Chapter XXXII: Section VIII (2)

[88] “Kleifar” is a local name in West Iceland, from Kleif, a ridge of cliffs or shelves in a mountain-side (Cleasby).

[89] Professor Tyndall (loc. cit.) tells us that the “two first gases cannot exist amicably together. In Iceland they wage incessant war, mutually decompose each other, and scatter their sulphur over the steaming fields. In this way the true solfataras of the island are formed.” He derives the vapour of sulphur in nature from the action of heat upon certain sulphur compounds.

[90] I have denied the existence of this diagonal.--R. F. B.

[91] The Journal shows how great this mistake is.--R.F.B.

[92] The description is prodigiously exaggerated.--R.F.B.

[93] Mr Judd, examining Western Scotland, opines that the felspathic (acid) rocks have been erupted from the Eocene volcanoes, and the augitic (basic) from those of the Miocene age. In Iceland, however, both seem to have been discharged by the Post-tertiary, as well as by the Tertiary epochs.

[94] “He” (Gunnar Hámundarson) “was eulogised by many poets after his death,” said an Icelander, with unthinking satire. The last poem is the “Gunnarshólmr,” by Jonas Hallgrímsson, a poet who, being loved of the gods, died young.

[95] The Romans were naked below the knee: the pillars of Trajan and Antonine show Teutonic captives wearing a dress much resembling that of our peasants and sailors.

[96] Often written Reykium (for Reykjum), dative plural of second declension. As has been seen, the word enters into a multitude of Icelandic proper names.

[97] The four higher are (S.E.) Öræfajökull (6426 English feet); (W.) Snæfell (5964); Eyjafjallajökull (5593) to south, and Herðubreið (5447) to north-east. Stanley (repeated by Dillon) assigned to Hekla 4300; Sir J. Banks, with a Ramsden’s Barometer, 5000. Gunnlaugsson gives 5108, but here he is very defective, wanting a separate and enlarged plan. The direct distance from the summit to the sea is usually laid down at thirty miles; measured upon the map, the “bee-line” would be twenty-seven geographical miles.

[98] Rángá (“wrong” or crooked stream) is a name that frequently occurs, and generally denotes either that the trend is opposed to the general water-shed, or that an angle has been formed in the bed by earthquakes or eruptions.

[99] The down is applied as a styptic to cuts, the leaves are used in tanning, and the wood makes ink.

[100] Klaproth remarks that this is the only tree (? the poplar = Pippal) which the Aryan colonists of Europe remarked, and distinguished by the Sanskrit name. Thus Bhurrja became the Latin Betula, the Gothic Birkun, the Scandinavian Birki and Björk, the German Birke, and the English Birch. The name is applied under the form of Bjarkar to the thirteenth Runic letter = B or P; and it is the first Irish letter, Beith.

[101] Næfr, or birch-bark, was used for thatching: Næfra-maðr, the birch-bark man, was an outlaw (Cleasby).

[102] Mr Pliny Miles distinctly denies the existence of these fish-lakes, which Metcalfe observed, and which we clearly saw. There is a Fisksvatnsvegr, which has been travelled over, and there are reports of a volcano having burst out there about a century ago.

[103] The highest apparent point shown to us on the south-east was Grænafjall. Upon the map it is an insignificant north-eastern “mull” of the Tindafjallajökull, but refraction had added many a cubit to its low stature.

[104] Alluded to in Chap. VI.

[105] Tunga is applied to the Doab of two rivers; Tangi is a land-spit, a point projecting into the sea or river.

[106] This is the “low trap hill” of former travellers, supposed to be one of the veins that pierced the elevated diagonal.

[107] Especially M. Dortous de Mavian, whose theory was succeeded by the age of chemicals, pyrites, and alkalis, and the oxidation of unoxidised minerals, with a brief deversion in favour of “The Fire,” by Sir Humphrey Davy. Poisson extinguished it when he remarked that if fed by incandescent gases it would burst the shell, or at least would be subject to tides, causing daily earthquakes. Happily, also, the term “earth’s _crust_” is also becoming obsolete, or rather the solid stratum of 100 miles overlying a melted nucleus has suddenly grown to 800 (Hopkins). Sir William Thomson (Proceedings of the Royal Society, xii., p. 103) holds it “extremely improbable that any crust thinner than 2000 or 2500 miles could maintain its figure with sufficient rigidity against the tide-generating forces of sun and moon, to allow the phenomena of the ocean tides, and of precession and nutation, to be as they are now.” We will hope for more presently.

