Thus, in the first place, the “Althing” begs that the Government of His Majesty shall not accept Mr Lock’s offer to take lease of the sulphur mines in the north, but, on the contrary, refuse altogether to lease them out for the present; and in case His Majesty’s Government should not think fit to follow this advice, the “Althing,” in the second place, begs that the concession, if granted at all, may be made dependent on such conditions as are specified in the above report under heads 1 to 8.
The only difference between the conditions contained in the Report of the Committee and those in the petition of the “Althing” is: that under head 5 is added a clause to the effect that the lease-holder, besides the yearly rent, shall pay £10 a year to the clergyman of “Myvatns-thing” (or district of Myvatn).[205]
SECTION VI.
Sulphur in Sicily.
The kindness of Mr Consul Dennis of Palermo enables me to offer the following sketch of sulphur in Sicily.
Sulphur, it is well known, forms the most important branch of Sicilian commerce and exportation. Found, as in Iceland, in the blue marl which covers the central and the southern parts of the island, its area extends over 2600 square miles; fresh mines are always being discovered, and there is no symptom of exhaustion. In 1864 Sicily worked about 150 distinct diggings, whose annual yield exceeded 150,000 tons; in 1872 these figures rose to 550 and nearly 2,000,000 of quintals, or cantars. The latter contains 100 rotoli (each 0·7934 kilogrammes = 1¾ lb. Eng. avoir.), or 79·342 kilogrammes = 175 lbs. Eng. avoir. The richest in 1864 were those of Gallizze, Sommatine, and Favara: their respective yearly production showed 100,000, 80,000, and 60,000 quintals.
“The visitor to a sulphur mine,” says Mr Goodwin, late H.M.’s Consul, Palermo, “usually descends by a plane or staircase of high inclination to the first level, where he finds the half-naked miner picking sulphur from the rock with a huge and heavy tool; boys gathering the lumps together, and carrying them to the surface; and if water be there, the pump-men at work draining the mine. A similar scene meets his eye in the lower or second level. Above ground the sulphur is heaped up in piles, or fusing in kilns.” This passage well shows the superior facility of collecting sulphur in Iceland, where it lies in profusion upon the surface.
The ore thus obtained by fusion, after hardening into cakes, is carried to the coast by mules and asses, or by carts where there are roads. When the new network of railways covers the island, of course there will be greater facility for transport, but the expense will increase with equal proportion.
The number of hands in 1844 was estimated at 4400—i.e., 1300 pick-men, 2600 boys, 300 burners, and 200 clerks and others, to whom must be added 2600 carters, and 1000 wharfingers, raising the total to 8000, out of a population (January 1, 1862) of 2,391,802, inhabiting an area of 10,556 square miles.
The following translation, or rather an abbreviation of an article, “Lo Zolfo,” in the journal Il Commercio Siciliano (March 4, 1873), gives the latest statistics: