Isar

“ See Alexander Island, the, between the Rhine and Isara, 3, 49 Ismenias, of Boeotia, 27, 1, 2 Isocrates, a grammarian, 32, 4, 6, 7 Issa, an island in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyria (Lissa) , 2, 8, 11; 32, 18 Issus, in Cilicia, battle of, 12, 17, 18 Ister. See Danube Isthmian games, the, 2, 12; 18, 44, 46 Isthmus of Corinth, the, 2, 52; 3, 32; 4, 13; 12, 12; 16, 16; 20, 6; 30, 10; 39, 17, 19; ships dragged across, 4, 19; fr. xcviii. Istri, the, inhabitants of Istria, 25, 4 Italy, geography and inhabitants of, 2, 14-24; Italians, 2, 31 ”

“ Skútustaðir is a scene unmatched in Iceland, the lake, the sloping uplands clothed with excellent grass and sprinkled with a wealth of Arctic flowers, the flocks and herds in the succulent pastures, the farm buildings, Thinghús and church grouped on an eminence between two bodies of water and the grand panorama of meadows, rivers and volcanoes, with their ascending columns and clouds of steam,—a panorama that is well worth a summer and ten thousand miles of travel. ”

“ We sit down upon the summit of Battle Island, after a zigzag scramble up its craggy side, and talk and sketch and scribble, as we rest and look upon the blue, barren sea, and the brown and more barren continent, with its mountains of desert rock. With all this desolateness, the approaching sunset and the warm skies, the stern headlands, the white icebergs and bleak islands, and the bay with its rays and points of water, like a vast spangle on the savage landscape, all compose a picture of singular novelty and grandeur ”

“ In the far north there is an island so cold and dreary that from time immemorial it has been called Iceland—the land of ice and snow and frosts. Here are no spreading forests or fields of flowers, but only here and there hardy evergreens and a few pale blossoms, that come, perhaps, just to show how beautiful the place might become if only the short Icelandic summer lasted as long as the sunny months farther south. ”

“ Many people who have visited Iceland say that the grandest sights in the whole world are to be seen in that island. The hills of lava with the ice-fields stretching between them, the geysers bursting forth out of the ground with a sound of thunder, the lofty volcanoes that look like sleeping giants of snow and ice, the great caves whose stalactites are coated with ice, all these things and many more make Iceland a land of wonder to those who visit that lonely island. ”

“ Not so with Iceland. A myriad centuries the Atlantic had rolled its billows against these basalt cliffs, the Arctic packed its ice upon these shores, the beetling mountains cast their rugged outlines upon the quiet fiords, the great Plutonic candles flamed in the Arctic air and guttered the land again and again with scorching streams of molten rock. The seal basked in the sunshine of the lengthened summer, the salmon sported in the glacial streams and millions of birds congregated on the lofty cliffs. All life was blissfully ignorant of its great enemy, man. ”

“ Why do I go to Iceland? Because the people appeal, the old stories of heroic deeds stir the sluggish blood of city life, and the thought of being foot-loose and care-free throughout its lingering summer day to roam at will its mountain vales and smiling meadows impels me. ”

“ In a short time a course to Iceland was marked out by the early rovers of the North Sea, who, before the close of the ninth century, planted a colony on the bleak coast of this icy island, the most westerly land hitherto discovered by the fearless seamen of Scandinavia. ”

“ Now, here and there in this vast region there are certain sheltered spots where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped the overflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the glacier; and during the ninety years that Iceland had been inhabited, every now and then a churl who got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life, ran away into the centre of the island, and lived a precarious existence on the wild birds, their eggs, and on the fish that abounded in the countless lakes. ”

“ In the first place he is one of the most skilful pilots on the coast; when hard pressed, he does not hesitate to use even the Isles des Rochers as a place of refuge."
"The Isles des Rochers?" queried the nobleman.
"A chevaux-de-frise on the sea, my Lord!" continued the commandant; "where fifty barren isles are fortified by a thousand rocks; frothing fangs when the tide is low; sharp teeth that lie in wait to bite when the smiling lips of the treacherous waters have closed above! ”

