Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1875 — Iceland and Lapland. [ARTICLE]

Iceland and Lapland.

At a recent meeting of the American Geographical Society in New York reports were rendered by Dr. 1.1. Hayes and M. DU Chaillu of their recent travels. Concerning Iceland, after giving a description of the recent festivities in that country, Dr. Hayes said: The new constitution “gives Iceland practical freedom from Denmark and no doubt it will tend to develop the country, which possesses many resources needing cultivation to make them profitable. At present the chief exports are codfish, salmon and wool. While the cultivation of these industries does not create any large degree of individual wealth they are productive of general competency. I found the necessaries of life possessed everywhere in abundance;

luxuries were not uncommon, and the people were happy and content- The Bchool system is most admirable and the Icelanders show a remarkable greed for learning. In the humblest' peasant hut you always find books. Some of our English classics are translated and published in Reykjavik and* are greatly in demand. The bookstore was crowded when I visited it. Crime, is almost unknown, the common jail not having hat an occupant, except the jailer and his

family, these twenty years pfstfbot Indeed until this last summer, when the King’s staff used it its headquarters. Reykjavik contains about 17,000 inhabitants, and is mainly composed of comfortable frame houses, roofed with slate, and surrounded by little gardens, in which are cultivated potatoes, cabbage and other common garden vegetables. None of the cereals, not even barley and oats, will ripen, thougfi it is said they were grown there in former times. The fruits mentioned in the ancient sagas have wholly disappeared, if we except the lowstuntea birch and willow bushes, which, however, are not found near the coast. The timber needed, even for the small farmhouses of the interior, is brought from Norway. Yet the bush supplies a sufficiency of fuel in those places, while near the coast, as at Reykjavik, peat alone, of which there are inexha ustless beds, is the only fuel, except occasional supplies of English coal. The present aspect of the island is that of a forestless girdle of green, inclosing a volcanic desert, and inhabited by about 70,000

people. This ‘girdle is in places but a few miles wide but in others it extends for a considerable distance up the valleys, such as those, for instance, through which flow the Heita (white) andThorso Rivers. In the valley of the former are found the geysers long famed as the most remarkable spouting springs known in the world until Prof. Hayden’s recent discoveries in the Yellowstone region. These I had the good fortune to work and examine with minute care. The full details of my measurements and investigations there I feel could not be crowded into the short space of time allotted to me this evening, and I reserve them, therefore, for another occasion. The Stroker geyser spouted quite 200 feet for our benefit.

The famous Lagborg, where Althings met, presents even a more grand and fearful appearance than the old sagas describe it. Our reception here will long be remembered, taking place as it did by the side of the rising waterfall of the famed Oxara River, and beneath the giant-frowning lava cliffs of theAlmanv gia. M. Du Chaillu was next introduced, and said: In the north of Europe there is a large tract of country very thinly inhabited by Swedes, Norwegians, Finlanders and Laps. Its coast is indented by fiords of great beauty, the sea being of great depth, and winding its way inland, often in the midst of stupendous scenery. These fiords were dug out of the solid rock by glaciers on their way toward the sea. The geological features of that r country impress the mind with the great and constant changes that have taken place or are taking place. The rocks are granite, gneiss and mica schist. As one studies the coast line the eyes rest continually cin series of terraces one over the other, perfect in shape, almost all situated at the entrance of valleys. These terraces show distinctly by their rouiuEldr pebbles the rising of the land above the water, this slow and almost imperceptible rising still taking place in our time. This country was once under the influence of a much milder climate, as genial as that of England now. We must conclude from inferences that the icy period is making again its appearance, and that the impenetrable belt of ice which seems to bar the way to the north pole, and which our distinguished member, Dr. Hayes, has partly explored, was once an open sea. In the interior of the country ‘inhabited by Laps one meets everywhere positive proofs of the rising of the land. Shells are found several hundred feet, above the present level of the lakes 7: mountains have been polished as smoothas glass by the action of the ice; bowlders - of all sizes have been scattered over theland by the glaciers. Advancing glaciers are demolishing to this day, and breaking the granite hills which oppose their march, while the retiring ones leave behind them bowlders, sand, gravel, etc..., etc. There are sea Laps, forest and nver' Laps and nomadic Laps. To-night lam only to speak of the nomadic Laps. The ; whole population of Lapland amounts toabout 30,000, the nomadic Laplanders numbering about 25,000, and possessing about 500,000 reindeer. Their herds vary from 50 to 5,000. There have been Laplanders possessing even 10,000 reindeer. A man possessing from 500 to 1,000 reindeer is considered rich. Those who possess only 50 to 100 are poor. The reindeer is everything to the Laplander. With its skin he makes his clothing, shoes, gloves, with its sinews his thread. He feeds on its flesh, and the animal is bis beast of burden. The value of a reindeer varies according to the country. Driving reindeer broken to the harness are not very plentiful, and cost from $lO to sls each, a common one from $4 to $6. The most intelligent Laps are the Swedish and Norwegians, compulsory education having reached that distant i , A<MAn TPlicv all- Irn/vtxr Kaixt tall l icglull. luvjr all nUU W UuW to read. Every one is or must be confirmed, this ceremony being part of the Lutheran creed ; hence ail must be able to read the Bible and know their catechism. Churches are scattered here and there in the desolate regions, and the church-going Laps come into them on Bundays from every side. M. Du Chaillu described a genuine old arctic sleigh-ride, and his amusing trials and mishaps in learning how to manage the ticklish, coffin-like conveyance. His first lesson took six hoars, and during that period he managed to overturn the machine a hundred times, more or less, but without stopping his steed or attempting so futile a task he held grimly on to the single rein, and thumped ana bumped along over the snow until a lucky kick sent him back into the box. Therewas a rule of driving, he said, that the throwing of the rein to rest on the left flank was a signal for a slow gait, whiletouching the right flank meant full Bpeed. For himself he had never been, able to discover the difference, the swiftfooted messenger going at his best rate from the moment of harnessing. *

—A rural genius kept his hens from scratching in the garden by strapping a sharp spur two inches long and inclining downward and backward to the legs of the hens. The operation is obvious. The hen attempts to scratch; the spur digs into the soil and the hen is thrown forward. Thus she is kept stepping and it promptly walked but of the garden. _', —“ May heaven’s angels whisper golden words as they kiss your darling cheeks,” wrote an Omaha man to his " Betsey only last spring; and now he wishes heaven’s angels would whisper to him how his breachof-promise suit is coming out, as his lawyer is doubtful.

—The Christian InteUigmur Is anxious to discover how to abate “ over dress” t* girls’ schools. We should suggest giving the little dean more undsi-clottung. -N. 7. World. —. 3-: , ' ■''Wh';