The Iceland year-book - 01.01.1926, Síða 41

Of all travellers the keen-eyed
Sir Richard Burton best sums up the general ef-
F. Burton feet upon the summer sojourner in
quoted. Iceland: ,It is strange how her
beauties grow upon him. Doxbtless
the scenery depends far more upon colour and
complexion than in the genial lands of the lower
temperates. But during the delightfully mild and
pleasant weather of July and August, seen through
a medium of matchless purity, there is much to
admire in the rich meads and leas stretching to
meet the light-blue waves; in the fretted and
angular outlines of the caverned hills, the abodes
of giant and dwarf; in the towering walls of huge
horizontal steps which define the fjords, and in
the immense vistas of silvery cupolas, ,cravatted‘
cones and snow-capped mulls, which blend and
melt with ravishing reflections of ethereal pink,
blue, azure, and lilac, into the grey and neutral
tints of the horizon. And often there is the most
picturesque of contrasts: summer basking below,
and winter raging above; peace brooding upon the
vale, and elemental war doing fierce battle upon
the eternal snows and ice of the upper world'
As might be expected from the geo-
Climate. graphical position of the country, the
climate is rather changeable; but it is
much milder than its high latitude would suggest,
thanks to that branch of the Gulf Stream which
flows up to the south coast and northwards along
the west coast. This greatly affects the temperature
of the sea-water, softens the climate, and is a
powerful — though not infallible — protection
35