[161] Pronounce but do not indite “Krabla”—there is no such written word as Krabla. The Dictionary gives “að krafla,” to paw or “scrabble;” it also means to scratch, and perhaps the obtuse agricultural mind has connected this pastime with the evil for which sulphur is a panacea.

[162] Some travellers call them Makkaluber, and Icelanders write “Makalupe,” a corruption of Macaluba, famed for air volcanoes, near Girgenti, itself a corruption of the Arabic “Maklúb.”

[163] The docks of Southampton, built where he sat, have somewhat stultified the simple wisdom of the old man.

[164] Thus in the Dictionary. Baring-Gould (p. 429), or possibly his printer, calls it Vell-humall, which would be “gold hop.”

[165] In 1776 Professor Henchel found it “about 200 paces in diameter.” (See Appendix, “Sulphur in Iceland,” Section I.)

[166] The lay and the succession of the strata so much resembled those quoted in Mr Vincent’s paper that they need not be repeated here.

[167] As has been seen, I would considerably reduce these figures.

[168] This “banquise,” as the French call it, is said to form a compact belt extended thirty miles from shore in the Skjálfandifjörð.

[169] It was there found by the late Sir Henry Holland; Dolomieu had some specimens, but he did not know whence they came.

[170] The Dictionary gives Lá, surf, shallow water along shore; and hair (Lanugo). I found it extensively used to signify a low place where water sinks, the Arab’s “Ghadir.”

[171] Depill is a spot or dot; a dog with spots over the eyes, according to the Dictionary, is also called “Depill.” Cleasby translates Stein-delfr (mod. Stein-depill) by wagtail, Motacilla.

[172] Thverá, the “thwart-water,” from Thver, Germ. Quer, and Eng. Queer, is generally translated Crooked River, Rivière à travers: the term is often applied to a tributary which strikes the main stream at a right angle.

[173] Aðalból is a manor-house, a farm inhabited by its master, opposed to a tenant farm.

[174] From the verb Kreppa, to cramp, clench. The map gives the name to the eastern headwaters of the Jökulsá, rising from the Kverk.

[175] The experiments of M. J. M. Ziegler of Winterthür show the drying power of ice; a difference of 32° per cent. humidity in the glacier air and in the air of the adjacent plain.

[176] Thus in the dictionaries; but it seems to have another sense in popular language.

[177] In Chapter XIV. I have given the reasons why the Mý-vatn mines were not recommended by the Danish engineers.—R. F. B.

[178] Jukes and Geikie, Manual of Geology, 3d edition, p. 55.

[179] Liebig’s Familiar Letters on Chemistry, p. 152.

[180] Ure’s Dict., vol. ii., p. 432.

[181] Simmond’s Dictionary of Trade Products, p. 367; Muspratt’s Chemistry, vol. i., p. 320.

[182] Liebig’s Letters, p. 149.

[183] Simmond’s Dictionary of Trade Products, p. 351.

[184] See Exports for 1872.

[185] Liebig’s Familiar Letters on Chemistry, p. 150.

[186] See Smee’s My Garden.

[187] Richardson and Watts’ Chem. Tech., 2d edit., 1863, vol. i., part iii., pp. 2 and 3. This old calcarelle furnace has been greatly improved. It must not be described as a “blast-furnace.”

[188] Simmond’s Dict. Trade Products, 1863, art. “Sulphur.”

[189] Quoted in extenso, Appendix, Section III.

[190] Henderson’s Iceland, 1818, Introduction, p. 4.

[191] Ibid., p. 7.

[192] Ibid., vol. i., p. 160.

[193] Ibid., p. 176.

[194] Henderson’s Iceland, 1818, vol. i., pp. 166, 167, 170, 171, 173, 174, 177.

[195] S. Baring-Gould’s Iceland, 1863.

[196] Shepherd’s North-West Peninsula of Iceland, 1867, p. 157.

[197] Ure’s Dict. of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 1860, vol. iii., p. 830.

[198] Dr F. J. Mouat’s Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islanders, 1863, p. 169.

[199] Letter of A. de C. Crowe, Esq., 27th June 1872.

[200] Paijkull, pp. 217, 244, 245, 246, 247.