“ Such are the Happy Isles, whereunto few have come, save but as roaming shadows in the night, and for only a little while.
'But longer than is needed to make me strong and fierce again I may not stay, and at set of sun, when my arms are strong again, and when I feel in my legs that I can plant them fair and bent upon the floor of ocean, then I go back to take a new grip upon the waters of the Straits, and to guard the Further Seas again for a hundred years. Because the gods are jealous, lest too many men shall pass to the Happy Isles and find content. ”

“ Possibly in connection with echoes of tales of the Norsemen’s discoveries—coming from Iceland to Bristol, and thence to the continent—these mythical islands helped to form a widespread belief in countries in the far west across the ocean. The fact that the Portuguese, as has been said, really found islands, the Azores, out in the Atlantic in 1427, also contributed to establish this belief. From these islands many expeditions set out in the course of the fifteenth century to search for new lands farther west. ”

“ The West India Islands, the Azores, Iceland, Owhyhee where the peaks of Mauna-Roa and Mouna-Kaa rise to the height of between 15,000 and 16,000 feet above the sea, belong to the same class of phenomena. [261] Thus in every quarter of the globe there have existed Phlegræan fields of ancient as well as of modern date, whose convulsions anterior to all historic records are still traceable in the submergence and closing up of lakes, the drainage of large tracts of land, the upheaval of mountains, and the reduction of the earth to existing superficial arrangements. ”

“ And now some dark horror will clutch me, if I come near the Isle of Ierne. [132] Unless you will cling to the land, and sail southward and southward for ever, I shall wander beyond the Atlantic, to the ocean which has no shore.’
Then they blest the magic bough, and sailed southward along the land. But ere they could pass Ierne, the land of mists and storms, the wild wind came down, dark and roaring, and caught the sail, and strained the ropes. And away they drove twelve nights, on the wide wild western sea, through the foam, and over the rollers, while they saw neither sun nor stars. ”

“ Michael as it is called in English, was mapped, two mountain peaks were marked where later only one could be discovered. Thus it was that the Azores gained their reputation. Islands full of volcanoes amid seas of spouting geysers could be nothing else but enchanted. And islands and mountain peaks which suddenly vanished away from one's sight! Surely the Azores must be the true land of magic. ”

“ Some that have visited foreign countries, have returned home so impressed with their experience of the great and busy world; that they have infused a spirit of activity and inquiry into the whole circle where they move. They tell of one man, an Icelander, who got off to the continent, and went through all the wars of Napoleon, 294and after many years returned to his native land. He was so glad to see his own good island, that he fell down and embraced the earth, and declared, in the words of the national proverb, “Iceland is the best country the sun shines upon.” ”

“ The boundaries of the Assyrian empire are given upon the map according to the best authorities. On the north they were the Armenian Mountains, the river Cyrus (now called the Kur) , north of the Araxes, and the [92] northern range of Mount Taurus; on the east, the Caspian Sea and the great salt desert; on the south, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian desert and Upper Egypt; on the west, the Mediterranean and the river Halys. ”

“ Wise men have written volumes over less. I do not know but here are groups of the South Sea Isles in miniature. For example, separated from us by a narrow gulf of water, and such clear, bright water, is an islet with a ridge, a kind of half-moon crest, carpeted with olive-tinted moss, over which the lone sun pours a stream of almost blinding light. ”

“ All the native historians agree in calling this the Golden Age of Iceland. During this period Greenland was discovered and settled, the continent of America was discovered, and an enterprising, daring, and successful series of voyages was carried on, that eclipsed the efforts of all previous navigators. Christianity was established and bishops appointed both in Iceland and Greenland, poetry and history were cultivated, and a degree of intellectual activity 42was shown, beyond that of any country in the north of Europe. ”