[108] Cleasby tells us that the end of Árna Saga (the bishop), the sole historical work of that time, is lost. He opines that a certain “pretty legend,” referring to the “moving” of founts when defiled with innocent blood, could not have arisen “unless a change in the place of hot springs had been observed.”

[109] Everywhere we found leaves laminated with silicious deposit, but no trace of shells, even though we sought them under the turf. The composition of Geysir water will illustrate Forbes. In 1000 parts of water there are 0·5097 of silica, whereas the rest, carbonates of soda and ammonia, sulphates of soda, potash, and magnesia, chloride and sulphide of sodium, and carbonic acid, amount only to 0·4775, Out of the latter, again, soda represents 0·3009, and sodium 0·2609; silica and soda are therefore _the_ constituents. The specific gravity is 1000·8 (Faraday).

[110] More exactly the two divisions are each about twenty feet long; the smaller is twelve and the greater is eighteen feet broad; the extreme depth is thirty feet.

[111] See Barrow’s ground-plan of the Geysirs (p. 177).

[112] In 1859, when I passed over the Rocky Mountains, near the headwaters of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, the North American Geysirs had not been invented, nor did we hear a word about them from the backwoodsmen and prairiemen along the line. In fact, the United States Expeditions which surveyed, photographed, and described them, began only in 1868.

[113] Baring-Gould makes the bridge seven to eight yards long; far too long for single planks.

[114] Written Ravnegiá, and other barbarous forms. Gjá also has been corrupted to Gaia, etc. The word is found in the Hebrew אנ, the Greek γᾶια, and the German and Swiss Gau, a district, a canton; it is preserved in the Scottish Geo or Geow: it is the Cornish Hor, and the Skaare of the Færoes, supposed to extend under the sea. It “often denotes a rift, with a tarn or pool at bottom, whence Gil is a rift with running water;” and it is akin to Gína (χαινω, A.S. Gínan); Gähnen, to yawn (Cleasby). In Iceland these fosses are split by the hammer of Thor.

[115] This is evidently the Germ. Kuchen and the Eng. Cake: we can trace it back to the Pers. “Kahk.”

[116] According to Blackwall, the Thingstead in Oldenburg still shows the Doom-ring of upright stones, and the Blót-steinn in the centre.

[117] The Axewater, so called because Kettlebjörn, the Old, when prospecting for a residence here, lost his axe. Barrow gives Oxera, which would mean Oxwater. There has been no change in the Thingvellir since the days of the Norwegian colonists.

[118] Al-manna, genitive plural from an obsolete Almenn (comp. Alemanni), is a prefix to some nouns, meaning general, common, universal. The local name of the great rift near the Althing was given because all the people met upon its eastern flank (Cleasby).

[119] A large plan, but not very correct, is given by Dufferin (p. 73).

[120] I believe it has been transferred by later antiquaries from the holm to the mainland; but Cowie (p. 178) still keeps it in the islet.

[121] This Gjá is amazingly exaggerated by Baring-Gould (p. 69); assuming the human figures at only 5 feet, the depth of the chasm would be 75.

[122] For the code of honour in pagan Iceland, Dasent refers to Kormak’s Saga, chap. x., where the law of the duello was most punctiliously laid down as the “British Code of Duel” (London, 1824) by a philanthropic and enterprising Irish gentleman. The weapons chiefly used were broadsword and battle-axe; the combatants might not step back beyond a given space, and the latter peculiarity is still preserved in the hostile meetings of students throughout Northern Germany, where the floor or ground is marked with chalk. In some cases they stood upon a hide and were not allowed to gain or to break ground. The Hólm-ganga was a “judicium Dei,” differing from the Einvígi, or simple duel, by the rites and rules which accompanied it. The Norwegian duel was worthy of the Scrithofinni; the combatants were fastened together by the belt, and used their knives till one was killed. How pugnacious the old pagan Scandinavians were, may be judged from the wife’s practice of carrying the husband’s shroud to weddings and “merry makings.”

[123] Paijkull gives the length, one geographical mile, and the maximum depth, 140 feet; too short and too deep.

