Volcanic Origin of the Island.--The Klofa Jökul.--Lava-streams.-- The Burning Mountains of Krisuvik.--The Mud-caldrons of Reykjahlid.--The Tungo-hver at Reykholt.--The Great Geysir.-- The Strokkr.--Crystal Pools.--The Almannagja.--The Surts-hellir.--Beautiful Ice-cave.--The Gotha Foss.--The Detti Foss.--Climate.--Vegetation.--Cattle.--Barbarous Mode of Sheep-shearing.--Reindeer.--Polar Bears.--Birds.--The Eider-duck.--Videy.--Vigr.--The Wild Swan.--The Raven.-- The Jerfalcon.--The Giant auk, or Geirfugl.--Fish.--Fishing Season.--The White Shark.--Mineral Kingdom.--Sulphur.--Peat.-- Drift-wood. Iceland might as well be called Fireland, for all its 40,000 square miles have originally been upheaved from the depths of the waters by volcanic power. First, at some immeasurably distant period of the world’s history, the small nucleus of the future island began to struggle into existence against the superincumbent weight of the ocean; then, in the course of ages, cone rose after cone, crater was formed after crater, eruption followed on eruption, and lava-stream on lava-stream, until finally the Iceland of the present day was piled up with her gigantic “jökuls,” or ice-mountains, and her vast promontories, stretching like huge buttresses far out into the sea. In winter, when an almost perpetual night covers the wastes of this fire-born land, and the waves of a stormy ocean thunder against its shores, imagination can hardly picture a more desolate scene; but in summer the rugged nature of Iceland invests itself with many a charm. Then the eye reposes with delight on green valleys and crystal lakes, on the purple hills or snow-capped mountains rising in Alpine grandeur above the distant horizon, and the stranger might almost be tempted to exclaim with her patriotic sons, “Iceland is the best land under the sun.” That it is one of the most interesting--through its history, its inhabitants, and, above all, its natural curiosities--no one can doubt. It has all that can please and fascinate the poet, the artist, the geologist, or the historian; the prosaic utilitarian alone, accustomed to value a country merely by its productions, might turn with some contempt from a land without corn, without forests, without mineral riches, and covered for about two-thirds of its surface with bogs, lava-wastes, and glaciers.