File:Scene on the Greenland coast.jpg

Identifier: frozenzoneitsexp00hyde (find matches)
Title: The frozen zone and its explorers; a comprehensive record of voyages, travels, discoveries, adventures and whale-fishing in the Arctic regions for one thousand years
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Hyde, Alexander, 1814-1881 Baldwin, Abraham Chittenden, 1804-1887, joint author Gage, William Leonard, 1832-1889, joint author Shields, Charles W. (Charles Woodruff), 1825-1904
Subjects: Kane, Elisha Kent, 1820-1857 Polaris (Ship)
Publisher: Hartford, Conn. (etc.) Columbia book company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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and Ire-land. Iceland might as well have been called Fireland,for all of its forty thousand square miles have origin-ally been upheaved from the depths of the watersby volcanic action; and its numerous volcanoes havemany times brought ruin upon whole districts. Themost frisrhtful visitation occurred in 1783, and itsdireful effects were long felt throughout the island,over which, for a whole year, hung a dull cano2)y ofcinder-laden clouds. Pestilence, famine, and severe winters have alsofrom time to time added many a mournful page toIcelands long annals of sorrow. Once she had overa hundred thousand inhabitants,—now she has scarcelyhalf that number; then she had many rich and power-ful families,—now mediocrity or poverty is the universallot; then she was renowned as the seat of learning andthe cradle of literature,—now, were it not for herr(!markable ))hysical features, no traveler would everthiidv of landing on lier rugged shores. In winter, when an almost perpetual night covers
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GKEENLAIS^D. 27 tlie wastes of tliis fire-born land, and the waves of astormy ocean thunder against its shores, imaginationcan hardly picture a more desolate scene; but in sum-mer the rugged nature of Iceland invests itself withmany a charm. Then the eye reposes with delighton green valleys and crystal lakes, on the purple hillsor snow-capped mountains rising in Alpine grandeurabove the distant horizon, and the stranger mightalmost be tempted to exclaim with her patriotic chil-dren, Iceland is the fairest land under the sun. The colonization of Iceland proved the stepping-stone to further discoveries, although over a centuryela23sed before any progress was made in a westerlydirection; then, 970, an Icelander named Gunnbjorn,first saw the hi£>:h mountain coast of Greenland. Soon afterwards, a Norwegian named Thorwald,with his son, the famous Eric the Red, flying theircountry on account of homicide, took refuge in Iceland.Here Thorwald died, and Eric, his hands again imbuedwith bloo

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