[124] The curlew (_Scolopax arquata_), when young, is apparently called a whimbrel (_Numenius phœopus_) in the London market.

[125] It is analysed by Bunsen (Art. II., loc. cit.).

[126] Skapt is a “shaved” stick, haft, shaft, or missile; Skapt-á, the shaft-river = Scot. and Eng. Shafto; and hence, Skaptár-fell (sounded _Skapta-fell_), is the Shapfell of Westmoreland (Cleasby), the Icel. “sk” being generally permuted to the softer English “sh.”

[127] Baring-Gould places it near Holt, east-north-east of Erlendsey.

[128] The “frow-stack” is a skerry, resembling a woman’s skirt. Sir W. Scott (The Pirate, xxvi.) says the “_Fraw-Stack_,” or Maiden Rock, an inaccessible cliff, divided by a narrow gulf from the island of Papa, has on the summit some ruins, concerning which there is a legend similar to that of Danoë. Vigr (a spear, in the Orkneys Veir) describes a sharp-pointed rock.

[129] Erlendr is here a proper name: usually it is an adjective, meaning “foreign” = the Germ. Elendi.

[130] Also the single day’s passage from Reykjavik to Berufjörð is $12, or one-third of the full passage to Granton, which takes eight to nine days. The other and far more important complaints against the “Diana” have been noticed before.

[131] From Ör, negative, and Höfn, a haven: as will be seen, the plural Öræfi is also applied to a wilderness.

[132] In the Færoes the whale is written “Qual,” a pronunciation still retained in Iceland.

[133] Mr Newton’s valuable paper in the _Ibis_, containing all that is required _quâ_ Iceland ornithology, has been alluded to. He quotes the works of the late Hr Petur Sturitz, of Professor Steenstrŭp (Videnskabelige Meddellser for Aaret 1855), of the venerable Richard Owen (Paleontology, 2d edit., 1861, and Trans. Zool. Soc., June 14, 1864), and of many other writers. An interesting note about the “only wingless, or rather flightless, species of the northern hemisphere,” and two recorded instances of the _rara avis_ being kept in confinement, are given by Baring-Gould, Appendix A., pp. 406, 407.

[134] My companion, Mr Chapman, a New Zealander, who has returned to New Zealand, suggested that, despite Dr Hector, the Moa, a bird eight feet high, may still be found alive in some of the forest fastnesses of his native island.

[135] According to Barnard, the last European auk was killed in 1848, at Vardö, a Norwegian fortress on the frontier of Russia.

[136] Berufjörð is derived from Berr, of whom more presently, or from Bera, a she-bear, the animal being often floated over upon ice-floes: Bare Firth, from “berr,” bare, which has been proposed (Longman, p. 33), is a mere error. It is the longest, if not the largest, feature of this coast, except Reyðarfjörð, which lies to the north, separated by three minor inlets. The “look-out” stands, according to nautical charts, in N. lat. 64° 39´ 45´´, and W. long. (G.) 14° 14´ 15´´ (in Olsen 14° 19´ 47´´), the latter supposed to require correction. The difference of time from Reykjavik is about 30´. The variation (west) diminishes: it was laid down at 39° or 40°, but on May 18, 1872, Captain Tvede made it 35° 15´. Here local attractions, often causing a difference of half-a-point within a few hundred yards, would puzzle “George Graham of London.”

[137] Mr Watts, who is now publishing an account of his march, and who has started a third time for the Vatnajökull, gave me this list of stations:

1. Reykjavik to Reykir. 2. To near the Tindafjallajökull, south of Hekla; very rough path. 3. Over the deep Mælifellssandr to east, where the valleys are grassy. 4. To the Búland farm. 5. To Kirkjubær cloister, on the Skaptá. 6. To the Núpstaðr farm, a long day’s march. Here provisions and forage are procurable.

[138] Mr Tom Roys, an American, accompanied by his four brothers, established himself at Seyðisfjörð, and used a rocket harpoon patented by himself, and so much “improved” that it will hardly leave the gun: the shell explodes in the body, kills the animal instantly, and, by generating gas, causes the carcass to float; if not, the defunct is buoyed and landed at discretion. He first hunted with a small sailing craft, and in 1865, after bagging seven to eight animals, each worth $2000, he brought from England a screw of 40 tons burden to tow his whaling boats. He calculated that 365 whales would allow 1 lb. of food to 68,000 souls every day in the year: he also proposed pressing the meat for feeding dogs and fattening pigs (!). In that year his total bag till August was twenty-five whales, of which he landed thirteen. I was told, however, that the speculation proved a failure, and that Mr Roys went off to Alaska. At Seyðisfjörð, distant two days’ march, there was a Dutch steamer, which last year had killed thirteen whales. When reduced to the last extreme, we thought of travelling home in her, but future explorers must not count upon such opportunities.

