Good roads . nduring, sure-footed little ponies, but in winterpartly on foot. There are no roads in the civilized sense of the word, andconsequently nothing on wheels. During the last few yearsthe Althing, or Parliament, has voted a sum of money(liberal for a poor country like Iceland) for road such is the administration of Iceland, that, though theyprocured a capable civil engineer from Norway ( after havingwasted a lot of money by putting the work into the hands of anIcelander, utterly ignorant and incapable, who himself hadnever been out of Iceland, and, therefore, had never seen
Good roads . nduring, sure-footed little ponies, but in winterpartly on foot. There are no roads in the civilized sense of the word, andconsequently nothing on wheels. During the last few yearsthe Althing, or Parliament, has voted a sum of money(liberal for a poor country like Iceland) for road such is the administration of Iceland, that, though theyprocured a capable civil engineer from Norway ( after havingwasted a lot of money by putting the work into the hands of anIcelander, utterly ignorant and incapable, who himself hadnever been out of Iceland, and, therefore, had never seen aninch of properly made road in his life), the roads were madethe same width as the pony tracks were before — just wideenough for two bagget ponies to pass each other, instead ofmaking carriage roads, which, though somewhat more expen-sive at first, would have been infinitely cheaper in the end —indeed, they would have paid and repaid for themselves, not tospeak of the comfort to men and beasts. Residence of the High Priest at Thingralla, Iceland. The want of carriage roads and bridges over the many largeand dangerous rivers, entirely prevents all improvement of thecountry. Iceland has many resources which might be devel-oped if not hampered by this terrible want of conveyance. There is no manufactory of any sort in the country, and yetthe Icelandic wool is considered the best in the world andought to be manufactured at home. The wool is exported raw, with the exception of what isneeded for home use. Every woolen garment woven in thecountry is spun, woven and knitted by hand during the winter. These home-industries have been of late years exhibitedin England, and at the Worlds Fair, and have received thehighest possible awards at each of the last four great exhibi-tions. Fishing and sheep farming are the principal industries ofthe country. Of late years, England and Scotland have opened up tradewith Iceland, which has been of great benefit to the and
Size: 1876px × 1331px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectroads, bookyear1892
