The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1914, Síða 115

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
299
was largely used l'or the smelting of bog iron-ore and for charcoal
for smith’s work. Even as late as 1870 cliarcoal was used in
every farmstead during hay-making for the purpose of beating out
and sharpening the scythes. Numerous remains of ancient char-
coal-pits are still to be seen in many places where no woods are
found today. Burning woods are several times mentioned in the
Sagas. They were set on fire either accidentally or also maliciously
for revenge or out of mischief. But for centuries the sheep and
goats have been the worst enemies of the woods; during winter
when the snow is lying on the ground they procure their means of
sustenance chiefly from the woods, nibbling off all the buds and
gnawing the branches and stems. Even in the middle of the 13th
century the greater part of the woods had disappeared from the in-
habited districts, and the remnants have since that time been gra-
dually diminishing. It is a wonder that woods still exist in Iceland
to such an extent that, including shrubs, they cover an area of about
454 square km.1 In the beginning of the 15th century all the cop-
pice-woods had disappeared from Hunavatns and Skagafjardarsyslur,
but in Eyjafjardarsysla some remains of woodland persisted till the
beginning of the 19th century. Now the whole stretch of land from
Eyjafjördur to Hrutafjördur is devoid of wood. Even in the middle
of the 18th century woods, fairly high in growth, existed in several
places from which they have now disappeared; they were greatly
damaged by the Katla and Laki eruptions of 1755 and 1783 re-
spectively.
Generally speaking, it may be said tliat the saine kind of vege-
tation prevails throughout the island; taken as a whole, there is no
great difference between north and south, high and low. The cha-
racter of the flora is the same everywhere, although on a closer in-
spection it will be seen that the composition of the plant-formations
varies somewhat, and that certain species are peculiar to, or spe-
cially common in, certain districts. The different species vary ex-
tremely as regards the number of their individuals; true, the largest
areas are covered with a continuous carpet of grasses, sedges, dwyarf-
willows, heathers and Grimmias, but some species characteristic of
rocky flats, such as Armeria maritima, Polygonam viviparum, Cerastium
alpinum, Salix herbacea, Silene maritima, Oxyria digyna, Sibbaldia
procumbens and others, occur wúdely distributed as scaltered indi-
viduals tliroughout the island from the coast to the snow-line. Ac-
1 Landshagsskyrslur fyrir Island, 1911, Reykjavik, 1912, p. 89.
The Botany of Iceland. I.
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