The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Blaðsíða 16

200
THORODDSEN
The mouths of the contril)utor3r valleys are often situated at a
higher level than the hottom of the main valley and along the
mountain-sides a series of cirques are often found. Hundreds of
streams carry gravel and rock-fragments down to the foot of the
mountain and to the valley, and below each notch in the mountain
there is, therefore, a flat cone of gravel which extends down the
side of the mountain to the bottom of tlie valley; each little cirque
and each notch has, like an hour-glass, according to the law of
gravitation, emptied its contents upon the level land below. The
foot of the mountain is covered with fdants, but any aggregate of
vegetation has rarely been able to extend higher than half-way up
the mountain-side; only on ridges between clefts and liollows,
where neither floods, rock-slips nor avalanches can do harm can
the plant-covering extend upwards in longer tongues, while the
upper half of the mountain-side consists but rarely of anything ex-
cept bare rock-ledges or rock-faces or heaps of stones. On a closer
investigation, a few individual plants will however be found seeking
cover, shelter and foothold among the blocks of rock and in the
crevices. In places where springs are trickling out in a row from
between rock-strata there is often a luxuriant vegetation ofyellowish-
green mosses which form soil and pave the way for tlie higher
plants. Even on the most precipitous valley-sides, sheep are seen
scattered about seeking the mountain-plants which peep fortli be-
tween the stones. Upon the north-western peninsula there are no
lowlands. but only a narrow border of coastal land which is due
to the action of the breakers at a time when the sea-level was
higher than at present. Only the narrow coastal land along the
sides of the fjords is inhabited, and the inhabitants are chiefly de'
pendent upon the sea for subsistence. Where the land which fringes
the coast becomes somewhat broader and the valleys more grassy,
as along the north coast of Breiðifjörður, the inhabitants’ chief
means of sustenance is sheep-rearing; where the fjords are small,
the mountains steep, and the coastal land has disappeared, as along
the coast south of Cape Nord, the inhabitants maintain tliemselves
almost entirely by the catching of birds upon the steep sea-cliffs.
Glaciers. The snow- and ice-covered mountains (Jökulls)1 of
Iceland, taken together, cover an area of 12700 square km. and
1 In Iceland, by “Jökull” a glacíer-bearing mountain is usually meant, but
sometimes the term is used for the masses of snow and névé upon the mountain.