CURRENT LITERATURE.
G IFT-BOOKS.
Icelandic Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil. By Frederic W. W. Howell. (Religious Tract Soeiety.)—This is a capital volume in a series which has never failed to maintain a high standard of merit, both literary and artistic. Mr. Howell begins with a sum- mary of Icelandic history, dwelling more at length upon the settle• ment of the island and its early annals. Mr. Howell is a little narrow here in his judgment of Icelandic Christianity. He does not find the phrases that he wants in its documents, and is ac- cordingly ill-content. It is in keeping with this, that he stigma- tises the traditionary vestment of the Lutheran priest as " gaudy," and less suitable to the Gospel than a black gown and white ruff. On his way, the traveller stopped at the Faroe Islands. Here he found a fine race, recalling more effectively the Viking look and figure than either Norwegians or Icelanders commonly do. Iceland itself he describes in some highly interesting chapters. His own motive in visiting the island was, in the first place, the ambition of a mountaineer. This was gratified by the ascent of more than one before-unconquered peak. He gives us a par- ticularly graphic account of his climb to the summit of the Grade, Jokull. The height is not more than G,400 ft. ; but this altitude means a good deal in Iceland. Nor is the height the most for- midable feature of the mountain. Hokin he visited, of course; but explains that neither in grandeur nor in destructive energy is it equal to other Icelandic volcanoes, but that it owes its fame to its proximity to cultivated districts. The Geysir is another of the famous sights which he describes. There has been, we are
told, a very marked diminution in its activity since the beginning of the century. Domestic life in the island is pictured in colours that are generally attractive. Some kind of apology even for the climate is suggested by Mr. Howell's liking for the place. The cold is not excessive,—indeed, is far surpassed by that which is experienced in Canada ; but the wind often makes it unbearable. Probably Canada, with the Icelandic allowance of wind, would be uninhabitable. It is doubtful whether Iceland will be occupied by man for as many more hundreds of years as it has already been.
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