July 1957 School Magazine

July, 1957

~risbane Girls' Grammar School MaQazine

July. 1957

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Maqazine

Sea-products account for 80o/o of Iceland's exports and agriculture is the second largest occupation. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is still a young city and has developed notably during the last few decades. The name Reykjavik means Bay of Smokes, so called from the hot springs in its neighbourhood. These hot springs are innumerable and are to be found at every altitude up to l ,500 metres above sea-level, among ice-fields as well as along the coast, where some of them are only visible at low tide. At some of them large sulphur deposits are to be found. The most famous of them, the Great Geyser, has given its name to hot springs all over the world. The unbroken column of boiling water and steam of this geyser rises 160 to 180 feet in the air. Recently the utilization of Iceland's natural hot water for various purposes has developed greatly. The hot springs are used for heating the green houses· in which vegetables, fruit and flowers are grown, and they are also used for heating public buildings . Whole towns are heated in this way and since 1943 most of Reykjavik has been heated by the hot water from the hot springs at Reykir, ten miles away. In this respect Reykjavik is unique; it has been called "the smokeles·s city at the gate of the Arctic Circle." Many schools throughout the country are ·heated by springs and have swimming-pools heated in the same way. These springs are so economically important in Iceland, where fuel has to be imported, that sites for new schools are usually chosen in accordance with the location of springs. Iceland is one of the most volcanic countries in the world and the most famous of these volcanoes is Mt. Hekla. There are aiso many glaciers, and under some of these are volcanic craters . The most famous of the beautiful waterfalls· in Iceland is the Gullfoss, the Golden Waterfall, which is a really lovely sight when the sun strikes the spray which rises from it, and causes a ll the colours of the rainbow to appear. Thingvellir, situated 35 miles from Reykjavik, is the most historic place in Iceland. Thingvellir means the Plain of the Parliament and it was there that the Althing used to assemble from the year 930 until the middle of the nineteenth century when it changed its site to Reykjavik. It is a wide lava plain bounded at one end by a big lake and at the other by huge mountains, and wild Icelandic ponies may i'be seeri grazing on the distant slopes. For the nature lover, Iceland has a charm all its own with its infinite variety in colour and form. - M. HAMON, VI A 17

ICELAND

Iceland is a land of frost and fire where the snow capped mountains conceal fires· beneath. It is a land of natural con- trasts, with glaciers and volcanoes, snow-bound areas as well as geysers and hot springs, where one can ba the out in the· open air in comfort even during the coldest part of the winter; a land where beautiful fjords and valleys alternate with lava deserts; a land of lakes, with rivers· winding through green meadows and hurtling over picturesque waterfalls. It is also a land of bright skies and fascinating colour, where summer means continual daylight on account of the midnight sun, and where during winter the nights are regularly broken by the famous Northern Lights. Iceland, with its 40,000 square miles·, is the fourth largest 1sland in the North Atlantic ; and, with its population of 133,000, it is one of the smallest nations. Though situated 800 miles north-west of the British Isles on the edge of the Arctic Circle, its climate is not as cold as its name suggests, owing to a branch of the Gulf Stream which almost encircles the island. The nearest land is Greenland, which was first explored and named by an Icelander, Eric the Red; and his son Leifr, in the year 1000, was the first white man to reach the Ameri- can mainland. In commemoration of this event, the Congress of the United States· presented Iceland with a statue of Leifr Ericson at the one-thousandth anniversary of the Icelandic Parliament in 1930. Iceland was colonised by Vikings and when the first settlers arrived there were no aborigines. There seems to be no record of any native people having lived there. Within a few decades the Vikings had established a code of laws, and their legislative ass·embly, the Althing, is the oldest existing parliament in the world. In the 13th and 14th centuries Iceland was united firstly with Norway and then with Denmark. In 1918 by a speciaL treaty, Iceland was acknowledged to be an independent and sovereign state with a personal union with Denmark through a common King. Since 1944 Iceland has been an independent republic. The language spoken to-day is similar to that spoken a thousand years ago, and Iceland posses·ses some of the finest literature in Europe, for example the Sagas written in the thirteenth century. There is no illiteracy in Iceland and more books are published per per:::on than anywhere else in the world. 16