[139] Uno Von Troil (129, 130) gives interesting notices of the whale. He divides the mammals into two kinds: (1.) “Skidis-fiskur,” or smooth-bellied, with whalebone instead of teeth; the largest, “Stettbakr,” or flat-back, measures nearly 200 English feet, and the “Hnufubakr” is only 50 feet shorter. Of the Reydar-fiskur, or wrinkle-bellied (No. 2), the largest is the “Steipereidur,” attaining nearly 240 English feet; the “Hrafnreyður” and the “Andanufia;” all are considered very dainty food; and the Icelanders say the flesh has the taste of beef. The whales with teeth are (1.) the eatable, such as the Hnysen, the Hnyðingur, the Hundfiskur, and the Maahyrningr; and (2.) the ice-whale, or uneatable, with its subdivisions, the Roðkammingur and the Náhvalur, were both “forbidden as food by some ancient regulations, and particularly by the Church laws. The Icelanders believe that the first sort are very fond of human flesh, and therefore avoid fishing in such places where they appear.” The carnivorous whales were frightened away by carrying “dung, brimstone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature, in their boats”--an idea worthy of the black tars who navigate Lake Tánganyika.

[140] Professor Paijkull adds the Reyðr (whence Reyðarfjörð), _Physeter_ or _Catodon macrocephalus_, a large spermaceti whale; he also gives to the Iceland waters the Arctic walrus (Icel. Rosm-hvalir; _Trichecus rosmarus_), and the narwhal (_Monodon monoceros_). The Sagas specify twenty-five kinds of whales.

[141] The Ork. Hockla is the dog-fish, _Squalus acanthius_ or _archiarius_. Mr Vice-Consul Crowe gives the names “Nákarla or havkalur,” probably misprints; he adds, however, that the Greenland shark rarely attacks man unless molested by him. This assertion, which is made in all popular books, may, I believe, be modified by the reason given in the text. He also tells us that the hide is cheaper than either seal or lamb skin, but is neither strong nor durable--this again I doubt. The Greenland shark is called by some travellers Háskerðingr, and it can swallow, they say, a reindeer.

[142] Properly short-breeks, or curt-hose, from Stuttr, stunted, stinted, scant (Cleasby).

[143] Iceland does wisely to preserve her seals. Argyleshire in the olden time, and especially the holms south of Skye, were famed for them; now they are very wild and not likely to be caught basking on the rocks, or bathing in shallow water. Old bull seals, who may measure 5 feet 6 inches, are wary in the extreme, and seldom allow the use of the club. Phoca must also be hit on the head, or the hunter will see no more of him. In Greenland the packs have been almost killed out by the scores of vessels which Dundee and Peterhead, Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Germany, send every year, and it is reported that without a “close time,” the breed will become, like the oyster and the crab, almost extinct. San Francisco has been sensible enough to preserve the flocks of Proteus by the strong arm of the law--I wonder if grim old “Ben Butler” still tries to stare man out of countenance as he floats off the Ocean House.

[144] Mr Blackwall satirically suggests that our Huggins and Muggins may descend from this respectable parentage, whilst he trusts that the Smiths, Smyths, and congeners, “will duly acknowledge the sturdy Scandinavian yeoman, Smiðr Churlsson, grandson of the jovial old fellow, Grandfather, who had the honour of pledging a bumper with a celestial deity, as their common ancestor.”

[145] A fourth; hence our farthing.

[146] Evidently from Caballus, the word which has so successfully ousted the more classical Equus. The Dictionary makes the horseload = 5 trusses; Uno Von Troil, 12 to 15 lispunds, each about 17 Eng. lbs. avoir.

