Tourist in Iceland, The - 01.01.1892, Blaðsíða 1

The
a journal of general information.
VOL. I. REYKJAVIK, JANUARY 1892. NO. 1.
CONTENTS:
The Tourist in Iceland.........................column. 1.
My first trip to Lingvellir...................... — 3.
Lingvellir as a sanitary Home.................... — 6.
To the top of mount Orsefajokull................. — 7.
The commerce of Iceland.......................... — 8.
What can be done to increase the steam com-
munication with Iceland?......................... — 9.
The first iron suspension bridge over one of the
large rivers in Iceland, Olfusd........* . — 10.
Lord Dufferin on Lingvellir...................... — 11.
Welcome to the tourists (a poem)................. — 11.
Routes in Iceland for tourists................... — 12.
Miscellaneous informations....................... — 13.
Advertisements................................... — 15.
THE TOURIST IN ICELAND.
In every country we find men who neither
believe in the progress of themselves, their
country nor the world at large. Their faculty
of observation, if we may so express, seems
to be somewhat defect, for everywhere, in
every country we find progress, if we take
the trouble of examining past and present
history.
Iceland is no exception to the rule, and we
who believe in the progress of our country,
we intend to demonstrate this fact to our in-
telligent and observant readers.
Why Iceland is so little known amongst the
other nations of the world, is principally on
account of her great isolation, and the scanty
means of comunication; then again a nation
consisting of some 70,000 souls, living on an
isolated island in the North Atlantic, cannot
expect to be widely known amongst other na-
tions, except something specially were the
attraction.
It is just this special attraction, which is
now opening Iceland to the civilised world.
In the first place we have a saga or history
unique as it were. We can trace our history
from the very beginning of our first settle-
ment, now over 1000 years up to the present.
We possess a literature of our own which
we may say is the admiration. of the civilised
world, a literature quite select which just
florished in this far away island when lear-
ning in other parts of Europe scarcely exi-
sted outside of the monestary walls. We
have possessed and do possess many gifted
poets and scholars. In spite of every kind
of adverse circumstances: volcanic eruptions;
inclement seasons; the Greenland ice which at
times has enclosed a large part of our coasts with
its iron gripe; the most opressive trade mono-
poly; alien government and devastating dis-
eases, which at periods have swept away a
large proportion of our scanty population, we
have maintained to hold up our distinct na-
tionality and preserve our spiritual, vitality,
so that at present we are fairly on the road
of progress to national independence.
In the second place we possess a very in-
teresting and highly cultivated language, which
has taken very few alterations from the very
beginning of our settlement 1000 years ago,
the same language, which our forefathers the
Norsemen had and which they have now lost.
To the educated linguist here is a wide field
of learning and observation.
In the third place, especially during summer
we possess a most salubrious climate, envi-
gourating pure and healthy. Our scenery is
unique. Gigantic glaciers of immense extent
and vastness; volcanoes with their unlimited
lava field; hot springs such as the Great
Geysir of world wide fame, and others; sweet
valleys with winding rivers and green mea-
dows; large rivers with trout and salmon; in-
numerable islands with the eider ducks and
other birds; magnificent waterfalls of varied
beauty, and many other peculiarties of nature,
(J-
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