The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1945, Síða 24

366
STEINDÓR STEINDÓRSSON
formed by a glacier-torrent in 1890. Large parts of the moraine are
probably still underlain by ice. It is bounded on the north by a terminal
moraine ridge, the so-called H r a u k a r.
C. Snæfells- and Lónsöræfi.
For convenience I give this name to the area investigated by me
along the northeastern margin of Vatnajökull. Actually it falls into
two areas, the western area around Jökulsá í Fljótsdal and
the eastern area comprising V í ð i d a 1 u r and K o 11 u fn ú 1 i rising
from the region of L ó n.
i. The region around Jökulsá. I had my first station
at L a u g a r on the western side of Jökulsá and the second one at
H á 1 s immediately at the foot of Snæfell. The plateau from which the
mountain ridge of Snæfell rises is level, with extensive stretches of mýr
with considerable “flá” formation and a myriad of small pools; this
surface-form extends northward across the whole of Jökuldalsheiði.
Salix heaths occur in the driest places. On the mountain sides there
occur either gravel-flat vegetation, which is very scattered, or, in the
depressions, snow-patch vegetation with Salix herbacea and Anthelia.
Nearest the glacier and rather far down, Jökulsá forms a widely
extended inland delta, where the river divides into numerous branches
among holms and islets. This delta is called Eyjabakkar. It is
mostly covered with Eriophorum polystachyum and several species of
Carex, and the ground is so soft that it is almost impassable for any
creature as soon as the winter ice has thawed. A small mountain,
E y j a f e 11, rises between Eyjabakkar and the glacier. The glacier
lying behind the mountain, Eyjabakkajökull, in earlier times
extended right up to the mountain, and on the top of the latter
there now occur terminal moraines of a similar nature to those of
Kringilsárrani. Behind this terminal moraine is a ground moraine,
but of much less extent than that of Kringilsárrani. East of Jökulsá
the vegetation consists mainly of a mossy heath with a scattered Salix
vegetation, but in the depressions either bogs or snow-patch vegetation
occur. The ground rises rather rapidly eastward, and at higher levels
the vegetation is very poor, consisting almost exclusively of a gravel-
flat vegetation and of Philonotis cushions along rivulets and springs.
A very large part of the surface is covered by scree formed by solifluc-
tion, which is very prominent here.