[147] Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín informs me that on the borders of Norway and Sweden several local names are called after Sóti and Bera, and the legend may have been transplanted to Iceland. It is not found in the list of Sagas quoted by the Cleasby-Vigfusson Dictionary: I am therefore inclined to refer it to the sea-rover Hallvarð Sóti, of whom we read, “Thence Kol steered his course out of the river to Norway ... and came on Hallvarð Sóti unawares, and found him in a loft. He kept them off bravely till they set fire to the house, then he gave himself up, but they slew him, and took there much goods” (Burnt Njál, ii. 2).

[148] The aneroid (compensated) showed 27·63; the thermometer, 67° (F.) in the open air. On the return march, the former was 28·08, and the latter 76° (both in pocket). At sea-level the instruments stood at 30·04 to 30·12, and 63° (F.).

[149] The name was formerly derived from Loka, to shut, like Wodan from Vaða, even as Juno a Juvando, and Neptunus a nando. The Dictionary suggests that the old form may have been Wloka (Volcanus), the _w_ being dropped before the _l_ according to the rules of the Scandinavian tongue. It is strange that though Öðin, Thórr, and Loki were by far the most prominent personages of the heathen faith, the name of the latter is not preserved in the records of any other Teutonic, or rather let us say, Gothic people.

[150] Loka-sjóðr, or Loki’s purse, is the cockscomb, or yellow rattle (_Rhinanthus crista galli_).

[151] Mr Tuckett, of Alpine fame, shows us anent this word that “strange game (Anglicè, wild-goose) has been started in the dark forest of etymology.” Like Avalasse and Avalaison (a _debâcle_ of rain or melted snow), the Schnee-schlipfe is certainly derived from the low Latin “advallare,” to advance valleywards: others propose “a labendo;” “Lau,” the warm spring winds; “avaler” (_e.g._, avaler son chaperon), the village; “Abländssch,” in French “Avéranche,” and, lastly, the German Lauwíne, “Löwin,” because these avalantic descents have the rage and power of a lioness. I may add that in mountainous Europe each valley seems to have its own name, Lavena, Labina, Lavigne, Avelantze, Evalantze, Líantze, etc., etc., etc.: the giant snow-ball is called in and about Italian Recoaro “Valanghi” and “bughi di neve.”

[152] It is only fair to repeat what the _Standard_ (August 29, 1874) says of this worthy: “The man to whom I should strongly advise any English visitors to Iceland to apply for advice and active assistance--a resident in Reykjavik, speaking excellent English, active and energetic, whose name is Gislasson--was, in his early days, a theological student, and previous to his ordination was appointed to the pastorate of Grimsey. He declined to go, and withdrew from the ministry. I do not know whether the Grimsey fishermen lost a good priest or not, but I know that the English gained an excellent counsellor. He is the Grímr of Baring-Gould’s well-known book, but if the sketch of him there contained is at all true to the life, he must have wonderfully improved.” I have spoken of him as we found him.

[153] This Snæfellsjökull, which we shall see from a far nearer point, is not laid down in the map: it lies due south of Snæfell, the mountain. Thus there are three Snæfells in Eastern and Western Iceland. There are also two Eyvindars, both snowless; one near the road, the other close to the Vatnajökull: we distinguished them as the eastern and the western. Finally, there is an Eastern as well as a Western Skjaldbreið.

[154] The Dictionary gives “Grip-deildir,” rapine, robbery. Deild (dole, deal) and Deildir (dealings) are common in local names, especially to boundary places which have caused lawsuits, _e.g._, Deildará (boundary-river), Deildar-hvammr, etc.

[155] Uno Von Troil (p. 108) gives the Icelandic names of four Agarici.

[156] The volcanic ashes and lapilli show supra-marine eruptions, but the water-rolled stones tell another tale.

[157] _The_ Möðruvellir, the abode of Guðmund the Rich or Powerful, was up the Eyjafjörð, and the map still shows a chapel there.

[158] It is thus written by all travellers: Herði-breiðr, however, from Herðar, would be the adjective “broad-shouldered.”

[159] According to the “Antiquaires du Nord” (p. 434, vol. 1850-60), “Slesvig” means Vík, or bay, of the Slè or Sli Arundo Arenaria. But is not this word the Icel. Slý, water cotton (_Byssus lanuginosa_), used as tinder?

[160] This traveller mentions eider-ducks at Mý-vatn. We saw none, and the farmers declare that the birds do not leave the sea-shore.

