IBO, a district of British West Africa, on the lower Niger immediately
above the delta, and mainly on the eastern bank of the river. The chief
town, frequently called by the same name (more correctly Abo or Áboh),
lies on a creek which falls into the main stream about 150 m. from its
mouth and contains from 6000 to 8000 inhabitants. The Ibo are a strong
well-built Negro race. Their women are distinguished by their
embonpoint. The language of the Ibo is one of the most widely spoken on
the lower Niger. The Rev. J. F. Schön began its reduction in 1841, and
in 1861 he published a grammar (_Oku Ibo Grammatical Elements_, London,
Church Miss. Soc.). (See NIGERIA.)
IBRAHIM AL-MAUSILI (742-804), Arabian singer, was born of Persian
parents settled in Kufa. In his early years his parents died and he was
trained by an uncle. Singing, not study, attracted him, and at the age
of twenty-three he fled to Mosul, where he joined a band of wild youths.
After a year he went to Rai (Rei, Rhagae), where he met an ambassador of
the caliph Mansur, who enabled him to come to Basra and take singing
lessons. His fame as a singer spread, and the caliph Mahdi brought him
to the court. There he remained a favourite under Hadi, while Harun
al-Rashid kept him always with him until his death, when he ordered his
son (Ma'mun) to say the prayer over his corpse. Ibrahim, as might be
expected, was no strict Moslem. Two or three times he was knouted and
imprisoned for excess in wine-drinking, but was always taken into favour
again. His powers of song were far beyond anything else known at the
time. Two of his pupils, his son Ishaq and Muhariq, attained celebrity
after him.
See the Preface to W. Ahlwardt's _Abu Nowas_ (Greifswald, 1861), pp.
13-18, and the many stories of his life in the _Kitab ul-Aghani_, v.
2-49. (G. W. T.)
IBRAHIM PASHA (1789-1848), Egyptian general, is sometimes spoken of as
the adopted son of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. He is also and more
commonly called his son. He was born in his father's native town, Kavala
in Thrace. During his father's struggle to establish himself in Egypt,
Ibrahim, then sixteen years of age, was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman
capitan pasha (admiral), but when Mehemet Ali was recognized as pasha,
and had defeated the English expedition under General A. M. Fraser, he
was allowed to return to Egypt. When Mehemet Ali went to Arabia to
prosecute the war against the Wahhabis in 1813, Ibrahim was left in
command in Upper Egypt. He continued the war with the broken power of
the Mamelukes, whom he suppressed. In 1816 he succeeded his brother
Tusun in command of the Egyptian forces in Arabia. Mehemet Ali had
already begun to introduce European discipline into his army, and
Ibrahim had probably received some training, but his first campaign was
conducted more in the old Asiatic style than his later operations. The
campaign lasted two years, and terminated in the destruction of the
Wahhabis as a political power. Ibrahim landed at Yembo, the port of
Medina, on the 30th of September 1816. The holy cities had been
recovered from the Wahhabis, and Ibrahim's task was to follow them into
the desert of Nejd and destroy their fortresses. Such training as the
Egyptian troops had received, and their artillery, gave them a marked
superiority in the open field. But the difficulty of crossing the desert
to the Wahhabi stronghold of Deraiya, some 400 m. east of Medina, and
the courage of their opponents, made the conquest a very arduous one.
Ibrahim displayed great energy and tenacity, sharing all the hardships
of his army, and never allowing himself to be discouraged by failure. By
the end of September 1818 he had forced the Wahhabi leader to surrender,
and had taken Deraiya, which he ruined. On the 11th of December 1819 he
made a triumphal entry into Cairo. After his return he gave effective
support to the Frenchman, Colonel Sève (Suleiman Pasha), who was
employed to drill the army on the European model. Ibrahim set an example
by submitting to be drilled as a recruit. When in 1824 Mehemet Ali was
appointed governor of the Morea by the sultan, who desired his help
against the insurgent Greeks, he sent Ibrahim with a squadron and an
army of 17,000 men. The expedition sailed on the 10th of July 1824, but
was for some months unable to do more than come and go between Rhodes
and Crete. The fear of the Greek fire ships stopped his way to the
Morea. When the Greek sailors mutinied from want of pay, he was able to
land at Modon on the 26th of February 1825. He remained in the Morea
till the capitulation of the 1st of October 1828 was forced on him by
the intervention of the Western powers. Ibrahim's operations in the
Morea were energetic and ferocious. He easily defeated the Greeks in the
open field, and though the siege of Missolonghi proved costly to his own
troops and to the Turks who operated with him, he brought it to a
successful termination on the 24th of April 1826. The Greek guerrilla
bands harassed his army, and in revenge he desolated the country and
sent thousands of the inhabitants into slavery in Egypt. These measures
of repression aroused great indignation in Europe, and led first to the
intervention of the English, French and Russian squadrons (see NAVARINO,
BATTLE OF), and then to the landing of a French expeditionary force. By
the terms of the capitulation of the 1st of October 1828, Ibrahim
evacuated the country. It is fairly certain that the Turkish government,
jealous of his power, had laid a plot to prevent him and his troops from
returning to Egypt. English officers who saw him at Navarino describe
him as short, grossly fat and deeply marked with smallpox. His obesity
did not cause any abatement of activity when next he took the field. In
1831, his father's quarrel with the Porte having become flagrant,
Ibrahim was sent to conquer Syria. He carried out his task with truly
remarkable energy. He took Acre after a severe siege on the 27th of May
1832, occupied Damascus, defeated a Turkish army at Homs on the 8th of
July, defeated another Turkish army at Beilan on the 29th of July,
invaded Asia Minor, and finally routed the grand vizier at Konia on the
21st of December. The convention of Kutaiah on the 6th of May left Syria
for a time in the hands of Mehemet Ali. Ibrahim was undoubtedly helped
by Colonel Sève and the European officers in his army, but his
intelligent docility to their advice, as well as his personal hardihood
and energy, compare most favourably with the sloth, ignorance and
arrogant conceit of the Turkish generals opposed to him. He is entitled
to full credit for the diplomatic judgment and tact he showed in
securing the support of the inhabitants, whom he protected and whose
rivalries he utilized. After the campaign of 1832 and 1833 Ibrahim
remained as governor in Syria. He might perhaps have administered
successfully, but the exactions he was compelled to enforce by his
father soon ruined the popularity of his government and provoked
revolts. In 1838 the Porte felt strong enough to renew the struggle, and
war broke out once more. Ibrahim won his last victory for his father at
Nezib on the 24th of June 1839. But Great Britain and Austria intervened
to preserve the integrity of Turkey. Their squadrons cut his
communications by sea with Egypt, a general revolt isolated him in
Syria, and he was finally compelled to evacuate the country in February
1841. Ibrahim spent the rest of his life in peace, but his health was
ruined. In 1846 he paid a visit to western Europe, where he was received
with some respect and a great deal of curiosity. When his father became
imbecile in 1848 he held the regency till his own death on the 10th of
November 1848.
See Edouard Gouin, _L'Égypte au XIX^e siècle_ (Paris, 1847); Aimé
Vingtrinier, _Soliman-Pasha_ (_Colonel Sève_) (Paris, 1886). A great
deal of unpublished material of the highest interest with regard to
Ibrahim's personality and his system in Syria is preserved in the
British Foreign Office archives; for references to these see
_Cambridge Mod. Hist._ x. 852, bibliography to chap. xvii.
