An account of the physical geography of Iceland : with special reference to the plant life / [Thorwald Thoroddsen].
- Thoroddsen, Thorwald.
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: In copyright
Credit: An account of the physical geography of Iceland : with special reference to the plant life / [Thorwald Thoroddsen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
16/162 page 200
![The mouths of the contributory valleys are often situated at a higher level than the bottom of the main valley and along the mountain-sides a series of cirques are often found. Hundreds of streams carry gravel and rock-fragments down to the foot of the mountain and to the valley, and below each notch in the mountain there is, therefore, a flat cone of gravel which extends down the side of the mountain to the bottom of the valley; each little cirque and each notch has, like an hour-glass, according to the law of gravitation, emptied its contents upon the level land below. The foot of the mountain is covered with plants, but any aggregate of vegetation has rarely been able to extend higher than half-way up the mountain-side; only on ridges between clefts and hollows, where neither floods, rock-slips nor avalancfies can do harm can the plant-covering extend upwards in longer tongues, while the upper half of the mountain-side consists but rarely of anything ex- cept bare rock-ledges or rock-faces or heaps of stones. On a closer investigation, a few individual plants will however be found seeking cover, shelter and foothold among the blocks of rock and in the crevices. In places where springs are trickling out in a row from between rock-strata there is often a luxuriant vegetation of yellowish- green mosses which form soil and pave the way for the higher plants. Even on the most precipitous valley-sides, sheep are seen scattered about seeking the mountain-plants which peep forth be- tween the stones. Upon the north-western peninsula there are no lowlands, but only a narrow border of coastal land which is due to the action of the breakers at a time when the sea-level was higher than at present. Only the narrow coastal land along the sides of the fjords is inhabited, and the inhabitants are chiefly de' pendent upon the sea for subsistence. Where the land which fringes the coast becomes somewhat broader and the valleys more grassy, as along the north coast of Brei5it]or5ur, the inhabitants’ chief means of sustenance is sheep-rearing; where the fjords are small, the mountains steep, and the coastal land has disappeared, as along the coast south of Cape Nord, the inhabitants maintain themselves almost entirely by the catching of birds upon the steep sea-cliffs. Glaciers. The snow- and ice-covered mountains (Jokulls)1 of Iceland, taken together, cover an area of 12700 square km. and 1 In Iceland, by “Jokull” a glacier-bearing mountain is usually meant, but sometimes the term is used for the masses of snow and n£v£ upon the mountain.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28109429_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
