Eider down is the haute volée of its kind. Most of the sea-fowl, especially the Lundi or puffin (Fratercula Mormon), when purified of its peculiar pediculus, supply feathers for exportation. Since 1866, this branch of industry sent annually some 18,000 or 19,000 lbs.; and in 1870 it was 32,081 lbs. Almost every bed has its feather quilt; and the Devonshire superstition that no one can die comfortable on a mattress stuffed with goose feathers is quite unknown.
Iceland moss (Lichen Islandicus, Cetraria Islandica), by the people called Fjalla-grös (neut. plur.), is still an article of export. As the native name shows, it is the gift of the hills. We find it on the Brocken, in the Carpathians, the dolomites of Tyrol and Italy (where it is called “Lichene”), and in other parts of Europe. The brown-green leaf, with deeply palmated edges, much resembles sunburnt and withered dandelion. It must be washed in several waters, to remove the bitter astringent taste, before it is eaten with cream and sugar. Of late years, it has been partially superseded by the amylaceous “Carrigeen Moss,” grown on the green terraces of the Ardmore Cliffs. This succedaneum, after being sun-dried, and allowed to receive one or two showers, is again dried, packed in bags, prepared for sale, and used to make tea or blancmange. Uno Von Troil (p. 108), or rather Eggert Ólafsson, gives a list of five lichens, each with its Icelandic name; and Baring-Gould (p. 438) names eight lycopods. Peirce (p. 82) distinguishes this “Fell-grass” from a “sort of fjall-grass, which is used for making gruel.”
A small quantity of wild Angelica (Archangelica; Icel. Hvönn), though held to be poisonous in the United States, is exported for comfitures; in Iceland, it no longer, as of old, flavours ale, nor is it used as a vegetable. The warm root is chewed, or put into soup; and when cut into pieces, it is stored in bottles of brandy and schnaps, giving an aromatic taste. The Umbellifer, grown near houses, is less valued than the hill plant; animals seem to despise both. The Færoese “Quonn” has a stem thick as a man’s wrist; the bitter, astringent rind is removed before the plant flowers and becomes woody, and the stalk, preserved in sugar, is eaten like the leaves, with sweetened milk.
The simples collected for use are the Holta-rót (Silene acaulis, or moss campion); the Alchemilla or Burnet, a sanguisorb; the Geldinga-rót (Statice armeria); the Speedwell (Veronica officinalis); and various gentians. The “ptarmigan-leaf,” or mountain avens (Dryas octopetala, the Holta-Sóley of older travellers, and the modern Rjúpa-lyng) makes a tea good for jaundice; the root also is eaten. The half-digested flowers of the blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and the bog-whortle (V. uliginosum) are taken from the ptarmigan’s crop to make ptisane. The reindeer moss (Cenomyce rangiferina), a small pale-green species, with hollow stem, is gathered for sheep-feeding. The wild geranium also produces a blue tint, of old called Odin’s dye.
Of late years, a little business has been done in women’s hair for the European market. First three Jews came out, then two, and lastly one was found sufficient to manage the trade—we shall meet him in the Journal. They cleared about £300, exaggerated to £3000, especially by the blond cendré, the most expensive item of the £300,000 annually imported by England. As a rule, Iceland demands, instead of supplying, false hair; in 1871 about 200 lbs. were introduced in the shape of chignons and braids.
Another produce of the island is Iceland spar, which is mentioned in Fortia’s “Sweden” as “calcareous spar which doubles the object.” This “Silfr” or “Silbr-berg,” the “Calcite” of Dana, is crystallised carbonate of lime, useful for polarising-instruments. The main axis being disposed at a different angle from the minor or bi-axis, causes it to be doubly refracting; moreover, the former expands, whilst the latter contracts. Thus all blood-crystals, to specify no other rhombs and hexagons, show two parallel lines where only one exists: the white spaces receiving the light transmit it to the retina.
Calcite is produced chiefly on the eastern coast, but its existence is reported in many places where the peculiar tenure of ground deters the farmer from attempting to better his property. The author heard of it on the slopes of the Esja and at Berufjörð. The principal mine is at Reyðarfjörð—not at Seyðisfjörð as generally asserted. The present contractor is a certain Hr Tullenius, who, by private arrangement, pays one-fourth to the Crown and three-fourths of the lease to the Church in the person of his father-in-law, pastor of the Hofs parish. His establishment is at Eskifjörð to the north-west of Reyðarfjörð, and he transports the material in winter by sledges to the coast where it is shipped direct for England.
The spar is taken from calcined basalt, apparently infiltrated there in small veins alternating with a green mineral supposed to be the plutonic stone transformed; the surface is often rough with a zeolitic or calcareous coat. Large pieces have been found: Paijkull mentions one in the Copenhagen museum which was bought for $400 and weighed 176 pounds. Till late years it was rare and expensive; the geological museum in Jermyn Street contained (1872) only a shabby little bit, and a certain professor bought for £6 what was worth £60. In these days Mr T. Tennant (naturalist, the Strand) and Mr J. Browning (optician, Strand and Minories) can produce hundreds of pounds lying useless. The smaller pieces now cost one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per pound. The best and most valuable specimens are the large prisms; the worst when cut show spotted surfaces or prove full of flaws running right through; some, like amber, contain red clay, drops of water, and other heterogeneous substances. They can be tested only by the electric light, and even that sometimes fails to detect faults which appear after working. A friend commissioned the author to bring home a large specimen, purchaseable after trial—he knew little of the islandry. It is dearer, as usual, in Iceland than in London: the people think that all the world wants their one popular mineral.
The following branches of industry still await development:
Iron-ore certainly exists, but it is hard to see, with the present scarcity of coal and wood, what use can be made of it: should peat companies prove a success, it may still appear in the market. Copper has been reported to occur in the jasper formation, and cupriferous specimens have, it is said, been brought to Reykjavik from the great Hrauns of the Skaptárjökull, the centre of supply being at the Blængr mountain in the Vestr Skaptár Sýsla. Professor Winkler of Munich found, on dit, quicksilver at Möðruvellir on the way to Akureyri. The Tindastóll Range, west of the Skagafjörð, has yielded galena embedded in amethyst-quartz: and we shall see silver glance. The cryolite, so abundant in Greenland,[241] is found here and in Norway: the late Mr Anderson met with large blocks, they say, at Vestdalr; and the Abbé Baudoin assured the author that he had seen it on the Seyðisfjörð, which opens to the north-east, near a stream north of, and about twenty minutes’ walk from, Vestdalr. There are large supplies of fine obsidian, jasper, zeolites, and chalcedonies.