Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/490

* ICE INDUSTRY. i-2H ICELAND. own use, such as breweries and colil-storape houses. Of the 787 plants reported in UlOO, 571 used the eompressor, and 210 the absorption sys- tem. (Sec Kekriueration.) The total product of the 787 factories was 4,2!t4.4:iU tons, of which 4,139,704 tons, or yG.4 per eeiit., was can iec, and only 154.075 tons plate ice. The Middle Slates produced more ice than any other group, the amount bcinj; 1,574.980 tons, as coniparecl with 1,414, l."i8 tons for the Southern States, and only 40,059 tons for the New Kngland States. The aver- age value of the ice at the plants, for the whole country, was $3.11 per ton for can ice, and $2.85 for plate ice. As a rule, the Southern States now depend wiioUy upon the manufactured prod- uct for their ice-supply, the few possible excep- tions being some of the coast cities. As one goes farther North, natural iec comes more and more into competition with the manufactured article, until at the c.itremc North it actually, or prac tically. displaces the latter. But the use of manufactured ice has increased rapidly of late and is continually extending toward the North. Sanitary Aspkcts. 'ITie sanitary quality of " ice-supplies depends chielly upon the presence or absence of disease germs, chielly those of typhoid fever, in the original water, and upon the effect of freezing upon such germs. In addition there is the possibility that manufactured ice may be- come contaminated during the freezing process bv sick or careless workmen, and that any ice iiiay be fouled while it is being distributed to consumers. Proper washing of ice before domes- tic use, care not to bring ice in contact with food or water, and proper supervision of ice factories, would go far toward preventing danger from what may l)e termed inci<lental contamijia- tion. The water from which artificial ice is made is frequently distilled or filtered, or both. In general, it may be said that artificial ice should be made from nnne but naturally pure water or from that which has been purified, and that natural ice should not be harvested from polluted streams or lakes. It may be noted, how- ever, that natural ice. when formed in fairly deep and quiet water, eliminates much of the impurities while freezing, and that recent Ijac- terial studies show that after a few weeks prac- tically all bacteria, and particularly the dan- gerous ones, (lisappi'ar. I'ndcr anything like carefully guarded conditions, therefore, the chance of typhoid infection by means of ice is small. In the case of artificial ice, the freezing process, l)eing from the outside in. concentrates the im- purities at and near the centre of the cake. BiBLiooRAPUY. Consiilt Hile, The Ice Crop (New York. 1892) ; and for the sanitary aspects of the subject, consult: Reports of the Mnsun- chtisclln fitalc Board of Health for 1889. 1892, and 1900: the Report of the Boston Board of Health for 1001 : and Prudden. Drinking Water and Ice Supplies ( New York, 1 900 ) . ICELAND. An island and Danish colony in the Niirth Atlantic, on the ncirlhern edge of the temperate zone. The Arctic Circle cuts the two most northern points of the island, which ex- tends south to latitude 63° 35' X.. and from longitude 13° 23' to 24° 35' V. (Map: Denmark, F 1). It is about (500 miles distant from Nor- way, and 250 from Greenland. Its area is 39.756 square miles, of which only about one-sixth is habitable. The southern coast has no indenta- tions, but the west, north, and east coasts are broken to a remarkable extent by numerous deep lliirds, skirted by many small islands. In the south the coastal lands are low and .sandy, but elsewhere the coasts are frowning aiid precipi- tous. Iceland is a land of plateaus, built up of vol- canic masses of old and recent origin: fiirma- tions dating from before the Tertiary Perioil are nowhere found. The average height of the land is from UiOO to 2000 feet. The few low gnmn.li arc small, and occupy only about onefourlecnlli of the totiil area. Only these low grounds, the coasts, and some narrow valleys are inhabited, while the extensive highlands are quite unlit for .settlement ; the outer edges only are utilized as summer pastures for sheep. Basalt and volcanic breccia are the component rocks: the latter is found in the centre and extends down to the south, while the greater part of the west, north, and cast coasts consists of ba.sall. Above the elevated plains of the interior rise the broad domes of the ice-covered mountains: the largest of them rot on breccia, and where the glaciers descend almost to the sea, as on the south coast, there are no fionls or harbors, for these have been filled up by detritus. The ba- saltic regions, on the contrary, are intersected by luimerous fiords, and contain many good harl)ors, often lying behind narrow tongiies of land, which probably arc old glacier moraines. There are many lakes, but most of them are small. In the valleys of the basaltic tract.s ai' deep lakes hollowed out of the solid rocks, as, for instance, the I-agarfijot. the surface of which lies 85 feet above sea-level, while its bottom is 275 feet below. In the highlands one finds several groups of moraine lakes, and in recent times large sheets of water have been formed by the ilanuning up of glacier streams. Certain lakes fill hollows formed by the sinking of lava streams, while others are typical crater lakes. During a journey in 1889 Herr Thoroddsen dis- covered to the west of the great snow-field of VatnajJikuU, a grand and beautiful group of crater lakes. This country is remarkable for its natural beauty; the whole surface is covered «ith colossal craters filled with water, and would resemble a landscape in the moon were it not for the greenish pools that show themselves every- where among the coal-black lava, the brownish mounds of ashes, and the red heaps of .scorise. The glaciers of Ic-eland cover an area of 5200 square miles. The climate is peculiarly suited for the development of large glaciers, for the air is keen. cold, and damp. On the southea.st coast the rainfall is considerable, and here lies the great Vatnajiikull. 3100 scpiare miles in area. The humidity on the coast is much greater than it is in the interior highlands, as is shown by thi> height of the snowline. On the south side of Vatnajiikull the snow-line descends to 1970 feet, while on the north .'^ide it is 4270 feet above the sea. The Breidamerkurjr.kull glacier advances on the south to 65 feet above the sea. while the low- est glacier on the north terminates at an altitude of 2.500. Large areas (4300 to 4600 .square mile«) in the very centre of the island are covered with lava of recent origin. The higher lava-fields are almost entirely devoid of vegetation, and present a most dreary appearance. The most extensive lava desert is the Odadahraun. to the north of Vatnajiikull. which covers an area of over 1540 square miles, and lies 2000 to 4000 feet abov»