The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Page 114

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THORODDSEN
predominant if the farm were to be abandoned. Small willow-shrubs
(Salix phylicifolia and S. glaaca) had grown out from several pieces
of turf which had been used for making the walls of the houses.
On account of the large number of sheep the plant-growth of tlie
whole válley had degenerated. The luxuriancy had entirely dis-
appeared; no plants of any height were to be seen, the willow
shrubs had become smaller and fiatter in growth, as during winter
the sheep nibble off the uppermost shoots which protrude through
tlie snow; here it had not been possible to procure sufficient hay
for winter-fodder, therefore, during winter the sheep had been left
to shift for themselves with the result that they had attacked the
willow coppices and a neighbouring birch coppice in Kollumuli.
But the destruction of the coppice-woods has exerted the greatest
influence upon the vegetation. The Icelandic author Ari frodi (born
1067) says in his “Islendingabok” that when the first settlers came
to Iceland it was wooded from the sea to the mountains or inner
plateau (“niilli fjalls ok fjöru”). But this statement is doubtless due
to exaggeration. Arngrimur, the Abbot of Thingeyrar, writes in
1350 about Iceland “woods do not occur except birch, and that is
low in growth.” At the first colonization of Iceland many mountain-
sides were probably coppice-clad right to the verge, likewise many
ridges, gravelly stretches and old lavas on the plains, which are
now bare. The coppices spread over a great part of the coastal
districts and the valleys, but nowhere extended up on the plateau
above a height of 600 metres, and probably even at that time the
northern peninsulas and the extreme points of land were woodless.
In the lowlands also many tracts of sand, bogs and new lavas were
undoubtedly bare of wood as in the present time, and probably not
more than 4000 —5000 square km were covered with coppice at the
beginning of the lOth century. The birch stems found in the bogs
also show that the trees of olden times were not larger than those
now found in the best preserved patches of wood. From the Sagas
it can be seen that even during the first centuries the woods had
suffered greatly. Space was cleared for farms and home-fields, and
the best stems were used as laths for the support of the turf-roofs,
etc., of smaller houses, although the greater part of the building-
wood was imported frorn Norway, at any rate in districts where
there was not easy access to drift-wood which at that time was
found in quantities along the northernmost coasts. Moreover, trees
were recklessly felled for fuel and in addition, wood in olden times