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This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: ALPINE CLUB TITLE: PEAKS, PASSES AND GLACIERS PLACE: LONDON DA TE : 1862 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT RTRTTOCRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Master Negative # Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record Restrictions on Use: |A16 LJt ■' ■'-^■'- '— 'YVXQJ r)ii)Sl -J r TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE:__3iL__J^I>ss._ REDUCTION RATIO: LL_>C. IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA (U^ IB IIB DATE FILMED:_JL->lr!!_^Ji INITIALS tl-L HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODBRIDGE. CT r Association for information and Image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 iiiiiiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiilii TTT lllllllllllllllllllll Inches TTT m 7 8 9 10 11 |||||||l||lll llllllllllll[llllllllMlllllllllllllllilll 1 I 1.0 I.I 1.25 TTT m 12.8 2.5 Ih |5j6 3.2 2.2 !r IP-* s 1^ 2.0 i& U- u Bl&u 1.8 1.4 1.6 12 13 14 15 mm iiliiiilimliinliiiiliiiiliiiil TTT T 1 MflNUFRCTURED TO flllM STfiNOnRDS BY APPLIED IMAGE, INC. I I w y!s - i* .♦f. f. ■«4,J^ ,^ '•j>j .-■%, I). ■ ■ 1 1 1 vi^Wf--' Columbia ^ibmiit ■»9ttt^fW» «^!iMBi' ^^^ LIBRARY JSl!^ ;:-p: PEAKS, PASSES, AND GLACIERS. SECOND SERIES. VOL. I. ] ECHER.O.T..ErRO.CHER.O.T..ET0AB .,,3 Fowell Buxton, Bart. M.A. • • ^^^^ to Pberayen. , THECO.I>E..RE.SBX,E.'AROL...BO.CHERMO.X.^. . . . . 287 By F. P. Tuckett, F.R.G.S. • • ^ ^^ „p^^^„. By Frederick S. THE CO. .E .. V..rE.U.E PRO. PKERXYE. to ZERM.TT y ^^ Wrilliara Jacorab CHAPTER V. .^ n, APTPRS OF THE MO>'TB ROSA THE PEAKS, PASSES. ANI>^^L^«^^ novTTTTORN By Edward Schweitzer . • 1 THE ASCEST op THE BREITHOBN. «y TheColdeLys. By William Mathews, Jun.,M.A. . ^ • ..«TTBKAM3i. By John Frederick Hardy, B.D. . 1 TWF \3CENT OP THE LYSKAMai. x.jr , ,, A T.MKvrx By William Mathews, Jun.,M.A. . • 4. Ttiv Col DE3 .luMEvrx. dj' " » 4. THE COL ,, ^^E^p By Edward N. Buxton . • 5. thbA9CESTOPTHE>ordEsd. »y CHAPTER VI. THE NORIC ALPS. » . T,c Kv William Brinton, M.D. • • • " 1 The GER31AS Alps. Bywunaiu^ ^ • .^„ m T) /^ -.aaPTorKNEB By WUliam Bnnton, M.U .> THE A8CBST OP THE GR083 GLOCKKEB. l^y 343 359 , 383 . 397 . 412 .425 . 429 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIKST VOLUME. -•o^ MAPS. 1. South-Eastern part of Iceland (f/ott6?^') to face page 3 2. Tlic Pizzo Bcrnina „ 131 3. The District between Mont Blanc and the Col du Bonhomme „ 189 4. The High Level Route from Chamounix to Zermatt . . „ 227 5. „ M • • M 2/3 C. „ t, , , „ 306 7. The Monte Rosa District {double) „ 343 8. The Gross Glockner and its vicinity {double) .... „ 425 . \\ OODCUTS. PAGS 1. Icicle Crevasse, from a sketch by E. S. Kennedy . . Frontispiece. 2. The Raud-holt, Iceland, from a sketch by E. T. Holland .... 27 3. The Oroefa JokuU, Iceland, from the plateau above Knappa-vellir, from a sketch by E. T. Holland 50 4. The Oroefa Jokull, from Reyni-vellir, from a sketch by E. T. Holland . . 67 5. The Kl^fr at Bru, Iceland, from a sketch by E. T. Holland .... 86 6. Herdu-breid, from Krabla, Iceland, from a sketch by E. T. Holland . . 96 7. Hver-fjall, from a sketch by E. T. Holland 102 8. The Lava-field of Surts-Hellir, from a sketch by Capt. C. Campbell . . 110 9. Entrance to the Second Portion of Surts-Hellir, from a sketch by Capt. C.Campbell Ui 10. The Lang Jokull, Iceland, from a sketch by Capt. C. Campbell . to face 115 11. View from Boval, looking South, from a sketch by E. S. Kennedy . . 15& I XIV T2. 13. 1-1. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 21. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAOE 211 „.U.,e.Ue.,..>orU.C„.aeMia..,U.K.K.™ . • • ■ ^ CO, a. So„aa„„, rrou. . »Ke.ch U. F. W, Ja on>b ^ • • ; ^ .-. t- tVio Tinrd from a skeicu uj r- ^'.""^ Natural Pillars on the Gorge ..t the Uard, „^ or the Va.pem„e, r,.» a sketch b. Ed«a«. my»pe. ^ • • The Matterho™, fro™ .he Co, de la De„t Blanche, fro. a sUtch by F. F. ^^ Tuckett .