IN LONELY ICELAND.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 5, 19 January 1912, Page 5

IN LONELY ICELAND.

THE PEOPLE THERE KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD. A traveller in Iceland says that he Journeyed more than fifty miles from the capital, Reykjavik, and saw but two or three farms in all that distance. “ During all that time,” he says in the “ Youth's Companion," “ I had not*seen a sapling as big as a stalk of cat-o’nine tails. Extinct volcanoes surrounded us on every side. Dust storms swept down from their scarred sides. Distant gleams of glittering ice from the glaciers dazzled us when the sun shone upon them. "But here, in a land where there is almost no fuel, and where jfew crops besides hay and turnips can be raised, in the land of the midnight sun in summer, and the midday moon in winter, I found books and cheerful conversation, an outlook on life, and a knowledge of current events which I have not always found in populous cities. " There are no schools, to be sure, outside of Reykjavik, and one or two other small towns, for children cannot walk tea miles each day to a schoolhouse, and even such a schoolhouse would accommodate but two or three families. But the itinerant pedagogue goes about from house to house, carrying his store of learning with him, and leaving behind much intellectual stimulus and a desire to kmow what is going on beyond the bounds of the island.

“ They were great chess players in the lonely farmhouse where we stayed, and they were keen to play with us. Although my companion considered himself a fair chess player, he was ignominiously beaten by the angular lady of the household. Thej had a Bible, too, and an Icelandic hymn-book. We went away from our short visit to the lonely farmhouse of the Sog with the impression that the home life in the typical farms of Iceland might well be envied by dwellers in more favoured climes.”