The Iceland year-book - 01.01.1927, Blaðsíða 31

Closely connected, too, with the coun-
The Sulphur try’s volcanic activity are the sulphur
Springs. springs (or solfataras), the chief
being those of the Krisivilt on the
Reykjanes peninsula south of Reykjavik, and those
in the neighbourhood of Lake Myvatn in the
Northern province. Both offer scenes of singular
grotesqueness and of extraordinary interest. On
the northern Namafjall the sulphur rises to the
surface near the top of the slope, where there are
many steaming fissures, while the surrounding
ground, as seen from a longish distance to the East,
is brilliant with every tint of red and yellow. At
the bottom of the glowing hillside exist many pools
of puffing and gas-emitting clay. Other sulphur
sources are found nearer Husavik.*
Iceland no longer has a monopoly of
The Gegsirs gigantic spouting hot wells, as in
and Hot the days when the Great Gevsir
Springs (no longer active) was reckoned one
of the world’s wonders, and hence
gave its Icelandic name to its rivals in New' Zealand
and in the Yellowstone Valley of North America; yet
still no land has such an abundance of these boiling
w'aters, extending over so large a territory. The
fellow of the Great Geysir, the Strokkur, so popular
* It is, of course, impossible in this little booklet to give
any account of Icelandic geology, or to treat in a scientific
manner of tbe various geological phenomena of the country.
Those who are interested in the subject may he referred
to the works of the late Prof. Th. Thoroddsen. As regards
volcanoes, solfataras carbonic acid wells, and kindred sub-
jects, his monumental work the Geschichte der islandischen
Vulkane, published by the Danish Royal Society of Arts and
Sciences (Copenhagen 1925), is in a class by itself.