IBSEN, HENRIK (1828-1906), Norwegian dramatic and lyric poet, eldest son
of Knud Henriksen Ibsen, a merchant, and of his wife Marichen Cornelia
Altenburg, was born at Skien on the 20th of March 1828. For five
generations the family had consisted on the father's side of a blending
of the Danish, German and Scottish races, with no intermixture of pure
Norwegian. In 1836 Knud Ibsen became insolvent, and the family withdrew,
in great poverty, to a cottage in the outskirts of the town. After brief
schooling at Skien, Ibsen was, towards the close of 1843, apprenticed to
an apothecary in Grimstad; here he remained through seven dreary years
of drudgery, which set their mark upon his spirit. In 1847, in his
nineteenth year, he began to write poetry. He made a gloomy and almost
sinister impression upon persons who met him at this time, and one of
his associates of those days has recorded that Ibsen "walked about
Grimstad like a mystery sealed with seven seals." He had continued, by
assiduous reading, his self-education, and in 1850 he contrived to come
up as a student to Christiania. In the same year he published his first
work, the blank-verse tragedy of _Catilina_, under the pseudonym
Brynjolf Bjarme. A second drama, _The Viking's Barrow_, was acted (but
not printed) a few months later; Ibsen was at this time entirely under
the influence of the Danish poet Oehlenschläger. During the next year or
two he made a very precarious livelihood in Christiania as a journalist,
but in November 1851 he had the good fortune to be appointed
"stage-poet" at the little theatre of Bergen, with a small but regular
salary. He was practically manager at this house, and he also received a
travelling stipend. In 1852, therefore, he went for five months to study
the stage, to Copenhagen and to Dresden. Among many dramatic experiments
which Ibsen made in Bergen, the most considerable and most satisfactory
is the saga-drama of _Mistress Inger at Östraat_, which was produced in
1855; and printed at Christiania in 1857; here are already perceptible
some qualities of his mature character. Much less significant, although
at the time more successful, is _The Feast at Solhaug_, a tragedy
produced in Bergen in 1856; here for a moment Ibsen abandoned his own
nascent manner for an imitation of the popular romantic dramatist of
Denmark, Henrik Hertz. It is noticeable that Ibsen, by far the most
original of modern writers for the stage, was remarkably slow in
discovering the true bent of his genius. His next dramatic work was the
romantic tragedy of _Olaf Liljekrans_, performed in 1857, but unprinted
until 1898. This was the last play Ibsen wrote in Bergen. In the summer
of the former year his five years' appointment came to an end, and he
returned to Christiania. Almost immediately he began the composition of
a work which showed an extraordinary advance on all that he had written
before, the beautiful saga-drama of _The Warriors in Helgeland_, in
which he threw off completely the influence of the Danish romantic
tragedians, and took his material directly from the ancient Icelandic
sources. This play marks an epoch in the development of Norwegian
literature. It was received by the managers, both in Christiania and
Copenhagen, with contemptuous disapproval, and in the autumn of 1857
Ibsen could not contrive to produce it even at the new theatre of which
he was now the manager. _The Warriors_ was printed at Christiania in
1858, but was not acted anywhere until 1861. During these years Ibsen
suffered many reverses and humiliations, but he persisted in his own
line in art. Some of his finest short poems, among others the admirable
seafaring romance, _Terje Vigen_, belong to the year 1860. The
annoyances which Ibsen suffered, and the retrograde and ignorant
conditions which he felt around him in Norway, developed the ironic
qualities in his genius, and he became an acid satirist. The brilliant
rhymed drama, _Love's Comedy_, a masterpiece of lyric wit and incisive
vivacity, was published in 1862. This was a protest against the
conventionality which deadens the beauty of all the formal relations
between men and women, and against the pettiness, the publicity, and the
prosiness of betrothed and married life among the middle classes in
Norway; it showed how society murders the poetry of love. For some time
past Ibsen had been meditating another saga-drama in prose, and in 1864
this appeared, _Kongsemnerne_ (The Pretenders). These works, however,
now so universally admired, contained an element of strangeness which
was not welcome when they were new. Ibsen's position in Christiania grew
more and more disagreeable, and he had positive misfortunes which added
to his embarrassment. In 1862 his theatre became bankrupt, and he was
glad to accept the poorly-paid post of "aesthetic adviser" at the other
house. An attempt to obtain a poet's pension (_digtergage_) was
unsuccessful; the Storthing, which had just voted one to Björnson,
refused to do the same for Ibsen. His cup was full of disillusion and
bitterness, and in April 1864 he started, by Berlin and Trieste,
ultimately to settle in Rome. His anger and scorn gave point to the
satirical arrows which he shot back to his thankless fatherland from
Italy in the splendid poem of _Brand_, published in Copenhagen in 1866,
a fierce attack on the Laodicean state of religious and moral sentiment
in the Norway of that day; the central figure, the stern priest Brand,
who attempts to live like Christ and is snubbed and hounded away by his
latitudinarian companions, is one of the finest conceptions of a modern
poet. Ibsen had scarcely closed _Brand_ before he started a third
lyrico-dramatic satire. _Peer Gynt_ (1867), which remains, in a
technical sense, the most highly finished of all his metrical works. In
_Brand_ the hero had denounced certain weaknesses which Ibsen saw in the
Norwegian character, but these and other faults are personified in the
hero of _Peer Gynt_; or rather, in this figure the poet pictured, in a
type, the Norwegian nation in all the egotism, vacillation, and
lukewarmness which he believed to be characteristic of it. Ibsen,
however, acted better than he preached, and he soon forgot his
abstraction in the portrait of Peer Gynt as a human individual. In this
magnificent work modern Norwegian literature first rises to a level with
the finest European poetry of the century. In 1869 Ibsen wrote the
earliest of his prose dramas, the political comedy, _The Young Men's
League_, in which for the first time he exercised his extraordinary gift
for perfectly natural and yet pregnant dialogue. Ibsen was in Egypt, in
October 1869, when his comedy was put on the stage in Christiania, amid
violent expressions of hostility; on hearing the news, he wrote his
brilliant little poem of defiance, called _At Port Saïd_. By this time,
however, he had become a successful author; _Brand_ sold largely, and
has continued to be the most popular of Ibsen's writings. In 1866,
moreover, the Storthing had been persuaded to vote him a "poet's
pension," and there was now an end of Ibsen's long struggle with
poverty. In 1868 he left Rome, and settled in Dresden until 1874, when
he returned to Norway. But after a short visit he went back to Germany,
and lived first at Dresden, afterwards at Munich, and did not finally
settle in Christiania until 1891. His shorter lyrical poems were
collected in 1871, and in that year his name and certain of his writings
were for the first time mentioned to the English public. At this time he
was revising his old works, which were out of print, and which he would
not resign again to the reading world until he had subjected them to
what in some instances (for example, _Mistress Inger at Östraat_)
amounted to practical recomposition. In 1873 he published a double
drama, each part of which was of unusual bulk, the whole forming the
tragedy of _Emperor and Galilean_; this, Ibsen's latest historical play,
has for subject the unsuccessful struggle of Julian the Apostate to hold
the world against the rising tide of Christianity. The work is of an
experimental kind, and takes its place between the early poetry and the
later prose of the author. Compared with the series of plays which Ibsen
had already inaugurated with _The Young Men's League_, _Emperor and
Galilean_ preserves a colour of idealism and even of mysticism which was
for many years to be absent from Ibsen's writings, but to reappear in
his old age with _The Master-builder_. There is some foundation for the
charge that Ibsen has made his romantic Greek emperor needlessly
squalid, and that he has robbed him, at last, too roughly of all that
made him a sympathetic exponent of Hellenism. Ibsen was now greatly
occupied by the political spectacle of Germany at war first in Denmark,
then in France, and he believed that all things were conspiring to start
a new epoch of individualism. He was therefore deeply disgusted by the
Paris commune, and disappointed by the conservative reaction which
succeeded it. This disillusion in political matters had a very direct
influence upon Ibsen's literary work. It persuaded him that nothing
could be expected in the way of reform from democracies, from large
blind masses of men moved capriciously in any direction, but that the
sole hope for the future must lie in the study of personality, in the
development of individual character. He set himself to diagnose the
conditions of society, which he had convinced himself lay sick unto
death. Hitherto Ibsen had usually employed rhymed verse for his dramatic
compositions, or, in the case of his saga-plays, a studied and
artificial prose. Now, in spite of the surprising achievements of his
poetry, he determined to abandon versification, and to write only in the
language of everyday conversation. In the first drama of this his new
period, _The Pillars of Society_ (1877), he dealt with the problem of
hypocrisy in a small commercial centre of industry, and he drew in the
Bernick family a marvellous picture of social egotism in a prosperous
seaport town. There was a certain similarity between this piece and _A
Doll's House_ (1879), although the latter was much the more successful
in awakening curiosity. Indeed, no production of Ibsen's has been so
widely discussed as this, which is nevertheless not the most coherently
conceived of his plays. Here also, social hypocrisy, was the object of
the playwright's satire, but this time mainly in relation to marriage.
