many weeks in the ocean, thirty miles south-west of Iceland. Its fires suddenly ceased, but they burst out with terrific fury from the Skaptar Jokul. The sun was hid for several months by dense masses of vapor, which extended to England and Holland, and clouds of ashes were carried many hundreds of miles to sea. 5. The lava flowed in a stream from twenty to thirty miles broad, which filled the beds of rivers and poured into the sea nearly fifty miles from the place of its eruption. Some rivers at a distance from the stream of lava were heated to ebullition; others were dried up; the condensed vapor fell in snow and torrents of rain; the country was laid waste; famine and disease ensued; and in the course of the two succeeding years one thousand three hundred people and one hundred and fifty thousand sheep and horses perished. The scene of horror was closed by a dreadful earthquake. 6. The most favored portion of this desolate land is on the eastern shore. Here the soil is wonderfully good, and there is more vegetation than in any other part of Iceland. Willows and junipers adorn the valleys, and birch trees, a few feet high, are in one place abundant. The inhabitants are, however, dependent for fuel on the Gulf Stream, which brings driftwood in great quantities from Mexico and the coasts of America, and some, floated down the rivers of Asia, is drifted by currents from the northern shores of Siberia. Hurricanes are frequent and violent in Iceland; and although thunder is seldom heard in high latitudes, Iceland is an exception, for tremendous thunder-storms are not uncommon there-a circumstance attributed to the volcanic nature of the island, as lightning accompanies volcanic eruptions everywhere. The climate of Iceland is much less rigorous than that of Greenland, and it would be still milder were not the air chilled by the immense fields of ice from the Polar Sea which beset its shores. 7. Among the remarkable features of the island are its hot springs, which in some places throw up a column of water to the height of a hundred feet. These springs abound in many parts of the coast as well as in the interior, and in some cases the waters of the ocean are sensibly heated by their action. The most celebrated springs are the Geysers, situated in the north of the island, where, within the space of a few acres, more than fifty of them may be seen. They are supposed to be caused by the heated vapors which collect in large cavities of the earth, and which at length acquire sufficient force to expel the waters subject to their pressure. The word Geyser signifies, in the Icelandic dialect, "fury." 8. The Great Geyser rises from a mound of flinty earth, deposited by the water, to the height of about thirty feet and extending about two hundred feet across. On the top of this mound is a basin sixty feet wide and seven feet deep, in the centre of which is the pipe or opening through which the water rises. Small eruptions of the Geyser take place every two or three hours, but the great eruption occurs only once in about forty hours. 9. The Icelanders have been noted for the almost unconquerable attachment which they feel to their native island. With all their privations, and exposed as they are to numerous dangers, they live under the practical influence of one of their common proverbs, "Iceland is the best land on which the sun shines." Their language, dress and mode of life have been invariably the same during a period of nine centuries, while those of other nations have been subject to constant change. 10. Accustomed from their earliest years to hear of the character of their ancestors, and of the asylum which their island afforded to science when the rest of Europe was immersed in ignorance and barbarism, the robust Icelanders are animated by a high degree of national feeling. Their early and successful application to the study of the sciences forms a marvel in the history of literature. At a period when the darkest gloom was spread over Europe, the inhabitants of this comparatively barren island were cultivating with success both poetry and history, were finding relaxation in study, while the copious stores of knowledge which they accumulated referred not only to their country, but to distant lands, and have in recent years supplied valuable information on many important points connected with the history of other nations. 11. At the present day travelers are struck by the universal diffusion of the general principles of knowledge among the inhabitants. Though there is only one school in Iceland, and that school is exclusively designed for the education of such as are afterward to fill offices in Church and State, yet it is exceedingly rare to meet with a boy or girl who has attained the age of nine or ten years that cannot read or write with ease. Domestic education is most rigidly attended to, and it is no uncommon thing to hear passages from Greek and Latin authors repeated by youths who have never been farther than a few miles from the place where they were born. On many occasions, indeed, the common people among the Icelanders discover an acquaintance with the history and literature of other nations which is astonishing. ... ... ... SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Afford : F. afforer, to set a price on a thing; fr. L. ad, to, fōr'um, what is out of doors, the Roman market-place where causes were tried and pleaded; fr. L. för'is, out of doors; h., forensic. . . . Animate: L. an'ima, breath, the animal life; h., animal, animalcule, inanimate, etc. . . . Arctic: Gr. ark'tos, a bear; a cluster of stars in the north heavens called the Bear. Asylum: L.; fr. Gr. a, not, su'laō, I rob; h., a place of refuge. . . . Cavity: L. cav'us, hollow; h., cave, cavern, con-cave (hollow and curved-opposed to convex), ex-cavate. . . . Church : Gr. kuri'akon, the Lord's house; fr. Ku'rios, the Lord. . . . Cone: L. co'nus; Gr. kō'nos, a figure like a sugar-loaf, a pine-cone; h., conical, etc. Crevice: fr. L. crep'o, crep'itum, to crack; h., crepitate, de-crepit, dis-crepancy, etc. . . . Dense: L. den'sus, thick; h., con-dense, density. . Dialect: Gr. dialěk'tõs; fr. di'a, through, and lěg'ō, I speak.... Ebullition : L. ebullio, I boil or bubble up; fr. e, out, and bulla, a bubble. . . Famine: L. fam'es, hunger; h., famish. . . . Fuel: fr. L. fo'cus, a fireplace.... Glacier (glăs'i-er): fr. L. gla'cies, ice; h., glacial.. Lava: L. lav'o, lau'tum, lava'tum and lotum, to wash; h., laundry, lavation, lave, lotion.... Recent: L. rè'cens, recen'tis, that has not long existed.... Relax: L. relax'o; fr. re, again, and lax'o, laxa'tum, to loose; fr. lax'us, loose; h., lax, laxity, laxative, pro-lix, re-laxation, re-lease. . . . Remark: F. remarquer (rem-arkā); fr. re, again, and marquer, to mark. . . . Rigorous: L. ri'geo, I am stiff or numb; h., rigid. Robust: L. robus'tus; fr. ro'bur, a very hard kind of oak; h., cor-roborate. . . . Thunder: Ger. don'ner; L. ton'itrus, thunder: v. ASTONISH. Vegetation: L. vegeta'tio, an enlivening; fr. vě'geo, I quicken; allied to vi'gor, strength; fr. vi'geo, I am lively; h., invigorate, vegetable, vigorous, etc. . . . Volcano : fr. L. Vulcanus, the god of ... ... ... ... XCIX.-THREE DAYS IN THE LIFE OF COLUMBUS. I. On the deck stood Columbus; the ocean's expanse, "Back to Spain!" cry his men; "put the vessel about! He sails, but the day shows no more than the night; II. The pilot in silence leans mournfully o'er The rudder that creaks mid the billowy roar; "Columbus! 'tis day and the darkness is o'er." "Day! and what dost thou see?" "Sky and ocean-no more!" III. The second day ends, and Columbus is sleeping, "Shall he perish?" "Ay, death!" is the barbarous cry; "He must triumph to-morrow, or, perjured, must die!" Or shall it to-morrow, with pitiless waves, Fling his corse on that shore which his patient eye craves? The corse of an humble adventurer, then; One day later-Columbus, the first among men! |