FACTS ABOUT ICELAND.

Waikato Times, Volume 2632, Issue 2632, 25 May 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

FACTS ABOUT ICELAND.

A HAPPY COUNTRY WHICH IS A TERRA INCOGNITA TO MANY. There is a nation in existence that has preserved its identity for more than a thousand years, whose leading families claim an ancestry so remote that it is almost mythological, and whose ninety thousand people live under but fortythree articles that form their whole jurisprudence. Its history records but two thieves ; crime is almost unknown, and armies and policemen are never seen. Seven out of ten of the educational class speak, read aid write the Latin language fluently, and a greater portion the English language These people claim to be the freest on earth in doing just as they please, providing they interfere with no one else. Tlicy never lock their doors, have 110 hotels and provide ample hospitality for all visitors in their houses. They glory in the possession of tho purest, bravest blood in tlioir veins that (lows among maukind to day ; and claim the richest traditions of modern nations. They live where there are forty-one days of tho year of total darkness and a like number of perpetual sunlight. That nation is on this earth, too, and inhabits the islai:d of Iceland. Dr. Ludwig von Dolcko is the son of an Icelandic stadsholder, a gentleman of refinement, who was highly educated in Sweden, and lias travelled extensively, and has goue abroad to practice his -profession of electivlogist. In the courso of a talk recently he presented the above striking facts concerning his native land. The doctor i-peaks English fluently, having: remained in the country 23 months. A popular ignorance of Iceland prevails, owing largely to the misleading name of Iceland. The island is about -12,000 square miles, and is green and fertile in the southern povtimi from May until October, when deer and sheep graze at large. In winter the snow i>- abundant. Tho recent millennium celebration has attracted travellers to Iceland lately. A good line of steamers sail from Copenhagen fortnightly. The country is under the protection of Denmark, but there the connection ends. There are nine provinces, each of which elect twelve of the oldest and wisest of its men to perform duties somewhat analogous to a State Legislature here. There is also a national gathering similar to'tho House of Assembly, and a body, like the Council, which meets on-.o a year. But there is little go.'ertiing, and no law-making to do. j'l-ieh man governs himself upon tho broadest principles of personal liberty in everything. The Icelanders are descended from the old Norse Vikings, tho free born families tracing their lineage to Harold and his men, who, their rich Norse mythology says, lauded in 613. The land is owned by a few and those who work the estates are serfs, who pay rental. Travel, ling is by pony or deer, and in the mountains of Northern Iceland man's foot has never trod. The Icelandic pony will take yon as far as it is safe for you to go. The city of Kedjavik has about thirteen thousand people, the greater portion of these living upon the estates. There is splendid hunting and fishing, the wilrl game, similar to the more northern latitudes. bring nearly all white. Polar boars that come down with the icebergs furnish popular hunting. The Icelander is very proud of hi? pure and courageous Norman blood. You know that the Fieucli, English and German aristocracy, if possible will claim even a trace of Norman blood, and there is a people that have nothing else. There has been ody two cases of thieving. One was an leelander. who had broken his arm, and his whole family in the winter were suffering for food. He stole several sheep, and was finally detected. He was at once put under medical care for his injury, provisions were furnished his family and in time ho was given work. That was his puuhishmeiit. The other ease was a German, who stole seventeen sheep. He was in comfortable circumstances, and the theft was malicious. His punishment was to sell all his property, restore tho value of his thefts and leave the country, or be executed. Ho left at once. Disputes and trades arc settled by arbitration, and the decision must be accepted by all concerned. Public disgrace attaches to any slight misdeed, and no one can live there and undergo the consequent mortifie stion, Besides agriculture, which produces b irlcy, rye and vegetables, the great industry is sheep-raising. The exports are largely eiderdown, picked from wild birds, lava from the volcano ilouur llelca, which is pumice stone, and sulphur, which is foun:l in similar n d such varied stales as salt. The Icelander loves his own person,-;! freedom anil princely birth. He thinks that the man who has won both by the possession of political conditions for which he fought is his equal.