sentences:  The only studied mathematician in Iceland in the 19th century, Björn was isolated from the academic community in Europe, and the intellectual environment made him turn to the didactics and the applications of mathematics, and also to philosophy.In August 1829, Björn, who had done in the early 1820s cartographic work under the direction of Heinrich Christian Schumacher at Altona, proposed to the Danish government to undertake a land survey of Iceland, and asked for the instruments used by the Danish Navy in their earlier coastal surveys to be sent to Iceland.His request was ignored at first.