The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Page 55

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
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lower level, is sheltered by several high mountains and has more-
over a rich íishery in Mývatn. The distriet of Fjallasveit is chiefly
covered with blown sand, and the plants growing on the sand-dunes
and sandy flats, viz. Eli]mus arenarius, Salix glauca and S. lanata
and Carex incurva, serve as fodder for the sheep, which thrive well.
These plants are cut and gathered during autumn for winter-use.
It is, however, difficult to keep cows; and on account of the weather,
neither potatoes nor root-crops will thrive. The climate is also far
more severe than at the coast; the annual mean temperature in
Mödrudalur is — 0.8° C. In these districts the snow-line has a
height öf 1300—1400 metres above sea-level, and the highest limit
at which habitations occur is 530 metres. On the north-western
peninsula, to the extreme north the habitation-limit occurs at only
80 metres above sea-level, and the snow-line at 400 metres; more
to the soutli, on the same peninsula, at about 130 metres, and the
snow-line at 650 metres. For comparison with the height of the
snow-lines given above I give in the following pages a list of the
inhabited farmsteads situated at the highest levels in the different
parts of the country, because they give an indication of the limit
of the more densely plant-covered, inhabited country upwards to-
wards the wide expanses, poor in plant-life, in the interior. The
settlements in the uppermost valleys and in some parts of the
plateau are by no means fixed; in years when severe weather occurs,
with cold and damp summers, some of these farmsteads are aban-
doned, but are again inhabited when more favourable weather sets
in. The areas above the populated districts, between these and the
desert proper, are too poor in plant-life to be inhabited, but they
are of great importance as summer-pastures for sheep and ponies.
Heights of the uppermost farmsteads above sea-level in metres.
Upon the northwestern peninsula.
Smidjuvík SE. of Cape Nord............ 80 metres
Skógar in Mosdal at Arnarfjörður.. . . 82 —
Hlidarsel at Steingrimsfjörður........ 128 —
Near Faxaflói.
Fornihvammur in Nordurárdal......... 170 metres
Gilsbakki in Hvítársida............... 175 —
Fljótstunga........................... 232 —
Kalmannstunga........................ 218 —
Hæll in Flókadal...................... 174 —