[161] Pronounce but do not indite “Krabla”--there is no such written word as Krabla. The Dictionary gives “að krafla,” to paw or “scrabble;” it also means to scratch, and perhaps the obtuse agricultural mind has connected this pastime with the evil for which sulphur is a panacea.

[162] Some travellers call them Makkaluber, and Icelanders write “Makalupe,” a corruption of Macaluba, famed for air volcanoes, near Girgenti, itself a corruption of the Arabic “Maklúb.”

[163] The docks of Southampton, built where he sat, have somewhat stultified the simple wisdom of the old man.

[164] Thus in the Dictionary. Baring-Gould (p. 429), or possibly his printer, calls it Vell-humall, which would be “gold hop.”

[165] In 1776 Professor Henchel found it “about 200 paces in diameter.” (See Appendix, “Sulphur in Iceland,” Section I.)

[166] The lay and the succession of the strata so much resembled those quoted in Mr Vincent’s paper that they need not be repeated here.

[167] As has been seen, I would considerably reduce these figures.

[168] This “banquise,” as the French call it, is said to form a compact belt extended thirty miles from shore in the Skjálfandifjörð.

[169] It was there found by the late Sir Henry Holland; Dolomieu had some specimens, but he did not know whence they came.

[170] The Dictionary gives Lá, surf, shallow water along shore; and hair (Lanugo). I found it extensively used to signify a low place where water sinks, the Arab’s “Ghadir.”

[171] Depill is a spot or dot; a dog with spots over the eyes, according to the Dictionary, is also called “Depill.” Cleasby translates Stein-delfr (mod. Stein-depill) by wagtail, _Motacilla_.

[172] Thverá, the “thwart-water,” from Thver, Germ. Quer, and Eng. Queer, is generally translated Crooked River, Rivière à travers: the term is often applied to a tributary which strikes the main stream at a right angle.

[173] Aðalból is a manor-house, a farm inhabited by its master, opposed to a tenant farm.

[174] From the verb Kreppa, to cramp, clench. The map gives the name to the eastern headwaters of the Jökulsá, rising from the Kverk.

[175] The experiments of M. J. M. Ziegler of Winterthür show the drying power of ice; a difference of 32° per cent. humidity in the glacier air and in the air of the adjacent plain.

[176] Thus in the dictionaries; but it seems to have another sense in popular language.

[177] In Chapter XIV. I have given the reasons why the Mý-vatn mines were not recommended by the Danish engineers.--R. F. B.

[178] Jukes and Geikie, Manual of Geology, 3d edition, p. 55.

[179] Liebig’s Familiar Letters on Chemistry, p. 152.

[180] Ure’s Dict., vol. ii., p. 432.

[181] Simmond’s Dictionary of Trade Products, p. 367; Muspratt’s Chemistry, vol. i., p. 320.

[182] Liebig’s Letters, p. 149.

[183] Simmond’s Dictionary of Trade Products, p. 351.

[184] See Exports for 1872.

[185] Liebig’s Familiar Letters on Chemistry, p. 150.

[186] See Smee’s My Garden.

[187] Richardson and Watts’ Chem. Tech., 2d edit., 1863, vol. i., part iii., pp. 2 and 3. This old calcarelle furnace has been greatly improved. It must not be described as a “blast-furnace.”

[188] Simmond’s Dict. Trade Products, 1863, art. “Sulphur.”

[189] Quoted _in extenso_, Appendix, Section III.

[190] Henderson’s Iceland, 1818, Introduction, p. 4.

[191] _Ibid._, p. 7.

[192] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 160.

[193] _Ibid._, p. 176.

[194] Henderson’s Iceland, 1818, vol. i., pp. 166, 167, 170, 171, 173, 174, 177.

[195] S. Baring-Gould’s Iceland, 1863.

[196] Shepherd’s North-West Peninsula of Iceland, 1867, p. 157.

[197] Ure’s Dict. of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 1860, vol. iii., p. 830.

[198] Dr F. J. Mouat’s Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islanders, 1863, p. 169.

[199] Letter of A. de C. Crowe, Esq., 27th June 1872.

[200] Paijkull, pp. 217, 244, 245, 246, 247.

[201] These two items are calculated at excessive and extravagant rates. The first item (15s. per ton) was supplied by an eminent shipowner, and the amount of freight is also overstated.