•••■*■* , ^ 1 1 ,. 1.^ V * t f v.« *itfvckhi from a sketch bj r. i*- ThcMatterhorn.fromthesmmuitof theSto(.kUi,ir ^^^ Tmkett .••••''*' . . ...^ TheL.U.„.M..m«vc».nc..t.acan,.V.,n,askc.chhy^V.Mathe.vM«». -^ The L;»ka,«„,.fro,n.hcGor„er..«t, from aphot„K,a.U . • <-/- •' Mo„tcK«sa,frou,theGor„cr*n..,rro,naph„t.«r.„h. . •'"■'^- The Gross Glock„cr.fn,.n a sketch by William Brm.o„.M.D. ' ' " ^ The Chamois, from a »ketch by William Hrinton,M.D *^:fc Map of "tlie SOUTH EAST PART of I C E L A N D 10 20 30 lalaitdic MilfS 4€ 50 —I »- 20 15 CB.^^*^ r.^^tnumn"^ ICELAND EdwfWerLer. London,; Lorufman Se Co. Map SOUTH EAST PART of I C E L A N D MT EoUtindXi Moute, English Mile* 1 -vO V- lO 20 30 lalandic Mili-s 40 30 JO 15 "MVirtfr. Vtjtmann'''^ 'Yaxna Jdlroll >k^ %1\ ICELAND £dw4"WeUer^ London.; LorufmoTV Se Cc. •mm-mmmm ^m ' COL. COLL. library: N.YOKli. \ CHAPTEK I. A TOFE m ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 18G1. By E. T. Holland, B.A. 1. FROM SCOTLAND TO REYKJA-VIK, AND THENCE TO RAUDNEF-STADR. The screw steamer Arctunis, carrying the English and Danish mails, makes five or six voyages every year between Copenhagen and Eeykja-vik, the capital of Iceland. On her way she touches at Grangemouth in the Firth of Forth; and at that place I, in company with my friends Messrs. Bond, Donaldson, and Shepherd, embarked on board of her on Thursday, the 18th July, 1861. The same evening she weighed anchor, and we started for Iceland. On the morning of Sunday, the 21st, we reached Thorshaven, the chief town of Strom-oe, the largest of the Far-oes ; and on the 22nd, the daylight of a northern mid- night found us nearly out of sight of these islands, steering a N.W. course. On the morning of the 24th we sighted the white summit of the Oroefa Jokull, gleaming in the sun, and though some sixty miles away, looking not one half that distance from us. Then, as we steamed along, the round tops of the Myrdals, and Eya-fjalla Jokulls came into view. As we neared the coast, we came abreast of an extensive flat spit of volcanic sand, thrown out for several B 2 y 4 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. xniles into the sea by the Kotlu-gja during it. recent eruption in 1860. Beyond this we pa^ed withm a mile or two of the fine natural arch at Portland Head ; and in the afternoon, the weather being very calm, steamed through the rocky group of Westmann Islands, and dropped the mails (consisting of two or three letters and a newspaper) into a boat, which put out for them from Heima-ey, the largest of the group. Early the next morning we were off the low lava rocks of Cape Reykja-nes, battling with a heavy head-wind; and about 2 p.m. on that day we ca^t anchor in the Bay of Reykja-vik, under the lee of the Esja mountains. Not far from us two French men-of-war were lying at anchor. They had come to look after the French fishermen, who, every year, resort to the Icelandic fishing-grounds in great numbers. We had plenty to do the next day in making the necessary preparations for our journey into the country. Guides had to be engaged, ponies to be bought and shod, and saddles to be procured, some on hire, and some by purchase, and when procured to be patched, and mended, and stuffed. Bridles, halters, girths, hobbles, had to be obtained ; and not lea^t, though last, Icelandic travelling- boxes. These are small, but awkward and weighty wooden chests, which are used by the people of Iceland for carrying their luggage when they are traveUing, and which, when they are tt home, ordinarily serve the double purpose of family wardrobes and seats. A baggage-horse carries a pair of these boxes, one slung on each side of him, suspended by nooses of rope, or iron rings, to two cum- brous wooden straddles, or bearers, that arch over his back ; these straddles form the most important part of an Icelandic saddle. The rest of it consists* merely of two large flat pads, which serve to protect the horse's flanks from being rubbed by the straddles or his load. In the WE START