After this date, and up to the beginning of the present century, the Danish Government worked the mines for their own account, at times, it appears, with considerable profit, until 1806, when they were again leased to a foreigner. Subsequently, they have at times been worked by private speculators up to 1851, since which date, as already mentioned, they have remained untouched.
In 1840 they were visited by some scientific travellers, who calculated that these northern mines might easily yield an annual net profit of £1000 or £1200. Ten years later they were specially examined by a Danish mineralogist, who discredited this statement, and reported them to be less valuable;[177] but in speaking of the Krisuvik mines in the south, he says, “These might be easily made to yield 200 tons annually,” and yet they have always been considered inferior to the northern mines. A French geologist, Eugène Robert, who visited Iceland in 1835, and afterwards published a treatise on its geology, calls the attention of the Danes to the value of the Myvatn mines, and advises them not to lease them to the Englishmen (who were then applying for them), as the property might become of great consequence in the event of the sulphur mines of Sicily falling off, of which, he affirmed, symptoms had shown themselves.
It will thus be seen that opinions are divided as to the productiveness and present richness of these mines; but so much is certain, that they have for several centuries been worked at intervals with varying results; at times with considerable profit: the history of the country, and the experience of so many years, point to the conclusion that, if properly worked, they would become valuable property.
The mines, for instance, at Reykjahlidar-námar are the richest to be found in all Iceland, and produce large quantities of the purest sulphur.
The reproduction is incessantly going on from upwards of a thousand small eminences, called solfataras, which are found on the ridge along the sides and at the foot of Námarfjall. Rich sulphur deposits are also found at the Ketill Crater (called Fremri-námar), while the least rich are the Krafla-námar, but at all these there is a continual deposition of sulphur going on. They all have the great advantage of lying in the track of one of the few practicable roads in the island, leading to an accessible shipping port.
SECTION IV.
Hôtel de la Ville (Au Troisième), Trieste,
16th February 1873.
The following are the notes which I made, for the use of Mr Lock, upon Mr Vincent’s able and instructive paper.
“Holding sulphur-export to be the most legitimate trade in which Iceland can engage, I rejoice to see the paper by Mr C. W. Vincent, F.C.E.
“The writer’s theory upon the formation of the mineral, by the by, the action of water upon pyrites, is not new, nor am I certain that it is true: perhaps it may be provisionally accepted, until we have a better. He has done good service to students by noticing the similarity of the Icelandic diggings with those of Central Sicily and of the Yellowstone River sources. On the other hand, after actual inspection of the Icelandic sulphur mines, I must differ upon many details with Mr Vincent, who has derived his information from hearsay. He nowhere notices the interesting combination of the Palagonitic groundwork of the island with lavas of modern date, which seems to me a constant feature of these solfataras. The venerable Sir Henry Holland recorded in 1810, that the Krísuvík formation occupied high ground ‘composed principally of the conglomerate or volcanic tufa which has before been noticed:’ this palpable reference to Palagonite has not been worked out as it deserved to be. The ‘vivid word-pictures’ of older travellers are either written in the fine style of former days, or the subjects of description have lost youth and vigour. The ‘tremendous proofs of what is going on beneath us’ are now, or have become, phenomena on a very mild scale; while the ‘thundering noises’ which ‘stunned the ears’ of a former generation, have learned to ‘roar gently,’ and to avoid shaking weak nerves.