Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland. vol. 2/2

by Sir Richard Francis Burton

“The mineral wealth of Iceland has only begun to be developed. In no part of the world is sulphur found in such abundance.”

An adequate idea of the value of the Icelandic sulphur fields, as compared with those of Italy, cannot be conveyed by the reports of travellers. To thoroughly comprehend this, we must bear in mind the reproductive properties displayed by solfataras, and the best means suggested by practice to extract the sulphur and yet not interfere with this peculiarity.

The process for the separation of the sulphur at the celebrated solfatara of Pozzuoli, near Naples, where the sulphur is condensed in considerable quantities amongst the gravel collected in the circle which forms the interior of the crater, is conducted as follows: The mixture of sulphur and gravel is dug up and submitted to distillation to extract the sulphur, and the gravel is returned to its original place, and in the course of about THIRTY years is again so rich in sulphur, as to serve for the same process again.[197]

We thus see that the reproductive process occupies a period of THIRTY years in the Italian mines, whereas the same results are produced in THREE years in the Icelandic mines, i.e., that a given area in Iceland will produce ten times the quantity of sulphur, or is ten times as valuable, as the same area in Italy.

“The permanency of the volcano, as a source of sulphur, would depend on the rapidity with which the sulphur would be replaced, after the sand had been once exhausted. The time required for this is not necessarily fixed to periods of twenty-five or thirty years. In Iceland, at a similar spot the sulphur is renewed every two or three years.”[198]

The nearest port suitable for shipment of the sulphur is “Húsavík,” situate in the Bay of Skjálfandi; it is perfectly accessible at all times of the year. Mr Consul Crowe having been questioned on the subject, states[199] that:

“The Icelandic ports are, owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, in ordinary years accessible to shipping all the year round, and shipments can safely be made during seven months at ordinary rates of freight and insurance. Húsavík, as a rule, is never frozen up, the only impediment to free navigation being the floating ice which at certain seasons is loosened from Greenland, and may for a time lie off the coast. Such occurrences, however, have their stated times and seasons, which are well known to navigators in those waters; in some years there are no hindrances of the kind at all, and shipments in good vessels may be made all the year round. In support of this statement, I may mention the fact that steamers leave Copenhagen for Iceland as late as the middle or end of October, and would do so later were there sufficient goods or passengers to make them pay. Again, the Iceland ‘Althing’ have recently proposed to raise funds for running steamers round the island ‘all the year,’ and thus supply the want of internal communication; and, if the proposal fell through, it was only on financial grounds, and not from inaccessibility of ports from ice. I am therefore simply repeating facts in stating that, as a rule, Iceland navigation is free all the year round. The island is but a two days’ journey from Scotland, and with suitable vessels an almost uninterrupted intercourse might, in ordinary seasons, be kept up. In further confirmation of what I have stated, I may add that this same warm current from the Mexican Gulf, which is so beneficial to Iceland, keeps also all the Norway ports, from the Naze to the North Cape, ice-free all the year round.”

The road from Hafnarfjörðr to Krísuvík will certainly be improved by the formation of a railway.

It has been said by Professor Paijkull that this road is one of seven or eight hours’ journey.

“This road is one of the best in Iceland. The ‘heiði’ south of Húsavik is free from stones, and is level, although only sparsely overgrown with grass. Neither are there any hills or fjelds to be met with along it, and there are only a few small streams to be crossed. The last few miles north of Myvatn certainly consist of a sandy plain, but it is tolerably level, and the road is pretty good, owing, I suppose, to the sulphur traffic from the solfataras, near Myvatn, to Húsavik, in former days, in which 100 horses are said to have been employed at one time.”[200]