Iceland: Horseback tours in saga landRussell, W. S. C. (Waterman Spaulding Chapman)
History
Iceland: Horseback tours in saga land
Russell, W. S. C. (Waterman Spaulding Chapman)
Iceland -- Description and travel; Sagas -- History and criticism
Out of the fog we came one morning into this quiet harbor after dodging
about for hours between the basalt pillars at the entrance, those great,
square piles of lava, the clanging rookeries of the east coast, where
many a ship, more stanch than our little _Matador_, has broken her ribs
on the jutting ledges. We anchored in midstream while the _Ask_, which
had prior claim to the single wharf, took on board her cargo of fish.
This gave the members of the _Jan Mayen_ Expedition ample time to explore
the valley and climb the steep sides of the fiord. We had twenty four
hours and every hour was spent in tramping, photographing and taking
samples of the lavas, crystals and flora.
This is the station of the French fishing fleet during the spring and
summer. For a long time they have had rights in this fiord and in the
adjacent waters and it is a virtual French colony, presided over by the
Abbé and the French Consul, who is resident at _Reykjavik_. The treaty is
with Denmark as Iceland can not make a treaty. It has been advantageous
to the French but otherwise to the local Icelandic fishermen. The younger
fishermen of Iceland have obtained power boats for fishing off the coast
and they look upon the French as poachers upon their ancient domain and
rightfully. The French do not confine themselves to their own territory
but, like the English trawlers, poach extensively under the sheltering
folds of the fog. An Icelandic sheriff and his deputies recently rowed
out to an English trawler that was fishing within the international limit
to expostulate with the captain. They were politely invited on board.
The trawler steamed away and when these innocent men came to their senses
they found themselves in a back alley of an English fishing port. The
English often go ashore to steal sheep and commit other depredations
upon the unprotected farmers of the remote districts. This has been
going on for centuries and is the real reason why the Icelander does not
love the English. As far as I could learn the French do not commit these
acts of piracy on this shore. They maintain a company Trading Post and
compete with the local shopmen in the village trade. The fact that the
French fishermen are Roman Catholics is distasteful to the Icelanders,
who are Lutheran, both in profession and practice. There is a large
cemetery near the mouth of the fiord where many of the fisher folk of
France for several generations have found a rest from their tiresome
and lonely labor in the fog. How dreary it looks! How different from
the places where their relatives of sunny France are laid away! It is
simply a little enclosure on the soilless hillside with a rude wood slab
upon which is placed a brief inscription and over all is hung the fog,
the endless, pitiless fog in which they met their death. But what does
it matter? They rest as well in these forgotten mounds as the greater
ones of France within their marble mausoleum. The Abbé remains during
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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