Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/160

 152 ICELAND is in February, the coldest month, and the highest (205) in July, the warmest. Cutaneous diseases, occasioned by want of cleanliness and proper nourishment, are most prevalent ; diar- rhoea is frequent in spring; typhus and small- pox have often swept away multitudes ; lep- rosy is not uncommon, especially on the isl- ands, where it takes the form of elephantiasis. Consumption is unknown, owing probably to the purity of the air and its being charged with ozone. There are no manufactures of any kind, only the simplest articles of consumption being woven in the homestead. Several of these, such as guernseys and mittens, are exported. The commerce of Iceland had been quite flour- ishing during the period of its independence; active commercial relations were kept up with Norway, England, and Germany till the union of Norway with Denmark in 1387, when the Danish crown began usurping a complete mo- nopoly, and finally (in 1602) farmed out the trade with Iceland to a Copenhagen company. This monopoly was abolished in 1853, and at present the only restriction to free intercourse is the taking out a trade license amounting to about 50 cents per ton of the ship's burden. Foreigners enjoy the same rights of residence, holding property, and trading, which belong to the natives. The fisheries of Iceland, if car- ried on with a proper degree of intelligence, would prove an exhaustless source of wealth ; but only 10 per cent, of the population are fishermen, and the methods used are inefficient. Along the coast are 34 authorized trading posts, of which only 27 are used ; of these, 6 are in the south, 11 in the west, and 10 in the north- east; 62 merchants reside in these, 26 being Icelanders, the others Danes or representatives of Danish houses. There are no banks. The trade is by barter ; the Icelander is entirely in the merchant's power and must accept his prices. Attempts to break up this monopoly have recently been made by a Norwegian com- pany of Bergen, which has an establishment at Reykjavik, and branches in Hafnarfiord and other places. There is but one native ship in the foreign trade. In 1869 the number of for- eign vessels which visited the trading stations was 99 from Denmark, with a tonnage of 9,358, and 50 from other countries, with a tonnage of 4,555. The principal imports are cereals, wheaten bread, coffee, sugar, spirits, snuff, and tobacco. A decrease is perceptible of late in the quantity of brandy imported, although even now it amounts to 24 quarts annually for every adult male, besides rum, punch extracts, and other spirituous drinks. The principal ex- ports are fish, both salted and dried, salt roe, liver oil, salt meat, tallow, sheepskins, wool, guernseys, stockings, mittens, coarse woollen stuff called vadmel, eider down, feathers, and horses; the whole valued for 1869 at about 700,000. Formerly considerable -quantities of sulphur were exported; but owing to the ab- sence of fuel and the inaccessibility of the mines, as well as the want of remunerative demand, they have not been worked for many years. An Englishman has lately obtained a 50 years' lease of the sulphur mines near Myvatn, which may acquire commercial importance when those of Sicily are exhausted. There are but few pri- mary schools in the island, but parents, besides teaching their children all they know them- selves, are careful to send them for further in- struction to better informed neighbors. All the books and manuscripts in the house, as well as those to be found within a radius of 50 miles, are read aloud over and over again to the family and discussed by them. Moreover, there is a law enabling the pastor or overseer of the parish to remove the children of careless pa- rents, and board them with others who will teach them. This is done at the expense of the parish when the parents are too poor to pay. At Reykjavik there is a college with six pro- fessors, embracing a complete classical, literary, and scientific course ; there is also a school of theology with three professors, and a school of medicine with two. Students in law and philology go to Copenhagen. Recently a library has been formed in Reykiavik, which com- prised 10,000 volumes in 1866. Two political journals were .published in Reykiavik in 1866: the Thjotholfr or "National," weekly, and the Islendingur, fortnightly. The Northanfari, a weekly, was published at Akureyri. The new royal charter granted on Jan. 5, 1874, which went into operation on Aug. 1 of that year, gives to Iceland a minister residing in Copen- hagen and responsible to the althing for the acts of the administration in Iceland. The ex- ecutive government of the island is vested in the stiftamtmand or governor general, resi- ding at Reykiavik, and having under him three deputy governors, residing respectively in the northern, western, and eastern amts, while the stiftiimtmand himself has immediate charge of the southern. The amts are divided into counties or sysla, each having its own chief officer or syselman. All these officials are ap- pointed by the crown. In each county there is a court presided over by the syselman and two assessors ; and from its decisions there is an appeal to the supreme court and the chief justice at Reykiavik. For the revenue there is a landfoged, who is both collector general for the whole country and town collector for the capital. Akureyri, recently created a commer- cial town, has also its local collector or fogcd. The legislative authority, in everything that does not relate to the general interests of the monarchy, is vested in the althing,' composed of 36 members, 30 of whom are elected by popular suffrage and 6 nominated by the crown. The ecclesiastical establishment, which is ex- clusively of the Lutheran faith, consists of the bishop of Reykiavik, who with the governor general forms the spiritual court, and 20 arch- deaconries, subdivided into 196 livings. At- tached to this is the pastoral seminary at Reyk- iavik. The clergy are appointed by the crown, subject to the consent of the bishop. Their