Mímir. Icelandic institutions with adresses - 15.12.1903, Blaðsíða 87

NOTES ON ICELANDIC MATTERS
77
currency, which must be secured by one half gold (kept in its
vaults at Reykjavik) and one half shares or values of the national
banks of certain countries (England, Germany, Denmark, Nor-
way and so on) to be so placed as to be readily available for
the redemption of its notes. The minimum amount of the
capital for the new undertaking has now been subscribed by |
banking institutions in Copenhagen and Christiania, and the j
bank is to begin its operations next year. — The total amount
of exports and imports of Iceland is estimated to exceed, for
the present year, 18,000,000 crowns (over 1,000,000 pounds) - a
remarkable exhibit considering that the population is still a
little less than 80,000. The inhabitants numbered in 1801 only |
47,270; in 1901 the exact figures were 78,740, nothwithstanding
a very' large emigration, especially since 1880, to north-western
Canada, where there are now many Icelandic institutions, churches
and journals, supported by an Icelandic-speaking population
of some 25,000. At the existing rate of increase, the number
of souls in Iceland will reach 100,000 not far from the middle
of the century', but the rate is likely to rise rather than fall, j
The great improvements made and making in dwellings, the
superior style of living which prosperity has developed, and
the better and more easily' obtainable medical service have
greatly' reduced the former prevalent infant mortality throughout
the island, and have prolonged the average duration of life,
between the periods 1801—70 and 1871 — 1900, by nearly ten
years. The rapid construction of carriage roads, now in progress
everywhere, is both aiding public health and promoting the
extension of trade. There can, therefore, no longer be any doubt
that a time of high prosperity is before Iceland. Its admirable
national government, its great coast and inland fisheries, hardly
excelled in any part of the globe, its immense herds of sheep and
pomes (fed by its large extent of excellent summer pasturage),
amounting to nearly twelve head of sheep to each inhabitant and
one horse to every two inhabitants, and its various minor resources