FROM REYKJA-VIK. « common saddles these pads are made of two or three thick layers of turf, kept in their proper place only by the grip of the straddles and the girths ; in the better kinds they are made of leather, stuffed with either hair or grass. So long as these saddles are in use, the Icelandic boxes, cumbersome and inconvenient as they are, are the only contrivances that can withstand the wear and tear of an Icelandic journey. Our preparations were not all completed until the after- noon of the next day (July 27th), but at 3 p.m. on that day we effected a start for Thing-vellir. We had with us two guides, and our cavalcade, which consisted of no less than seventeen horses, must have had rather an imposing appearance in the eyes of the small boys, who watched us as we rode out of the town. The country between Reykja-vik and the Geysirs, and indeed the whole of that district which lies to the south- west of Hekla, has been so often described by travellers that I shall only take a passing glance at it, and refer those who wish to know more about it to the descriptions given by Henderson, Lord Dufferin, Captain Forbes, and others. The first part of the road to Thing-vellir, after leaving the stony ground and turf bogs that surround Reykja-vik on the inland side, is pretty. On the north, you see the bold Esja mountains, looking blue in the distance — and the colouring of an Icelandic distance is remarkably soft and liquid — below them, and nearer to you, lie the bright island-spangled bays and coves of Faxa-:Qordr, of which you get many a passing glimpse ; while towards the south a broad stretch of moorland is bounded by the serrated ridge of hills, which extends from Hengil, near Thing- valla Vatn (the lake of Thing-valla), to the Krisu-vik district. As you leave these scenes behind, the road skirts the shores of one or two small lakes ; near which are several scattered '^ 6 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. farms, with their gra^s green tuns (enclosures); but after a few hours' ride, you pass the last of these, and find yourself upon Mosfells-heidi,-a dreary stretch of moorland and stony waste,-which only affords enough gra^s to serve as a poor sheep-run for the neighbouring farms. The heidi (a word which is used, not so much to designate a heath, as an upland with scanty pasturage, or altogether barren,) rises for several miles in a gradual ascent towards the east. Then Bs you approach Thing-valla Vatn, it falls rather ab- ruptly, until you reach a level field of lava, which extends along the shores of the lake. On the northern side of this lake°a vast portion of the lava field has, in some former age, given way, and sunk bodily towards the lake,, forming the celebrated Thing-vellir (Valley of Assembly). In this valley, for several hundred years before the first part of this century, the Icelandic Althing, or ParUament, used to meet in the open air, not only as a deliberative, but also an executive, assembly. For this reason greater historical interest attaches to Thing-vellir than to any other place in the island. Here it was, that the laws of the Icelanders, whilst yet a free people, were made and executed; here, that justice was administered, and punishments inflicted ; and here too, centuries ago, it was enacted that Iceland should be no more a pagan, but a Christian, country. The valley is about five miles long by four or five miles broad : it is bounded on each side by a long deep rift or gjd in the lava, marking the line of separation, where in its subsidence the lower plain split away from the lava fields above it. The whole of the valley sank down en masse^ and now lies at a level of more than a hundred feet lower than the sur- rounding plain. The reason of this sudden subsidence is, I believe, still a disputed question amongst geologists. Some attribute it to a fresh flow of lava over the surface of a more ancient and cavernous lava field, having by its THE ALMANNA-GJA. T weight caused the first lava surface to sink from