Superstitions. BOOK regard to property. In the southern part of the country, LXXVII. they have been taught to make barrels, and construct boats.* The name of their ancient divinity, Torngarsook, to whom they never offered any worship, is already forgotten as well as the malevolent goddess, without a name, who was supposed to inhabit a palace at the bottom of the sea, guarded by terrific sea-dogs. Even a kind of philosophy has introduced itself among them, and various new opinions exist concerning a future state and the transmigration of souls. The freethinkers of Greenland will not admit the prevalent belief that there is a paradise, where the soul, in a state of happy indolence, is nourished with the heads Priests, or of sea-dogs. The priests and sorcerers, called Angekok, and the malevolent enchanters, denominated Iliseets, are daily losing their influence. Perhaps the period may not be far distant, when the sublime devotion of the virtuous Egede will meet with its reward, and a Christian and civilized people will at length inhabit this memorable colony, the most northern that Europeans have ever established. A mild and pure glory will then recompense Denmark for the pecuniary sacrifices which this struggle with the elements has cost her, a struggle into which she has been drawn by a pious zeal, and the influence of historical recollections. Sorcerers. Description of Iceland. The same remembrances accompany us to that wonderful island, which, although it was known seven centuries before the time of Columbus, is, nevertheless, a natural appendage of the New Continent. Our readers will readily understand that we allude to Iceland, that land of prodigies, where the subterraneous fires of the abyss burst through a frozen soil; where boiling springs shoot up their fountains, amidst eternal snows; and where the powerful genius of liberty, and the no less powerful genius of poetry, * Danish Ministerial Gazette, quoted above. † John Egede's Natural and Civil History of Greenland, ch. XIX. Crantz, Book III. sec. 5. p. 35-39. Compare Franklin, in Journey. &c. Ross, vol. I. passim. have given brilliant proofs of the energies of the human BOOK mind at the farthest confines of animated nature. LXXVII. situation. We were long indebted for our acquaintance with the Geogrageographical situation of Iceland, to the observations of phical obscure authors, made in the middle of the seventeenth Century, or, perhaps, even merely copied by Torfæus from some imitation of the Carti di Navegar of the brothers Zeni, which was drawn up in the fourteenth century. To these were added the accurate results of the survey of the military engineers completed in 1734. Such were the discordant elements of the map of Iceland, which was published by the Homanns, and became, with some slight corrections, the origin of all the rest. But, in 1778, The following are the changes which Iceland has undergone in the maps of the eighteenth century. N. lat. It is remarkable that Horrebow, if, as we suppose, he has calculated from the meridian of Oxford, should have correctly laid down the position of this eastern coast. It is probable, in fact, that he must have had before him either the map or observations of some English navigator, whose name has remained unknown. The map of the brothers Zeni gives all the latitudes too high ; but as it allows Iceland only nine degrees in length, it approaches, within half a degree nearly, of our modern maps. Even the figure of the island is good, with the exception of the N. E. peninsula, with which the Zeni were unacquainted. This uncertainty with respect to the geographical position of Iceland, naturally extended to the adjacent coast of Greenland; and so late as June, 1822, a correction of 50 to 10° of its western longitude, was made by the indefatigable Captain W. Scoresby. In his ship Baffin, he explored this almost forgotten shore, from lat. 69° to 75° north; and besides that sound named Scoresby, which is supposed to communicate with Jacob's Bight, within Davie's Straits, he found the line of coast, like that on the western side, intersected by frequent inlets, of which the chief are Davie's Sound, Mountmorris' Inlet, Mackenzie's Inlet, Scott's Inlet. Three islands, Liverpool Coast, Canning, and Bontekoe, are situated at a short distance from the land, itself now removed 5°, 10°, and 15° farther to the westward. See Scoresby's Voyage, Chart. BOOK Messrs. Borda, Pingre, and Verdun de la Crenne, after LXXVII. having at first sought in vain for Iceland, floating, as it were, like Delos, on the ocean, determined astronomically several principal positions, some of which were placed three or four degrees too far to the west. The superficial extent of the island, which, according to the ancient maps, had been estimated at 8000 square leagues, was reduced, in consequence of their measurement, to 4500. Rocks. Mountains. Iceland, that is to say, the country of ice, strictly speaking, is nothing but a chain of immense rocks, the summit of which is covered with snow, although fire burns within their subterranean caverns. Trap and basalt appear to predominate in the structure of these mountains. The basalt forms immense masses of pillars, similar to those of Giant's Causeway in Ireland. Mount Akrefell contains beds of amygdaloid, trap-tuff, and greenstone, the lower surface of which has evidently been subjected to the action of a very strong fire, probably at the bottom of the primitive ocean.