In _A Doll's House_ Ibsen first developed his views with regard to the
individualism of woman. In his previous writings he had depicted woman
as a devoted and willing sacrifice to man; here he begins to explain
that she has no less a duty to herself, and must keep alive her own
conception of honour and of responsibility. The conclusion of _A Doll's
House_ was violently and continuously discussed through the length and
breadth of Europe, and to the situation of Nora Helmer is probably due
more than to anything else the long tradition that Ibsen is "immoral."
He braved convention still more audaciously in _Ghosts_ (1881), perhaps
the most powerful of the series of plays in which Ibsen diagnoses the
diseases of modern society. It was received in Norway with a tumult of
ill-will, and the author was attacked no less venomously than he had
been twenty years before. Ibsen was astonished and indignant at the
reception given to _Ghosts_, and at the insolent indifferentism of the
majority to all ideas of social reform. He wrote, more as a pamphlet
than as a play, what is yet one of the most effective of his comedies,
_An Enemy of the People_ (1882). Dr Stockmann, the hero of that piece,
discovers that the drainage system of the bathing-station on which the
little town depends is faulty, and the water impure and dangerous. He
supposes that the corporation will be grateful to have these
deficiencies pointed out; on the contrary, they hound him out of their
midst as an "enemy of the people." In this play occurs Ibsen's famous
and typical saying, "a minority may be right--a majority is always
wrong." This polemical comedy seemed at first to be somewhat weakened by
the personal indignation which runs through it, but it has held the
stage. Ibsen's next drama, _The Wild Duck_ (1884), was written in
singular contrast with the zest and fire which had inspired _An Enemy of
the People_. Here he is squalid and pessimistic to a degree elsewhere
unparalleled in his writings; it is not quite certain that he is not
here guilty of a touch of parody of himself. The main figure of the play
is an unhealthy, unlucky enthusiast, who goes about making hopeless
mischief by exposing weak places in the sordid subterfuges of others.
This drama contains a figure, Hjálmar Ekdal, who claims the bad
pre-eminence of being the meanest scoundrel in all drama. _The Wild
Duck_ is the darkest, the least relieved, of Ibsen's studies of social
life, and his object in composing it is not obvious. With _Rosmersholm_
(1886) he rose to the height of his genius again; this is a mournful,
but neither a pessimistic nor a cynical play. The fates which hang round
the contrasted lives of Rosmer and Rebecca, the weak-willed scrupulous
man and the strong-willed unshrinking woman, the old culture and the
new, the sickly conscience and the robust one, create a splendid
dramatic antithesis. Ibsen then began to compose a series of dramas, of
a more and more symbolical and poetic character; the earliest of these
was the mystical _The Lady from the Sea_ (1888). At Christmas 1890 he
brought out _Hedda Gabler_; two years later _The Master-builder_
(_Bygmester Solnaes_), in which many critics see the highest attainment
of his genius; at the close of 1894 _Little Eyolf_; in 1896 _John
Gabriel Borkman_; and in 1900 _When We Dead Awaken_. On the occasion of
his seventieth birthday (1898) Ibsen was the recipient of the highest
honours from his own country and of congratulations and gifts from all
parts of the world. A colossal bronze statue of him was erected outside
the new National Theatre, Christiania, in September 1899. In 1901 his
health began to decline, and he was ordered by the physician to abandon
every species of mental effort. The evil advanced, and he became
unconscious of the passage of events. After lingering in this sad
condition he died, without suffering, on the 23rd of May 1906, and was
accorded a public funeral, with the highest national honours.
No recent writer belonging to the smaller countries of Europe has had so
widely spread a fame as that of Ibsen, and although the value of his
dramatic work is still contested, it has received the compliment of
vivacious discussion in every part of the world. There would, perhaps,
have been less violence in this discussion if it had been perceived that
the author does not pose as a moral teacher, but as an imaginative
investigator. He often and with much heat insisted that he was not
called upon as a poet to suggest a remedy for the diseases of society,
but to diagnose them. In this he was diametrically opposed to Tolstoi,
who admitted that he wrote his books for the healing of the nations. If
the subjects which Ibsen treats, or some of them, are open to
controversy, we are at least on firm ground in doing homage to the
splendour of his art as a playwright. He reintroduced into modern
dramatic literature something of the velocity and inevitability of Greek
tragic intrigue. It is very rarely that any technical fault can be found
with the architecture of his plots, and his dialogue is the most
lifelike that the modern stage has seen. His long apprenticeship to the
theatre was of immense service to him in this respect. In every country,
though least perhaps in England, the influence of Ibsen has been marked
in the theatrical productions of the younger school. Even in England, on
the rare occasions when his dramas are acted, they awaken great interest
among intelligent playgoers.
The editions of Ibsen's works are numerous, but the final text is
included in the _Samlede Vaerker_, with a bibliography by J. B.
Halvorsen, published in Copenhagen, in 10 vols. (1898-1902). They have
been translated into the principal European languages, and into
Japanese. The study of Ibsen in English was begun by Mr Gosse in 1872,
and continued by Mr William Archer, whose version of Ibsen's prose
dramas appeared in 5 vols. (1890, 1891; new and revised edition,
1906). Other translators have been Mr C. Herford, Mr R. A.
Streatfield, Miss Frances Lord and Mr Adie. His _Correspondence_ was
edited, in 2 vols., under the supervision of his son, Sigurd Ibsen, in
1904 (Eng. trans., 1905). Critical studies on the writings and
position of Ibsen are innumerable, and only those which were
influential in guiding opinion, during the early part of his career,
in the various countries, can be mentioned here: Georg Brandes
_Ästhetiske Studier_ (Copenhagen, 1868); Les Quesnel, _Poésie
scandinave_ (Paris 1874); Valfrid Valsenius, _Henrik Ibsen_
(Helsingfors, 1879); Edmund Gosse, _Studies in Northern Literature_
(London, 1879); L. Passarge, _Henrik Ibsen_ (Leipzig, 1883); G.
Brandes, _Björnson och Ibsen_ (Stockholm, 1882); Henrik Jaeger,
_Henrik Ibsen 1828-1888_ (Copenhagen, 1888; Eng. trans., 1890); T.
Terwey, _Henrik Ibsen_ (Amsterdam, 1882); G. Bernard Shaw, _The
Quintessence of Ibsen_ (London, 1892). In France Count Moritz Prozor
carried on an ardent propaganda in favour of Ibsen from 1885, and
Jules Lemaître's articles in his _Les Contemporains_ and _Impressions
de théâtre_ did much to encourage discussion. W. Archer forwarded the
cause in England from 1878 onwards. In Germany Ibsen began to be known
in 1866, when John Grieg, P. F. Siebold and Adolf Strodtmann
successively drew attention to his early dramas; but his real
popularity among the Germans dates from 1880. (E. G.)
IBYCUS, of Rhegium in Italy, Greek lyric poet, contemporary of Anacreon,
flourished in the 6th century B.C. Notwithstanding his good position at
home, he lived a wandering life, and spent a considerable time at the
court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. The story of his death is thus
related: While in the neighbourhood of Corinth, the poet was mortally
wounded by robbers. As he lay dying he saw a flock of cranes flying
overhead, and called upon them to avenge his death. The murderers betook
themselves to Corinth, and soon after, while sitting in the theatre, saw
the cranes hovering above. One of them, either in alarm or jest,
ejaculated, "Behold the avengers of Ibycus," and thus gave the clue to
the detection of the crime (Plutarch, _De Garrulitate_, xiv.). The
phrase, "the cranes of Ibycus," passed into a proverb among the Greeks
for the discovery of crime through divine intervention. According to
Suidas, Ibycus wrote seven books of lyrics, to some extent mythical and
heroic, but mainly erotic (Cicero, _Tusc. Disp._ iv. 33), celebrating
the charms of beautiful youths and girls. F. G. Welcker suggests that
they were sung by choruses of boys at the "beauty competitions" held at
Lesbos. Although the metre and dialect are Dorian, the poems breathe the
spirit of Aeolian melic poetry.