[201] These two items are calculated at excessive and extravagant rates. The first item (15s. per ton) was supplied by an eminent shipowner, and the amount of freight is also overstated.

[202] A certain Hr “Thorlákur O. Johnsen,” whom I met in Iceland, wrote to the Standard (Nov. 16, 1872), and asserted my “entire ignorance” concerning Iceland generally, and the relationship between Denmark and Iceland in particular. What his ignorance, or rather dishonesty, must be, is evident when he states a little further on: “As to the so-called wisdom of the Danish Government in leasing the mines to strangers, there can be only one reply, that all the mines in Iceland, whether of sulphur or other minerals, belong to Iceland and not to Denmark.”—R. F. B.

[203] I presume this to be a clerical error for “Hlíðarnámar” (Ledge-springs).

[204] The words in italics show the good old Æsopian policy, “dog in the manger” redivivus. The Icelandic “hand,” when not superintended by foreigners, is idle and incurious as the native of Unyamwezi: he will not work, and the work must not be done for him by strangers! In the Journal I have suggested employment of the natives, who might learn industry by good example and discipline.—R. F. B.

[205] The words in italics show the “narrowness of the insular mind:” the idea of £10 per annum being an item of any importance in the extensive operations which would be required to make these sulphur diggings pay!—R. F. B.

[206] Iceland is here ignored, perhaps from the jealousy which foresees a fortunate rival.

[207] These immense fluctuations in the market are probably caused by the Phylloxera vastatrix now devastating the Continent. Trieste alone, for instance, has of late years imported as much as twenty cargoes of 200 tons each (a total of 4000) per annum; and the unground sulphur sells at about £7, 10s. per ton as in England. The spread of the disease is likely to cause an increased demand.

[208] In 1864, according to Mr Consul Dennis, the author of Murray’s “Hand-book of Sicily,” the two most important mines of Girgenti were “La Crocella” and “Maudarazzi” near Comitine, belonging to Don Ignazio Genusardi. They yielded annually 140,000 quintals = 10,937½ tons, worth about £70,000, and gave constant employment to 700 hands (chiefly from the opposite town of Arragona), at the daily cost of about £60. The produce was shipped at the Mole of Girgenti, and the road was thronged day and night at certain seasons with loaded carts and beasts of burden, chiefly mules.

Caltanissetta, Serra di Falco, on Monte Carano, and St Cutaldo are villages in the heart of the sulphur district. “The scenery is wild and stern. The mountains are of rounded forms, always bare, here craggy, there browned with scorched herbage, and in parts tinged with red, yellow, and grey, by the heaps of ore and dross at the mouths. Corn will not thrive in the fumes of sulphur; what little cultivation is to be seen is generally in the bottoms of the valleys. The hills around St Cutaldo are burrowed with sulphur mines.”

[209] In a recent report to the Italian Government, Sig. Parodi estimates that Sicilian sulphur will be exhausted in fifty to sixty years.

[210] Each ballata weighs 70 rotoli = 122½ lbs. avoir., and two are a mule-load.

[211] On the northern flank of the range, which, running from north-north-east to south-south-west, nearly bisects the island. It is a mean town in the mountains. Licata, the southern port, is nearest to the central mines.

[212] Her chief exports are fruit, oil, and silk.

[213] “Trust” seems to be the beau ideal of trade where it has not been tried. I have seen its workings in Africa and in Iceland, and my experience is that it is a pis aller which gives more trouble than it is worth.

[214] Here it is not stated whether paper or specie “lire” are meant.

[215] It would be better to state that sulphur costing above £5 per ton cannot at present compete with pyrites; sold below that price it would soon drive its rival out of the market.

[216] “Brimstone” in the Mining Journal (September 19, 1874) made England import in 1872 a total of 50,049 tons (= £336,216), but in 1873 only 45,467 tons (= £299,727).

[217] Büdös is elsewhere described as a pointed cone of trachyte 3745 feet high, a solfatara or volcano, which, though never in actual eruption, incessantly pours forth streams of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and these act as vents for the forces generated in the depths of the earth.

[218] The following is the analysis of the aluminous earth near Büdös: