The chief industrial works of Iceland are carving, spinning, and weaving. The long winter evenings give time for these, and the men are very clever with their fingers. A strong, useful kind of cloth called "vadmal" is made in the native looms. There are both steam and water power looms, but in the country the old hand-loom weavers may still be seen at work. The chief exports are ponies, fish, and butter, which last is made at the different district creameries, to which the farmers send their separated cream.

At every town or village by the sea the fishing industry is apparent. The chief catches are cod and halibut. These are taken in countless numbers, washed, dried, salted, stacked in heaps by the shore, and mostly exported to Spain, though a certain amount is consumed in the country. It is funny to see the fish-women at work. You can often watch them, some dozen or more, at a large tank close by the sea; they have strong waterproof aprons, and long, thick woollen mitts or gloves, and they wash and scrape and salt the great flat split fish day after day. All the shore is white with rows of the fish drying before it is stacked or sent away. The fishermen go out in spring, like our own; the sea and weather are often very rough, and many poor fellows have been lost at sea.