The best editions of the fragments are by F. W. Schneidewin (1833) and
Bergk, _Poëtae lyrici Graeci_.
ICA (YCA, or ECCA), a city of southern Peru and the capital of a
department of the same name, 170 m. S.S.E. of Lima, and 46 m. by rail
S.E. of Pisco; its port on the Pacific coast. Pop. (1906, official
estimate) 6000. It lies in a valley of the foothills of the Cordillera
Occidental, which is watered by the Rio de Ica, is made highly fertile
by irrigation, and is filled with vineyards and cotton fields; between
this valley and the coast is a desert. The original town was founded in
1563, 4 m. E. of its present site, but it was destroyed by the
earthquake of 1571, and again by that of 1664, after which the present
town was laid out near the ruins. In 1882 a Chilean marauding expedition
inflicted great damage to private property in the town and vicinity.
These repeated disasters give the place a partially ruined appearance,
but it has considerable commercial and industrial prosperity. It has a
large cotton factory and there are some smaller industries. Wine-making
is one of the principal industries of the valley, and much brandy,
called _pisco_, is exported from Pisco. A new industry is that of drying
the fruits for which this region is celebrated. Ica is the seat of a
national college.
The department of ICA lies between the Western Cordillera and the
Pacific coast, and extends from the department of Lima S.E. to that of
Arequipa. Pop. (1906, official estimate) 68,220; area 8721 sq. m. Ica is
in the rainless region of Peru, and the greater part of its surface is
barren. It is crossed by the rivers Pisco, Ica and Grande, whose
tributaries drain the western slope of the Cordillera, and whose valleys
are fertile and highly cultivated. The valley of the Nasca, a tributary
of the Grande, is celebrated for an extensive irrigating system
constructed by the natives before the discovery of America. The
principal products of the department are cotton, grapes, wine, spirits,
sugar and fruit. These are two good ports on the northern coast, Tambo
de Mora and Pisco, the latter being connected with the capital by a
railway across the desert, 46 m. long.
ICE (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. _Eis_), the solid
crystalline form which water assumes when exposed to a sufficiently low
temperature. It is a colourless crystalline substance, assuming forms
belonging to the hexagonal system, and distinguished by a well-marked
habit of twinning, which occasions the beautiful "ice flowers" displayed
by hoar-frost. It is frequently precipitated as hoar-frost, snow or
hail; and in the glaciers and snows of lofty mountain systems or of
regions of high latitude it exists on a gigantic scale, being
especially characteristic of the seas and lands around the poles. In
various regions, especially in France and Italy, great quantities of ice
form in caves, which, in virtue of their depth below the earth's
surface, their height above the sea-level, or their exposure to suitable
winds, or to two or more of these conditions in combination, are
unaffected by ordinary climatic changes, so that the mean annual
temperature is sufficiently low to ensure the permanency of the ice. The
temperature at which water freezes, and also at which ice melts, is so
readily determined that it is employed as one of the standard
temperatures in the graduation of ordinary thermometer scales, this
temperature being the zero of the Centigrade and Réaumur scales, and 32°
of the Fahrenheit (see THERMOMETRY). In the act of freezing, water,
though its temperature remains unchanged, undergoes a remarkable
expansion so that ice at 0° C. is less dense than water--a fact
demonstrated by its power of floating. The sub-aqueous retention of
"ground-ice" or "anchor-ice," which forms in certain circumstances at
the bottom of streams or pools in which there are many eddies, is due to
the cohesion between it and the stones or rocks which compose the bed of
the streams or pools. As water expands on freezing, so conversely ice
contracts on melting; and the ice-cold water thus formed continues to
contract when heated until it has reached its point of maximum density,
the temperature at which this occurs being about 39° Fahr, or 4° C.
Above this point water continuously expands, and at no temperature is it
less dense than ice as is shown by the following table:--
Density of ice at 0°C. = .9175
" water at 0°C. = .99988
" " 4°C. = 1.00000
" " 10°C. = .99976
" " 100°C. = .95866
Under the influence of heat, ice itself behaves as most solids do,
contracting when cooled, expanding when heated. According to Plücker,
the coefficient of cubical dilatation at moderately low temperatures is
0.0001585. From a series of elaborate experiments, Person deduced 0.505
as the specific heat of ice, or about half that of water.
Though no rise of temperature accompanies the melting of ice, there is
yet a definite quantity of heat absorbed, namely, about 80 calories per
gram; this is called the latent heat of fusion of water (see FUSION).
The same amount of heat is evolved when water becomes ice. That ice can
be melted by increase of pressure was first pointed out by James Thomson
in 1849. He showed that, since water expands on freezing, the laws of
thermodynamics require that its freezing-point must be lowered by
increase of pressure; and he calculated that for every additional
atmosphere of pressure the freezing-point of water was lowered by
0.0075°. This result was verified by his brother, Sir William Thomson
(Lord Kelvin), in 1850. The Thomsons and H. L. F. Helmholtz successfully
applied this behaviour of ice under pressure to the explanation of many
properties of the substance. When two blocks of ice at 0° C. are pressed
together or even simply laid in contact, they gradually unite along
their touching surfaces till they form one block. This "regelation" is
due to the increased pressure at the various points of contact causing
the ice there to melt and cool. The water so formed tends to escape,
thus relieving the pressure for an instant, refreezing and returning to
the original temperature. This succession of melting and freezing, with
their accompanying thermal effects, goes on until the two blocks are
cemented into one.
Ice forms over fresh water if the temperature of the air has been for a
sufficient time at or below the freezing-point; but not until the whole
mass of water has been cooled down to its point of maximum density, so
that the subsequent cooling of the surface can give rise to no
convection currents, is freezing possible. Sea-water, in the most
favourable circumstances, does not freeze till its temperature is
reduced to about -2° C.; and the ice, when formed, is found to have
rejected four-fifths of the salt which was originally present. In the
upper provinces of India water is made to freeze during cold clear
nights by leaving it overnight in porous vessels, or in bottles which
are enwrapped in moistened cloth. The water then freezes in virtue of
the cold produced by its own evaporation or by the drying of the
moistened wrapper. In Bengal the natives resort to a still more
elaborate forcing of the conditions. Pits are dug about 2 ft. deep and
filled three-quarters full with dry straw, on which are set flat porous
pans containing the water to be frozen. Exposed overnight to a cool dry
gentle wind from the north-west, the water evaporates at the expense of
its own heat, and the consequent cooling takes place with sufficient
rapidity to overbalance the slow influx of heat from above through the
cooled dense air or from below through the badly conducting straw.
See WATER, and for the manufacture of ice see REFRIGERATING.
ICEBERG (from ice and _Berg_, Ger. for hill, mountain), a floating mass
of ice broken from the end of a glacier or from an ice-sheet. The word
is sometimes, but rarely, applied to the arch of an Arctic glacier
viewed from the sea. It is more commonly used to describe huge floating
masses of ice that drift from polar regions into navigable waters. They
are occasionally encountered far beyond the polar regions, rising into
beautiful forms with breakers roaring into their caves and streams of
water pouring from their pinnacles in the warmer air. When, however,
they rest in comparatively warm water, melting takes place most rapidly
at the base and they frequently overturn. Only one-ninth of the mass of
ice is seen above water. When a glacier descends to the sea, as in
Alaska, and "advances into water, the depth of which approaches its
thickness, the ends are broken off and the detached masses float away as
icebergs. Many of the bergs are overturned, or at least tilted, as they
set sail. If this does not happen at once it is likely to occur later as
the result of the wave-cutting and melting which disturb their
equilibrium" (T. C. Chamberlin and R. D. Salisbury, _Geology: Processes
and their Results_, 1905). These bergs carry a load of débris from the
glacier and gradually strew their load upon the sea floor. They do not
travel far before losing all stony and earthy débris, but glacial
material found in dredgings shows that icebergs occasionally carry their
load far from land. The structure of the iceberg varies with its origin
and is always that of the glacier or ice-sheet from which it was broken.
