103 
etc. From the post-offices along these routes local posts are dispatched 
to the various districts with the mail. But during summer the horse- 
caravans are now rapidly being replaced by motor vehicles, which in 
the vicinity of Reykjavik and in the southern lowlands are frequently 
run all the year round. 
As coasting has improved, the inter-provincial mail is in an ever 
increasing degree being sent by sea to the various ports. The govern- 
ment coaster, as already mentioned, now makes 17 trips a year round 
the coasts (from the middle of February to the end of the year), and 
many steamers, plying between Iceland and foreign countries, regular- 
ly call at a number of ports to receive and deliver postal matter. But 
the mail connexion between the ports and the interior is still unsatis- 
factory, except where regular automobile service has been established. 
In 1928 there were in Iceland 477 post offices open. During that 
year 1339 thousand ordinary letters and postcards were dispatched; 
1001 thousand newspaper packets and other printed matter; and 91 
thousand other parcels. Furhermore, there were delivered 19 thousand 
money-letters, to the amount of 6.6 million krénur; 7 thousand re- 
gistered parcels, to a sum of 3.1 million krénur; 48 thousand trade 
charge money orders; and 73 thousand postal orders, to the total value 
of 9.6 million krénur. 
In 1906 a submarine cable was laid from the Shetland Isles, 
through the Faroes, to SeydisfjorBur on the east coast of Iceland. Det 
store nordiske Telegrafselskab (The Great Northern Telegraph Com- 
pany) in Denmark who laid the cable (with grants from the Icelandic 
and Danish treasuries) secured the sole right of operating it for twen- 
ty years. This privilege expired in 1926, but has now been extended 
for another -eight years, 
At the time when the cable was laid, there were no telegraphs or 
telephones in the country, except the Reykjavik local exchange and a 
line between Hafnarfjérdur and Reykjavik; but a telegraph line was 
constructed from SeydisfjérOur to Reykjavik, and telephone lines 
are steadily being added. All trunk lines are constructed by the 
State, the local lines partly at the expense of the districts con- 
cerned. The telegraph (excluding the submarine cable) and tele- 
phone services, interprovincial as well as local, are carried on by the 
State. On December 31st 1928 there were 260 ordinary telegraph 
stations and 6. wireless ones. The telegraphs and telephones had a 
total length of 3272 kilometres, the length of wires being 9738 kilo- 
metres; during that year a total of 266 thousand telegrams were dealt