Those countries which have a cool summer and a warm winter because they are near the ocean from which the prevailing wind blows, are said to have an oceanic climate. What is the difference between the average tem peratures in July and January in west Nor way? in east coast Siberia? in central Siberia? 410. The Icelanders.—The Icelanders, who are of Norwegian stock, have been on their island for over a thousand years. For a long time Iceland was a colony of Denmark, but now it is independent. The people are highly educated. It is said that people in Iceland buy, read, and write more thoughtful books than the same number of people anywhere else.
411. The Norwegian coast.—The coast of Norway resembles the coast of British Colum bia and Alaska in latitude, climate, and rough ness. The greater part of this coast once sank deep into the sea, and only the tops of the mountains remain above water. As the coast sank, the sea came in and filled up the valleys between the mountaintops, making deep bays, called fiords. Some of these fiords reach back a hundred miles from the seacoast. The shores rise steeply from the water's edge, leaving scarcely room enough for a house. Where there is a little flat place, you may see fishermen's houses, or here and there the home of a man who has a tiny farm. All the people of western Nor way live along this shore. In summer, many of them fish for herring or cod, or pasture animals on the mountain grasslands. In winter they cut timber on the forested hills. The Atlantic waters make Norway warm enough for forests on the lower slopes of the mountains, but Iceland, being nearer a cold current that creeps down the Green land coast, is so cool in summer that only dwarf trees will grow there.
412. The tip of Scotland and the islands near it were once forest covered, but long ago the forest was cut away to make room for pasture (Sec. 406).
413. Unused resources and The people on these scattered isles and shores have little room to raise more sheep and cattle unless they buy the feed for them, but they can catch more fish if the demand for sea food should increase.
This Northland is a poor place in which to start a new business, but since the Nor wegians are a nation of fishermen, and often buy ships with money they wish to invest, many thousand Norwegians are sailing on distant seas, carrying freight of foreign countries. Our bananas are often brought to the United States from Central America and the West Indies in Norwegian ships, manned by Norwegian sailors. With the money that her ships earn, Norway pays for many things she buys in other lands.
The American Consul at Kristiansund, Norway, said of his consular district: "These counties constitute the extreme southwestern corner of Norway and have a coast line more than 200 miles long. The land surface is a mass of solid rock. Small patches of soil have accumulated in narrow valleys and along the rivers, but only about one-half of one per cent of the total area is actually under cultivation, and the farm land, includ ing hay and meadow lands, constitutes only slightly more than two per cent of the total land area. The people live from the sea, as fishermen and sailors, and large shipping concerns have grown up in the coast towns, whose fleets trade on all the seven seas and whose vessels rarely see their home port." Iceland and west Norway have another resource. Much water power is furnished by the streams that tumble down from the snowfields on the highlands. Already there are many power plants in Norway (Fig. 405). Norwegian capitalists are planning to build a series of six water-power plants in Iceland, to yield more power per person for Iceland than we have developed per person in the United States in all our factories. It is possible that the Icelanders may use the electric current to make fer tilizer (nitrates), or to smelt ores, as the people of Norway do; or to run factories and live much as the people of New England do.