The breaking off of the ice-sheet from a Greenland glacier is called
locally the "calving" of the glacier. The constantly renewed material
from which the icebergs are formed is brought down by the motion of the
glacier. The ice-sheet cracks at the end, and masses break off, owing to
the upward pressure of the water upon the lighter ice which is pushed
into it. This is accomplished with considerable violence. The
disintegration of an Arctic ice-sheet is a simpler matter, as the ice is
already floating.
ICELAND (Dan. _Island_), an island in the North Atlantic Ocean,
belonging to Denmark. Its extreme northerly point is touched by the
Arctic Circle; it lies between 13° 22´ and 24° 35´ W., and between 63°
12´ and 66° 33´ N., and has an area of 40,437 sq. m. Its length is 298
m. and its breadth 194 m., the shape being a rough oval, broken at the
north-west, where a peninsula, diversified by a great number of fjords,
projects from the main portion of the island. The total length of the
coast-line is about 3730 m., of which approximately one-third belongs to
the north-western peninsula. Iceland is a plateau or tableland, built up
of volcanic rocks of older and younger formation, and pierced on all
sides by fjords and valleys. Compared with the tableland, the lowlands
have a relatively small area, namely, one-fourteenth of the whole; but
these lowlands are almost the only parts of the island which are
inhabited. In consequence of the rigour of its climate, the central
tableland is absolutely uninhabitable. At the outside, not more than
one-fourth of the area of Iceland is inhabited; the rest consists of
elevated deserts, lava streams and glaciers. The north-west peninsula is
separated from the main mass of the island by the bays Hunaflói and
Breiðifjörðr, so that there are really two tablelands, a larger and a
smaller. The isthmus which connects the two is only 4¼ m. across, but
has an altitude of 748 ft. The mean elevation of the north-west
peninsula is 2000 ft. The fjords and glens which cut into it are shut in
by precipitous walls of basalt, which plainly shows that they have been
formed by erosion through the mass of the plateau. The surface of this
tableland is also bare and desolate, being covered with gravel and
fragments of rock. Here and there are large straggling snowfields, the
largest being Glámu and Drangajökull,[1] on the culminating points of
the plateau. The only inhabited districts are the shores of the fjords,
where grass grows capable of supporting sheep; but a large proportion of
the population gain their livelihood by fishing. The other and larger
tableland, which constitutes the substantial part of Iceland, reaches
its culminating point in the south-east, in the gigantic snowfield of
Vatnajökull, which covers 3300 sq. m. The axis of highest elevation of
Iceland stretches from north-west to south-east, from the head of
Hvammsfjörðr to Hornafjörðr, and from this water-parting the rivers
descend on both sides. The crest of the water-parting is crowned by a
chain of snow-capped mountains, separated by broad patches of lower
ground. They are really a chain of minor plateaus which rise 4500 to
6250 ft. above sea-level and 2000 to 3000 ft. above the tableland
itself. In the extreme east is Vatnajökull, which is separated from
Tungnafellsjökull by Vonarskard (3300 ft.). Between Tungnafellsjökull
and Hofsjökull lies the broad depression of Sprengisandr (2130 ft.).
Continuing north-west, between Hofsjökull and the next snow-capped
mountain, Langjökull, lies Kjölur (2000 ft.); and between Langjökull and
Eiriksjökull, Flosaskard (2630 ft.). To the north of the _jöklar_ last
mentioned there are a number of lakes, all well stocked with fish.
Numerous valleys or glens penetrate into the tableland, especially on
the north and east, and between them long mountain spurs, sections of
the tableland which have resisted the action of erosion, thrust
themselves towards the sea. Of these the most considerable is the mass
crowned by Mýrdalsjökull, which stretches towards the south. The
interior of the tableland consists for the most part of barren,
grassless deserts, the surface being covered by gravel, loose fragments
of rock, lava, driftsand, volcanic ashes and glacial detritus.
Save the lower parts of the larger glens, there are no lowlands on the
north and east. The south coast is flat next the sea; but immediately
underneath Vatnajökull there is a strip of gravel and sand, brought down
and deposited by the glacial streams. The largest low-lying plain of
Iceland, lying between Mýrdalsjökull and Reykjanes, has an area of about
1550 sq. m. In its lowest parts this plain barely keeps above sea-level,
but it rises gradually towards the interior, terminating in a
ramification of valleys. Its maximum altitude is attained at 381 ft.
near Geysir. On the west of Mount Hekla this plain connects by a regular
slope directly with the tableland, to the great injury of its inhabited
districts, which are thus exposed to the clouds of pumice dust and
driftsand that cover large areas of the interior. Nevertheless the
greater part of this lowland plain produces good grass, and is
relatively well inhabited. The plain is drained by three
rivers--Markarfljót, Thjórsá and Oelfusá--all of large volume, and
numerous smaller streams. Towards the west there exist a number of warm
springs. There is another lowland plain around the head of Faxaflói,
nearly 400 sq. m. in extent. As a rule the surface of this second plain
is very marshy. Several dales or glens penetrate the central tableland;
the eastern part of this lowland is called Borgarfjörðr, the western
part Mýrar.
The great bays on the west of the island (Faxaflói and Breiðifjörðr),[2]
as well as the many bays on the north, which are separated from one
another by rocky promontories, appear to owe their origin to subsidences
of the surface; whereas the fjords of the north-west peninsula, which
make excellent harbours, and those of the east coast seem to be the
result chiefly of erosion.
[Illustration: Map of Iceland.]
_Glaciers_.--An area of 5170 sq. m. is covered with snowfields and
glaciers. This extraordinary development of ice and snow is due to the
raw, moist climate, the large rainfall and the low summer temperature.
The snow-line varies greatly in different parts of the island, its range
being from 1300 to 4250 ft. It is highest on the tableland, on the north
side of Vatnajökull, and lowest on the north-west peninsula, to the
south of North Cape. Without exception the great _névés_ of Iceland
belong to the interior tableland. They consist of slightly rounded domes
or billowy snowfields of vast thickness. In external appearance they
bear a closer resemblance to the glaciers of the Polar regions than to
those of the Alps. The largest snowfields are Vatnajökull (3280 sq. m.),
Hofsjökull (520) Langjökull (500) and Mýrdalsjökull (390). The glaciers
which stream off from these snowfields are often of vast extent, e.g.
the largest glacier of Vatnajökull has an area of 150 to 200 sq. m., but
the greater number are small. Altogether, more than 120 glaciers are
known in Iceland. It is on the south side of Vatnajökull that they
descend lowest; the lower end of Breidamerkurjökull was in the year 1894
only 30 ft. above sea-level. The glaciers of the north-west peninsula
also descend nearly to sea-level. The great number of streams of large
volume is due to the moist climate and the abundance of glaciers, and
the milky white or yellowish-brown colour of their waters (whence the
common name Hvítá, white) is due to the glacial clays. The majority of
them change their courses very often, and vary greatly in volume;
frequently they are impetuous torrents, forming numerous waterfalls.
Iceland also possesses a great number of lakes, the largest being
Thingvallavatn[3] and Thorisvatn, each about 27 sq. m. in area. Mývatn,
in the north, is well known from the natural beauty of its surroundings.
Above its surface tower a great number of volcanoes and several craters,
and its waters are alive with water-fowl, a multitude of ducks of
various species breeding on its islands. The lakes of Iceland owe their
origin to different causes, some being due to glacial erosion, others to
volcanic subsidence. Mývatn fills a depression between lava streams, and
has a depth of not more than 8¾ ft. The group of lakes called Fiskivötn
(or Veidivötn), which lie in a desolate region to the west of
Vatnajökull, consist for the most part of crater lakes. The groups of
lakes which lie north-west from Langjökull occupy basins formed between
ridges of glacial gravel; and in the valleys numerous lakes are found
at the backs of the old moraines.
