The Botany of Iceland - 01.12.1942, Blaðsíða 18

16
JOHS. GRONTVED
Iceland is not particularly rich in islands, only off its western part,
in the large bay Breiðifjörður, is there a number of islands and islets,
gathered in two large groups, a northern one, the Flatey group, off
the south coast of Vestfirðir, and a southern one, the Hrappsey group,
at the mouth of Hvammsfjörður. Otherwise the islands along the coast
are few and scattered. Two islands of some botanical interest may be
mentioned here, viz., Hrísey in Eyjafjörður, and Grímsey lying under
the Polar circle, as already stated. To the S.S.W. there is the small
group of islands, the Vestmannaeyjar.
The coast-line of the mainland is about 6000 km in length, and the
entire area of Iceland is, according to Thoroddsen (1922, p. 540)
104,785 sq.km.—In 1940 the population was about 122,000, 36,000 of
which were living in the capital, Reykjavík.
Taken as a whole Iceland is a highland, or more correctly, a table-
land, with only comparatively small areas of lowland. The lowlands
are especially to be found in the coastal areas in the W., S.W. and S.,
but to these may be added the valleys which often extend far inland
from the sea-coast. In all about 7 p.c. of the total area of Iceland is
reckoned as lowland1.
The widest stretch of lowland is situated in the south-western part,
between the peninsula Reykjanes and Mýrdalsjökull, where it forms a
large inlet into the highland2. East of Mýrdalsjökull the lowland con-
tinues towards the east, gradually diminishing in breadth, and here
and there forming only a narrow coastal border along the foot of
Vatnajökull. This coastal land has been formed exclusively by deposits
from numerous glacier-rivers and consists of sand and gravel, and as
the lowland is often flooded here by branching torrential glacier-rivers
the vegetation is very scattered, and frequently immense stretches may
be nearly devoid of vegetation. The largest of these sandy tracts of the
lowlands in S. Iceland is Skeiðarársandur, with an area of about 900
sq.km, and the total area of these sands is about 2700 sq.km.
Another large tract of lowland is situated in the western part of
Iceland, within the large bay Faxaflói; this lowland has an area of
about 1000 sq.km. Smaller stretches of lowland are especially to be
found within the heads of the larger fiords because these, as it were,
continue into the highland as gradually narrowing valleys.
Although Iceland is a very mountainous country it contains but few
1 Thoroddsen’s (1922, p. 541) estimate is that scarcely V» of the country is
lowland.
2 Its area is, according to Thoroddsen (1922, p. 543) about 4000 km2.