, towering above the surrounding fogs.The Oraefa-Jokull, culminating point of the island, lies at the southern angleof the great Vatna-Jokull table-land, and is 6,410 feet high, or about four times themean elevation of the land.Viewed as a whole, Iceland may be compared to a plane inclined to the west, orrather south-west. The most thickly peopled district is that which has the leastmean elevation, and here is also situated the capital, Reykjavik.The line of perpetual snow varies on the mountains with their latitude andaspects : still it is higher than might be supposed from the name of the island.In many places crests over 3,300 feet are completely free of snow during thesummer, and 2,800 to 2,850 feet may be taken as the mean. The term fell isapplied to heights free of snow in summer ;j'okull to those which always remaincovered.Glaciers, properly so called, are rare. Doubtless a great part of the surface iscovered with j'dklar ; * but most of these frozen masses are very slightly, if at all,inclined, and their highest crests rise scarcely a hundred yards above the surroundingplains. Owing to their relatively motionless state, the snow is seldom, or veryimperfectly, transformed to ice.Such a vast snow-field is the Klofa-Jokull, or Vatna(6,300 feet), spreading over the south-west of the island for a space of about 3,000square miles. True glaciers are found at the entrance of the gorges separatingthe mountain masses, and of these the first to be studied was that of Geitland,which fills an upland valley near Hval-Fj6rSr,t north of Reykjavik. It was visitedabout the middle of the last century by Olafsson and Palsson, who detected thepresence of crevasses, surface streams, " caldrons," " tables," and moraines, andendeavoured to account for them. According to the natives this glacier encloseda deep and cultivated valley, inhabited by a tribe of men of the woods, sprung fromthe ancient giants. But the largest and most rapid glaciers are the Skrrojoklar,flowing from the Vatna-Jokull snows in the south-east of tho island. They reachthe neighbourhood of the sea, and in their general character resemble those ofSwitzerland.As in the rest of Europe, the Iceland glaciers have their periods of expansionand contraction. In the middle of the last century they were in a state ofdevelopment, for Olafsson and Palsson saw some of recent formation nearBorgar-FjorSr, on the west coast. Now, however, they seem to be generallydecreasing in size in the same ratio as those of Switzerland, although Watts speaks* Plural ofjoltuU.f The letter D, S, is the soft English th, as in the, these; p, J>,is tho hard th of thrust, thunder.