_Volcanoes_.--Iceland is one of the most volcanic regions of the earth;
volcanic activity has gone on continuously from the formation of the
island in the Tertiary period down to the present time. So far as is
known, there have in historic times been eruptions from twenty-five
volcanic vents. Altogether 107 volcanoes are known to exist in Iceland,
with thousands of craters, great and small. The lava-streams which have
flowed from them since the Glacial epoch now cover an area of 4650 sq.
m. They are grouped in dense masses round the volcanoes from which they
have flowed, the bulk of the lava dating from outbreaks which occurred
in prehistoric times. The largest volume of lava which has issued at one
outflow within historic times is the stream which came from the craters
of Laki at Skaptá. This belongs to the year 1783, and covers an area of
218 sq. m., and amounts to a volume represented by a cube each of whose
sides measures 7½ m. The largest unbroken lava-field in Iceland is
Odaðahraun (Lava of Evil Deeds), upon the tableland north from
Vatnajökull (2000 to 4000 ft. above sea-level). It is the accretion of
countless eruptions from over twenty volcanoes, and covers an area of
1300 sq.m. (or, including all its ramifications and minor detached
streams, 1700 sq. m.), and its volume would fill a cube measuring 13.4
m. in every direction. As regards their superficies, the lava-streams
differ greatly. Sometimes they are very uneven and jagged (_apalhraun_),
consisting of blocks of lava loosely flung together in the utmost
confusion. The great lava-fields, however, are composed of vast sheets
of lava, ruptured and riven in divers ways (_helluhraun_). The smooth
surface of the viscous billowy lava is further diversified by long
twisted "ropes," curving backwards and forwards up and down the
undulations. Moreover, there are gigantic fissures, running for several
miles, caused by subsidences of the underlying sections. The best-known
fissure of this character is Almannagjá at Thingvellir. On the occasion
of outbreaks the fine ashes are scattered over a large portion of the
island, and sometimes carried far across the Atlantic. After the
eruption of Katla in 1625 the ashes were blown as far as Bergen in
Norway, and when Askja was in eruption in 1875 a rain of ashes fell on
the west coast of Norway 11 hours 40 minutes, and at Stockholm 15 hours,
afterwards. The volcanic ash frequently proves extremely harmful,
destroying the pastures so that the sheep and cattle die of hunger and
disease. The outbreak of Laki in 1783 occasioned the loss of 11,500
cattle, 28,000 horses and 190,500 sheep--that is to say, 53% of the
cattle in the island, 77% of the horses and 82% of the sheep. After that
the island was visited by a famine, which destroyed 9500 people, or
one-fifth of the total population.
The Icelandic volcanoes may be divided into three classes: (1)
cone-shaped, like Vesuvius, built up of alternate layers of ashes,
scoriae and lava; (2) cupola-shaped, with an easy slope and a vast
crater opening at the top--these shield-shaped cupolas are composed
entirely of layers of lava, and their inclination is seldom steeper than
7°-8°; (3) chains of craters running close alongside a fissure in the
ground. For the most part the individual craters are low, generally not
exceeding 300 to 500 ft. These crater chains are both very common and
often very long. The chain of Laki, which was formed in 1783, extends 20
m., and embraces about one hundred separate craters. Sometimes, however,
the lava-streams are vomited straight out of gigantic fissures in the
earth without any crater being formed. Many of the Icelandic volcanoes
during their periods of quiescence are covered with snow and ice. Then
when an outbreak occurs the snow and ice melt, and in that way they
sometimes give rise to serious catastrophes (_jökulhlaup_), through
large areas being suddenly inundated by great floods of water, which
bear masses of ice floating on their surface. Katla caused very serious
destruction in this way by converting several cultivated districts into
barren wastes. In the same way in the year 1362 Oeræfajökull, the
loftiest mountain in Iceland (6424 ft.), swept forty farms, together
with their inhabitants and live stock, bodily into the ocean. The
best-known volcano is Hekla (5108 ft.), which was in eruption eighteen
times within the historic period down to 1845. Katla during the same
period was active thirteen times down to 1860. The largest volcano is
Askja, situated in the middle of the lava-field of Odaðahraun. Its
crater measures 34 sq. m. in area. At Mývatn there are several
volcanoes, which were particularly active in the years 1724-1730. On
several occasions there have been volcanic outbreaks under the sea
outside the peninsula of Reykjanes, islands appearing and afterwards
disappearing again. The crater chain of Laki has only been in eruption
once in historic times, namely, the violent and disastrous outbreak of
1783. Iceland, however, possesses no constantly active volcano. There
are often long intervals between the successive outbreaks, and many of
the volcanoes (and this is especially true of the chains of craters)
have only vented themselves in a solitary outburst.
Earthquakes are frequent, especially in the districts which are
peculiarly volcanic. Historical evidence goes to show that they are
closely associated with three naturally defined regions: (1) the region
between Skjálfandi and Axarfjörðr in the north, where violent earth
tremblings are extremely common; (2) at Faxaflói, where minor vibrations
are frequent; (3) the southern lowlands, between Reykjanes and
Mýrdalsjökull, have frequently been devastated by violent earthquake
shocks, with great loss of property and life, e.g. on the 14th-16th of
August 1784, when 92 farmsteads were totally destroyed, and 372
farmsteads and 11 churches were seriously damaged; and again in August
and September 1896, when another terrible earthquake destroyed 161
farmsteads and damaged 155 others. Hot springs are found in every part
of Iceland, both singly and in groups; they are particularly numerous in
the western portion of the southern lowlands, where amongst others is
the famous Geyser (q.v.). Sulphur springs and boiling mud lakes are also
general in the volcanic districts; and in places there are carbonic acid
springs, these more especially on the peninsula of Snæfellsnes, north of
Faxaflói.
_Geology_.--Iceland is built up almost entirely of volcanic rocks,
none of them older, however, than the middle of the Tertiary period.
The earlier flows were probably contemporaneous with those of
Greenland, the Færoes, the western islands of Scotland and the
north-east of Ireland. The principal varieties are basalt and
palagonitic breccias, the former covering two-thirds of the entire
area, the latter the remaining one-third. Compared with these two
systems, all other formations have an insignificant development. The
palagonitic breccias, which stretch in an irregular belt across the
island, are younger than the basalt. In the north-west, north and east
the coasts are formed of basalt, and rise in steep, gloomy walls of
rock to altitudes of 3000 ft. and more above sea-level. Deposits of
clay, with remains of plants of the Tertiary period, lignite and
tree-trunks pressed flat, which the Icelanders call _surtarbrandur_,
occur in places in the heart of the basalt formation. These
fossiliferous strata are developed in greatest thickness in the
north-west peninsula. Indeed, in some few places well-marked
impressions of leaves and fruit have been discovered, proving that in
Tertiary times Iceland possessed extensive forests, and its annual
mean temperature must have been at least 48° Fahr., whereas the
present mean is 35.6°. The palagonitic breccias, which attain their
greatest development in the south of the island and on the tableland,
consist of reddish, brown or yellowish rocks, tuffs and breccias,
belonging to several different groups or divisions, the youngest of
which seems to be of a date subsequent to the Glacial epoch. All over
Iceland, in both the basalt and breccia formations, there occur small
intrusive beds and dikes of liparite, and as this rock is of a lighter
colour than the basalt, it is visible from a distance. In the
south-east of the island, in the parish of Lón, there exist a few
mountains of gabbro, a rock which does not occur in any other part of
Iceland. Near Húsavik in the north there have been found marine
deposits containing a number of marine shells; they belong to the Red
Crag division of the Pliocene. In the middle of Iceland, where the
geological foundation is tuff and breccias, large areas are buried
under ancient outflows of lava, which bear evidences of glacial
scratching. These lava streams, which are of a doleritic character,
flowed before the Glacial age, or during its continuance, out of lava
cones with gigantic crater openings, such as may be seen at the
present day. During the Glacial epoch the whole of Iceland was covered
by a vast sheet of inland ice, except for a few small isolated peaks
rising along its outer margins. This ice-cap had on the tableland a
thickness of 2300 to 2600 ft. Rocks scored by glacial ice and showing
plain indications of striation, together with thousands of erratic
blocks, are found scattered all over Iceland. Signs of elevation
subsequent to the Glacial epoch are common all round the island,
especially on the north-west peninsula. There are found strikingly
developed marine terraces of gravel, shore lines and surf beaches
marked on the solid rock. In several places there are traces of
shells; and sometimes skeletal remains of whales and walruses, as well
as ancient driftwood, have been discovered at tolerable distances from
the present coast. The ancient shore-lines occur at two different
altitudes. Along the higher, 230 to 266 ft. above the existing
sea-level, shells have been found which are characteristic of high
Arctic latitudes and no longer exist in Iceland; whereas on the lower
shore-line, 100 to 130 ft., the shells belong to species which occur
amongst the coast fauna of the present day.