* Several formations of lava are noticed, one of which has flowed, and often still flows, in the form of blazing torrents, which issue from craters; another kind, of a spongy, and, as it were, a cavernous nature, appears, if we may use the expression, to have boiled up in the very place where it is found. This last mentioned lava contains in its numerous cavities the most singular stalactites. Volcanoes. There are about twelve volcanoes in Iceland, with the Lava. eruptions of which we are acquainted, not reckoning those which may have become extinguished before Iceland was inhabited. The most celebrated of these volcanoes is Mount Hecla, situated in the southern part of the island, at the distance of about a league and a quarter from the sea. Its elevation is estimated at 4800 feet above the level of the sea. The volcanoes of Scaptefell made themselves known in 1783, in a terrific manner. The river Skapt-Aa was completely filled with pumice stones and lava; a fertile district was instantly changed into a desert covered Mackenzie's Travels in Iceland, Edinburgh Review, vol. XIX. p. 432— LXXVII. Islet. with scoria; sulphurous exhalations and clouds of cinders BOOK spread themselves over almost the whole island; and an epidemic was the consequence. No phenomenon, however, better proves how immense the mass of volcanic matter must be, than the sudden appearance of a new island, Volcanic which, shortly before the eruption of 1783, rose up to the south-west of Reikianess, in 63° 20′ latitude, and 5° 40' west longitude. This island threw out flames and pumice stones; yet, in 1785, when a search for it was made, it had entirely disappeared. It is probable, therefore, that this island was nothing more than a crust of lava and pumice stones, raised to the surface of the sea by a submarine eruption.* ser. The hot springs are another curiosity in this island, Hot springs. but they have not all the same degree of heat. Those, whose tepid waters issue as gently as in ordinary springs, are called Laugar, or baths; others, that throw up boiling water with great noise, are denominated Caldrons, in Icelandic, Hverer. The most remarkable of The Geythese springs is what is called the Geyser, which is found near Skalholt, in the middle of a plain where there are about forty other springs of a smaller size. Its mouth is nineteen feet in diameter, and the basin into which it spreads itself thirty-nine. The Archbishop of Troil saw this spring rise to the height of eighty-eight feet; and Dr. Lind to that of ninety-two. This column of water, surrounded by a dense smoke, falls back upon itself, or forms a magnificent girandole. A new spring has lately been discovered which rivals the Geyser. It is called the Strok. The The Strck. aperture from which it springs is of a smaller diameter, but it shoots up with more force than the Geyser; presents a better defined surface; and reaches a much greater elevation; and is then dispersed in the air like our artificial fountains. Two other springs rise and fall down again alternately. The whole of this infernal valley is filled with * M. de Lævenærn, Letter on the New Island, Copenhagen, 1787. + Olsen, Letter on Iceland, in the New Memoirs of the Acad. of Scien, of Copenhagen, vol. IV. with plates. This is the New Geyser of M. Stanley, Letter on Iceland, 1789. 4 BOOK springs, and surrounded with lava and pumice stones. LXXVII. These boiling waters, and principally those of the Geyser, Mineral springs. Surturbrand. Minerals. Hills of deposite round their edges a crust of siliceous_tuff.* In these hot springs, which formerly served to baptize their pagan ancestors, the Icelanders boil their vegetables, meat, eggs, and other articles of food; but it is necessary to cover with care the pot suspended in these smoking waters, in order to prevent the volcanic odour from giving a taste to the victuals. They likewise wash their linen in them, and by means of the heat, give a curve to several implements of wood. The more temperate springs are employed as baths. The cows that drink of these waters give an extraordinary quantity of milk. Besides these magnificent fountains, Iceland likewise contains mineral springs, which the inhabitants call the beer springs, a denomination which appears to prove that they have not always neglected the use of this beverage, as they do at present. One of the most singular productions of Iceland is that blackish, heavy, and inflammable substance, called, in Icelandic, surturbrand,† which is a fossil wood, slightly carbonized, and burns with flame. Another kind of mineral wood, heavier than sea-coal, burns without flame, and contains chalcedony in its transverse fissures.‡ The central mountains of Iceland, probably of a primitive nature, contain iron and copper, which are not worked, for want of fuel; likewise marble, lime, plaster, porcelain clay, and several kinds of bole, besides onyx, agate, jasper, and other stones. Sulphur is also found, both in a pure and impure state. The mines of Krisevig and Husavig are the most considerable. A manufactory for refining sulphur has been established in the latter place. The sulphur hills present a more frightful, and, perhaps, too, a more instructive phenomenon, than the Geyser. Under your very feet you see the clay continually bubbling up, and hear the din of *Bergmann, in the Letters on Iceland, by Troil, (in Volland.) Surtur, the Black God, the Pluto of the North. Brand, firebrand. |