[202] A certain Hr “Thorlákur O. Johnsen,” whom I met in Iceland, wrote to the _Standard_ (Nov. 16, 1872), and asserted my “entire ignorance” concerning Iceland generally, and the relationship between Denmark and Iceland in particular. What his ignorance, or rather dishonesty, must be, is evident when he states a little further on: “As to the so-called wisdom of the Danish Government in leasing the mines to strangers, there can be only one reply, that _all the mines in Iceland, whether of sulphur or other minerals, belong to Iceland and not to Denmark_.”--R. F. B.

[203] I presume this to be a clerical error for “Hlíðarnámar” (Ledge-springs).

[204] The words in italics show the good old Æsopian policy, “dog in the manger” redivivus. The Icelandic “hand,” when not superintended by foreigners, is idle and incurious as the native of Unyamwezi: he will not work, and the work must not be done for him by strangers! In the Journal I have suggested employment of the natives, who might learn industry by good example and discipline.--R. F. B.

[205] The words in italics show the “narrowness of the insular mind:” the idea of £10 per annum being an item of any importance in the extensive operations which would be required to make these sulphur diggings pay!--R. F. B.

[206] Iceland is here ignored, perhaps from the jealousy which foresees a fortunate rival.

[207] These immense fluctuations in the market are probably caused by the _Phylloxera vastatrix_ now devastating the Continent. Trieste alone, for instance, has of late years imported as much as twenty cargoes of 200 tons each (a total of 4000) per annum; and the unground sulphur sells at about £7, 10s. per ton as in England. The spread of the disease is likely to cause an increased demand.

[208] In 1864, according to Mr Consul Dennis, the author of Murray’s “Hand-book of Sicily,” the two most important mines of Girgenti were “La Crocella” and “Maudarazzi” near Comitine, belonging to Don Ignazio Genusardi. They yielded annually 140,000 quintals = 10,937½ tons, worth about £70,000, and gave constant employment to 700 hands (chiefly from the opposite town of Arragona), at the daily cost of about £60. The produce was shipped at the Mole of Girgenti, and the road was thronged day and night at certain seasons with loaded carts and beasts of burden, chiefly mules.

Caltanissetta, Serra di Falco, on Monte Carano, and St Cutaldo are villages in the heart of the sulphur district. “The scenery is wild and stern. The mountains are of rounded forms, always bare, here craggy, there browned with scorched herbage, and in parts tinged with red, yellow, and grey, by the heaps of ore and dross at the mouths. Corn will not thrive in the fumes of sulphur; what little cultivation is to be seen is generally in the bottoms of the valleys. The hills around St Cutaldo are burrowed with sulphur mines.”

[209] In a recent report to the Italian Government, Sig. Parodi estimates that Sicilian sulphur will be exhausted in fifty to sixty years.

[210] Each _ballata_ weighs 70 rotoli = 122½ lbs. avoir., and two are a mule-load.

[211] On the northern flank of the range, which, running from north-north-east to south-south-west, nearly bisects the island. It is a mean town in the mountains. Licata, the southern port, is nearest to the central mines.

[212] Her chief exports are fruit, oil, and silk.

[213] “Trust” seems to be the _beau ideal_ of trade where it has not been tried. I have seen its workings in Africa and in Iceland, and my experience is that it is a pis aller which gives more trouble than it is worth.

[214] Here it is not stated whether paper or specie “lire” are meant.

[215] It would be better to state that sulphur costing above £5 per ton cannot at present compete with pyrites; sold below that price it would soon drive its rival out of the market.

[216] “Brimstone” in the _Mining Journal_ (September 19, 1874) made England import in 1872 a total of 50,049 tons (= £336,216), but in 1873 only 45,467 tons (= £299,727).

[217] Büdös is elsewhere described as a pointed cone of trachyte 3745 feet high, a solfatara or volcano, which, though never in actual eruption, incessantly pours forth streams of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and these act as vents for the forces generated in the depths of the earth.

[218] The following is the analysis of the aluminous earth near Büdös:

Sulphuric acid, . . . 51·59 per cent. Water and sulphuric clay,} . 3·54 ” mixed with lime, } Clay, . . . . . 18·98 ” Silica,. . . . . 14·00 ” Lime, . . . . . 9·65 ” Potash,. . . . . 1·00 ”

End of Project Gutenberg's Ultima Thule; vol. 2/2, by Richard F. Burton