“ Genesis and Geology.
“Iceland owns its existence wholly to submarine volcanic agency”—such is the statement generally made by travellers and accepted by readers. The genesis of this “Realm of Frost and Fire;” this “fragment of earth white with snow, black with lava, and yellow with brimstone;” this “strange trachytic island, resting on an ocean of fire in the lone North Sea,” where the “primary powers of nature are ever at war with one another,” is compared with the efforts, vastly magnified, which in 1811 threw up from the waters Azorean Sabrina to a height of 480 feet above sea-level. ”

“ The land is comparatively level, backed by a veritable Sierra—the dorsal spine of this part of Iceland—jagged, notched, and vertebral, extending from north-east to south-west. Four brigantines and a lugger were anchored in the clear water, off the five pierlets, the usual planks and caissons, that denote the corresponding comptoirs, one patch of building to the north, another to the south, and a third at the bottom of the bay, whilst an extensive farm-house rose from a dorsum of green, the Hval-eyri or whale strand. ”

“ The portentous waves remarked by old Icelandic sailors between Iceland and America, are termed by them Haf-girðingar, or Seafens, and the Polar wastes between Norway and Greenland were known as Haf-botnar (deep-sea bay) and Trölla-botnar, because here was the abode of Tröll-carl and Titan. The mighty breakers of the North Atlantic are known to picturesque and poetical tourists, not to seamen, as “Spanish waves.” The sky, before clear, was all cirrus and cirro-cumulus, and the slaty green seas made the too lively “Queen” dance and reel with excitement. ”

“ Iceland, we have seen, is the largest island in the North Atlantic, and one of the most considerable known to the Old World. Lying 130 direct geographical miles east of Greenland, 500 north-west of Scotland, and 850 west of Norway; distant 1000 miles from Liverpool, 1300 from Copenhagen, and 3000 from Boston, it is claimed as an Eastern dependency of the American continent which the Icelander first colonised. ”

“ Yes, Iceland, the grass is thine and the flocks are thine. Nature has cruelly deprived thee of mines and forests, of warmth for cultivating thy rich soil; but she has peopled thee with a noble race, cradled amidst thy fire-born hills which are crowned with everlasting [298] ice. She has given to thee sufficient grass for thy numerous flocks that thou mayest be clothed and fed. An Arctic ocean “laves the feet of the White Lady” and its every billow teems with the choicest of fish. ”

“ In the afternoon of the 6th, we perceived the northernmost land to be two small islands, which appeared to trend north-north-east and south-south-west; the main land lying a little to the westward of them. The easternmost of these two islands Lieutenant Ball named Sirius's-Island; it is situated in 10° 52' south latitude, and 162° 30' east longitude: the other was named Massey's-Island. We observed by the land, that a very strong current, or tide, set us fast to the northward. ”

“ Like other islands, it has its magic carbuncle. Beyond it lies Papa Stour; Papey, the eyot of Culdees and anchorites: its natural arch will appear familiar after Iceland. About noon we found ourselves off the Færoes, and the rest of the day was spent upon the Ferry of the Northern Sea. We steam all unconscious over the “Sunken Land of Bus,” in N. lat. 58° 2 ́ and long. 29° 55 ́; “Arctis,” a continent which has lately been revived, and whose fragments are supposed to be Iceland, the Færoes, Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Franz-Josef’s Land. ”

“ Iceland soon became celebrated for its learning; the history of the North, as well as its geography, is much indebted to its authors: nor were its inhabitants, though confined to a cold and sterile land very remote from the rest of Europe, inattentive to commerce; for they carried on a considerable trade in the northern seas,--their ships visiting Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, &c.; and there is even an instance of their having made a commercial voyage as far as Constantinople.
To them the discovery of Greenland and of America is due. ”

“ Hitherto we have shewed that the ten Tribes are in divers places, as in the West-Indies, in Sina; in the confines of Tartary, beyond the river Sabbathion, and Euphrates, in Media, in the Kingdome of the Habyssins; of all which the Prophet Isaiah is to be understood, in Isa. 11.11. It shall come to passe in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Sinear, from Hamath, and from the Islands of the Sea. ”