The geysers and other hot springs are due to the same causes as the
active volcanoes, and the earthquakes are probably manifestations of
the same forces. A feature of special interest to geologists in the
present conditions of the island is the great power of the wind both
as a transporting and denuding agent. The rock sculpture is often very
similar to that of a tropical desert.[4]
_Climate_.--Considering its high latitude and situation, Iceland has a
relatively mild climate. The meteorological conditions vary greatly,
however, in different parts of the island. In the south and east the
weather is generally changeable, stormy and moist; whilst on the north
the rainfall is less. The climate of the interior tableland approximates
to the continental type and is often extremely cold. The mean annual
temperature is 37.2° F. in Stykkishólmr on Breiðifjörðr, 38.5° at
Eyrarbakki in the south of Iceland, 41° at Vestmannæyjar, 36° at
Akureyri in the north, 36.7° on Berufjörðr in the east, and 30.6° at
Mödrudalr on the central tableland. The range is great not only from
year to year, but also from month to month. For instance, at
Stykkishólmr the highest annual mean for March was 39.7°, and the lowest
8°, during a period of thirty-eight years. Iceland lies contiguous to
that part of the north Atlantic in which the shifting areas of low
pressure prevail, so that storms are frequent and the barometer is
seldom firm. The barometric pressure at sea-level in the south-west of
Iceland during the period 1878-1900 varied between 30.8 and 27.1 in. The
climate of the coasts is relatively mild in summer, but tolerably cold
in winter. The winter means of the north and east coasts average 31.7°
and 31.3° F. respectively; the summer means, 42.8° and 44.6°; and the
means of the year, 33.1° and 35.6°. The winter means of the south and
west coasts average 32° and 31.7° respectively; the summer means, 48.2°
and 50°; the annual means, 37.4° and 39.2°. The rainfall on the south
and east coasts is considerable, e.g. at Vestmannæyjar, 49.4 in. in the
year; at Berufjörðr, 43.6 in. On the west coast it is less, e.g. 24.3
in. at Stykkishólmr; but least of all on the north coast, being only
14.6 in. on the island of Grimsey, which lies off that coast. Mist is
commonly prevalent on the east coast; at Berufjörðr there is mist on no
fewer than 212 days in the year. The south and west coasts are washed by
the Gulf Stream, and the north coast by an Arctic current, which
frequently brings with it a quantity of drift-ice, and thus exercises a
considerable effect upon the climate of the island; sometimes it blocks
the north coast in the summer months. On the whole, during the 19th
century, the north coast was free from ice on an average of one year in
every four or five. The clearness of the atmosphere has been frequently
remarked. Thunderstorms occur mostly in winter.
_Flora_.--The vegetation presents the characteristics of an Arctic
European type, and is tolerably uniform throughout the island, the
differences even on the tableland being slight. At present 435 species
of phanerogams and vascular cryptogams are known; the lower orders
have been little investigated. The grasses are of the greatest
importance to the inhabitants, for upon them they are dependent for
the keep of their live stock. Heather covers large tracts, and also
affords pasture for sheep. The development of forest trees is
insignificant. Birch woods exist in a good many places, especially in
the warmer valleys; but the trees are very short, scarcely attaining
more than 3 to 10 ft. in height. In a few places, however, they reach
13 to 20 ft. and occasionally more. A few mountain ash or rowan trees
(_Sorbus aucuparia_) are found singly here and there, and attain to 30
ft. in height. Willows are also pretty general, the highest in growth
being _Salix phyllicifolia_, 7 to 10 ft. The wild flora of Iceland is
small and delicate, with bright bloom, the heaths being especially
admired. Wild crowberries and bilberries are the only fruit found in
the island.
_Fauna_.--The Icelandic fauna is of a sub-Arctic type. But while the
species are few, the individuals are often numerous. The land mammals
are very poorly represented; and it is doubtful whether any species is
indigenous. The polar bear is an occasional visitant, being brought to
the coast by the Greenland drift-ice. Foxes are common, both the white
and the blue occurring; mice and the brown rat have been introduced,
though one variety of mouse is possibly indigenous. Reindeer were
introduced in 1770. The marine mammalia are numerous. The walrus is
now seldom seen, although in prehistoric times it was common. There
are numerous species of seals; and the seas abound in whales. Of birds
there are over 100 species, more than one-half being aquatic. In the
interior the whistling swan is common, and numerous varieties of ducks
are found in the lakes. The eider duck, which breeds on the islands of
Breiðifjörðr, is a source of livelihood to the inhabitants, as are
also the many kinds of sea-fowl which breed on the sea-cliffs. Iceland
possesses neither reptiles nor batrachians. The fish fauna is abundant
in individuals, some sixty-eight species being found off the coasts.
The cod fisheries are amongst the most important in the world. Large
quantities of herring, plaice and halibut are also taken. Many of the
rivers abound in salmon, and trout are plentiful in the lakes and
streams.
_Population and Towns_.--The census of 1890 gave a total population of
70,927, and this number had increased by 1901 to 78,489. The increase
during the 19th century was 27,000, while at least 15,600 Icelanders
emigrated to America, chiefly to Manitoba, from 1872 to the close of the
century. The largest town is Reykjavik on Faxaflói, with 6700
inhabitants, the capital of the island, and the place of residence of
the governor-general and the bishop. Here the Althing meets; and here,
further, are the principal public institutions of the island (library,
schools, &c.). The town possesses a statue to Thorvaldsen, the famous
sculptor, who was of Icelandic descent. The remaining towns include
Isafjörðr (pop. 1000) on the north-west peninsula, Akureyri (1000) on
the north and Seydisfjörðr (800) in the east.
_Industries_.--The principal occupation of the Icelanders is
cattle-breeding, and more particularly sheep-breeding, although the
fishing industries have come rapidly to the front in modern times. In
1850, 82% of the population were dependent upon cattle-breeding and 7%
upon fishing; in 1890 the numbers were 64% and 18% respectively. The
culture of grain is not practised in Iceland; all bread-stuffs are
imported. In ancient times barley was grown in some places, but it never
paid for the cost of cultivation. Cattle-breeding has declined in
importance, while the number of sheep has increased. Formerly gardening
was of no importance, but considerable progress has been made in this
branch in modern times, as also in the cultivation of potatoes and
turnips. Fruit-trees will not thrive; but black and red currants and
rhubarb are grown, the last-named doing excellently. Iceland possesses
four agricultural schools, one agricultural society, and small
agricultural associations in nearly every district. The fisheries give
employment to about 12,000 people. For the most part the fishing is
carried on from open boats, notwithstanding the dangers of so stormy a
coast. But larger decked vessels have come into increasing use. In
summer the waters are visited by a great number of foreign fishermen,
inclusive of about 300 fishing-boats from French ports, as well as by
fishing-boats from the Færoes and Norway, and steam trawlers from
England. Excellent profit is made in certain parts of the island from
the herring fishery; this is especially the case on the east coast.
