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Feather.

More people live

in the city of Tampa,

Florida, than

on the entire

island of Iceland.

Divers have found clams

nearly 400 years old off

the coast of this country.

Ravens are

admired here

for their

intelligence.

Fermented shark

is the national dish.

Iceland is slightly smaller

than the state of Kentucky.

The colors

in the flag

represent

natural

elements

on the island:

red for

volcanic fires,

white for ice

fields, and

blue for

the ocean.

The glowing

northern lights

(also known as

the aurora borealis)

are visible for more

than 8 months of

the year here.

An elevator

will drop you

400 feet into the

Þríhnúkagígur

(pronounced

thrih-NUHK-ah-gig-ur)

volcano, the only

place in the world

where you can

enter a magma

chamber.

Arctic foxes were

the only native land

mammals in Iceland

when it was first settled.

Appelsinusafi

means “orange juice”

in Icelandic.

The Icelandic sheepdog

is known as the “Dog of

the Vikings” because

these early explorers

brought the breed over

from Norway.

Some 800,000 sheep

live in Iceland—twice

the number of people

who live there.

Thousands of

crystal-blue ice

caves form every

winter in

Vatnajökull

National Park,

where characters

from Explorer

Academy: The

Falcon’s Feather

are virtually

transported

during a training

mission in the

CAVE (Computer

Animated Virtual

Experience).

Iceland

has no

native

reptiles or

amphibians.

Iceland’s nickname,

the Land of Fire and Ice,

refers to the island’s many

ice caps (a thick layer of ice

on land) and volcanoes.

Iceland

BY KAY BOATNER

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