There are marine insurance societies and a school of navigation at
Reykjavik. The export of fish and fish products has greatly increased.
In 1849 to 1855 the annual average exported was 1480 tons; whereas at
the close of the century (in 1899) it amounted to 11,339 tons and 68,079
barrels of oil, valued at £276,596.
_Commerce_.--From the first colonization of the island down to the 14th
century the trade was in the hands of native Icelanders and Norsemen; in
the 15th century it was chiefly in the hands of the English, in the 16th
of Germans from the Hanse towns. From 1602 to 1786 commerce was a
monopoly of the Danish government; in the latter year it was declared
free to all Danish subjects and in 1854 free to all nations. Since 1874,
when Iceland obtained her own administration, commerce has increased
considerably. Thus the total value of the imports and exports together
in 1849 did not exceed £170,000; while in 1891-1895 the imports averaged
£356,000 and the exports £340,000. In 1902 imports were valued at
£596,193 and exports at £511,083. Trade is almost entirely with Denmark,
the United Kingdom, and Norway and Sweden, in this order according to
value. The principal native products exported are live sheep, horses,
salt meat, wool and hides, to which must be added the fish
products--cod, train-oil, herring and salmon--eiderdown and woollen
wares. The spinning, weaving and knitting of wool is a widespread
industry, and the native tweed (_vaðmal_) is the principal material for
the clothing of the inhabitants. The imports consist principally of
cereals and flour, coffee, sugar, ale, wines and spirits, tobacco,
manufactured wares, iron and metal wares, timber, salt, coal, &c. The
money, weights and measures in use are the same as in Denmark. The
Islands Bank in Reykjavik (1904) is authorized to issue bank-notes up to
£133,900 in total value.
_Communications_.--All land journeys are made on horseback, and in the
remoter parts all goods have to be transported by the same means.
Throughout the greater part of the island there exist no proper roads
even in the inhabited districts, but only bridle-paths, and in the
uninhabited districts not even these. Nevertheless much has been done to
improve such paths as there are, and several miles of driving roads have
been made, more particularly in the south. Since 1888 many bridges have
been built; previous to that year there was none. The larger rivers have
been spanned by iron swing-bridges, and the Blanda is crossed by a fixed
iron bridge. Postal connexion is maintained with Denmark by steamers,
which sail from Copenhagen and call at Leith. Besides, steamers go round
the island, touching at nearly every port.
_Religion_.--The Icelanders are Lutherans. For ecclesiastical purposes
the island is divided into 20 deaneries and 142 parishes, and the
affairs of each ecclesiastical parish are administered by a parish
council, and in each deanery by a district (_hjerað_) council. When a
living falls vacant, the governor-general of the island, after
consultation with the bishop, selects three candidates, and from these
the congregation chooses one, the election being subsequently confirmed
by the governor-general. In the case of certain livings, however, the
election requires confirmation by the crown. In 1847 a theological
seminary was founded at Reykjavik, and there the majority of the
Icelandic ministry are educated; some, however, are graduates of the
university of Copenhagen.
_Health_.--The public health has greatly improved in modern times; the
death-rate of young children has especially diminished. This improvement
is due to greater cleanliness, better dwellings, better nourishment, and
the increase in the number of doctors. There are now doctors in all
parts of the country, whereas formerly there were hardly any in the
island. There is a modern asylum for leprosy at Laugarnes near
Reykjavik, and a medical school at Reykjavik, opened in 1876. The
general sanitary affairs of the island are under the control of a chief
surgeon (national physician) who lives in Reykjavik, and has
superintendence over the doctors and the medical school.
_Government_.--According to the constitution granted to Iceland in 1874,
the king of Denmark shares the legislative power with the Althing, an
assembly of 36 members, 30 of whom are elected by household suffrage,
and 6 nominated by the king. The Althing meets every second year, and
sits in two divisions, the upper and the lower. The upper division
consists of the 6 members nominated by the king and 6 elected by the
representatives of the people out of their own body. The lower division
consists of the remaining 24 representative members. The minister for
Iceland, who resided in Copenhagen until 1903, when his office was
transferred to Reykjavik, is responsible to the king and the Althing for
the maintenance of the constitution, and he submits to the king for
confirmation the legislative measures proposed by the Althing. The king
appoints a governor-general (_landshöfðingi_) who is resident in the
island and carries on the government on the responsibility of the
minister. Formerly Iceland was divided into four quarters, the east, the
south, the west and north. Now the north and the east are united under
one governor, and the south and the west under another. The island is
further divided into 18 _sýslur_ (counties), and these again into 169
hreppur (rapes) or poor-law districts. Responsible to the governors are
the sheriffs (_sýslumenn_), who act as tax gatherers, notaries public
and judges of first instance; the sheriff has in every _hreppur_ an
assistant, called _hreppstjóri_. In every _hreppur_ there is also a
representative committee, who administer the poor laws, and look after
the general concerns of the _hreppur_. These committees are controlled
by the committees of the _sýslur_ (county boards), and these again are
under the control of the _amtsráð_ (quarter board), consisting of three
members. From the sheriff courts appeals lie to the superior court at
Reykjavik, consisting of three judges. Appeals may be taken in all
criminal cases and most civil cases to the supreme court at Copenhagen.
Iceland has her own budget, the Althing having, by the constitution of
1874, the right to vote its own supplies. As the Althing only meets
every other year, the budget is passed for two years at once. The total
income and expenditure are each about £70,000 per financial period.
There is a national reserve fund of about £60,000, but no public debt;
nor is there any contribution for either military or naval purposes.
Iceland has her own customs service, but the only import duties levied
are upon spirits, tobacco, coffee and sugar, and in each case the duties
are fairly low.
_Education_.--Education is pretty widespread amongst the people. In the
towns and fishing villages there are a few elementary schools, but often
the children are instructed at home; in some places by peripatetic
teachers. It is incumbent upon the clergy to see that all children are
taught reading, writing and arithmetic. The people are great readers;
considering the number of the inhabitants, books and periodicals have a
very extensive circulation. Eighteen newspapers are issued (once and
twice a week), besides several journals, and Iceland has always been
distinguished for her native literature. At Reykjavik there are a Latin
school, a medical school and a theological school; at Mödruvellir and
Hafnarfjörðr, modern high schools (_Realschulen_); and in addition to
these there are four agricultural schools, a school of navigation, and
three girls' schools. The national library at Reykjavik contains some
40,000 volumes and 3000 MSS. At the same place there is also a valuable
archaeological collection. Amongst the learned societies are the
Icelandic Literary Society (_Bokmentafjelag_), the society of the
Friends of the People, and the Archaeological Society of Reykjavik.
AUTHORITIES.--Among numerous works of Dr Thorvald Thoroddsen, see
_Geschichte der Islands Geographie_ (Leipzig, 1898); and the following
articles in _Geografisk Tidskrift_ (Copenhagen): "Om Islands
geografiske og geologiske Undersögelse" (1893); "Islandske Fjorde og
Bugter" (1901); "Geog. og geol. Unders. ved den sydlige Del af
Faxaflói paa Island" (1903); "Lavaörkener og Vulkaner paa Islands
Höjland" (1905). See also C. S. Forbes, _Iceland_ (London, 1860); S.
Baring-Gould, _Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas_ (London, 1863); Sir R.
F. Burton, _Ultima Thule_ (Edinburgh, 1875); W. T. McCormick, _A Ride
across Iceland_ (London, 1892); J. Coles, Summer Travelling in Iceland
(London, 1882); H. J. Johnston Lavis, "Notes on the Geography,
Geology, Agriculture and Economics of Iceland," _Scott. Geog. Mag._
xi. (1895); W. Bisiker, _Across Iceland_ (London, 1902); J. Hann, "Die
Anomalien der Witterung auf Island in dem Zeitraume 1851-1900, &c.,"
_Sitzungsberichte, Vienna Acad. Sci._ (1904); P. Hermann, _Island in
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart_ (Leipzig, 1907). Also _Geografisk
Tidskrift_, and the _Geographical Journal_ (London), _passim_.
(Th. T.)