its original elevation. Others assert (with, as it seems to me, greater probability of truth) that there has been only one flow of lava, and that the subsidence was caused by the exposed crust having cooled and hardened before the depths below became solidified, and whilst the liquid stream beneath continued to flow on : the surface lava having thus lost its support, cracked and fell in, as we see ice do, when the water beneath has ceased to support it. The track from Eeykja-vik leads down into the most westerly and largest of these rifts, the Almanna-gj^ (All- mans-rift), by a steep rocky defile which opens suddenly in the road. This we reached about 1.30 a.m., and de- scending it, rode for a few minutes along the flat grassy bottom of the Almanna-gj^, between high precipitous walls of lava, until we came to a breach in the wall on our right. Through this we passed, and riding down a green slope found ourselves at once on the banks of the river Oxera, near to the north-west corner of Thing-valla Vatn. Here, after unloading our horses, and turning them loose to graze, we pitched our tent ; and were soon in a happy state of unconsciousness of the chilling storm of wind and rain without, which for the last few hours had made our ride very uncomfortable. August 2Sth.—We obtained supplies of butter and milk for breakfast from the priest, whose house stood near the Church, on the east bank of the river, opposite to our camp. At this place two of the three great highways to the north are united, and his reverence keeps a sort of hostelry, which must considerably add to his annual stipend. The clergymen of Iceland are seldom rich. They receive a small amount every year from tithes ; but the chief part of their income is derived from the produce of the farms at- 8 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SCMMEB OF 1861. tached to their livings, which in most ca^es brings them in a very poor pittance. The Althing (Place of Assembly), the spot where the national assembly used to meet, is not more than a few hundred yards from the Church: it is merely a grassy peninsula of somewhat rising ground in the lava plaan which surrounds it; from this plain it is cut off on every side, except the south, by deep chasms in the lava, of un- known depth, their bottoms full of clear still blue water. On the south, the Althing is connected with the sur- rounding plain by a narrow causeway, which lies -be- tween two of these chasms. It was a noble meeting- place for the parliament of a free people : close at hand lay that once molten lava stream, gashed by those awful chasms, imparting a character of stern savageness to the scene, and calUng forth all the severe and unyielding energies of the lawgivers ; while the blue hills at the head of th^'e valley and the island-studded lake at its foot, shed over it a calm and gentle softness, humanising the hearts and appealing to the pity of the assembled multitudes. After having explored the classic ground of Thing- vellir and the Oxera, we proceeded in the afternoon to Laugar-dalr (Hot-spring-dale). Crossing the plain of Thincr-vellir, which is transected by numerous longitu- dinal crevasses in the lava, and covered in almost every part with low brushwood of birch and dwarf-willow, and plants of bla-berry and lyng-berry, we reached, after some four miles' ride, the Hrafna-gj^ (Raven's-rift). This, like its sister-rift, the Almanna-gja, forms a conspicuous object from every part of the plain, looking in the distance like a long dark line drawn across it. It is neither so deep nor so regular as the Almanna-gjd, but its higher side, although not a precipitous wall, was yet steep enough to oblige us to dismount and lead our horses up it. After THE ROAD TO THE GEYSIRS. # leaving Thing-vellir, our road lay for the rest of the day beneath a high range of tuff mountains that rose steeply on our left. The route, for the most part, was over a mere desert of scoriae and blocks of tuff, until we came into sight of the lake of Laugar-dak, lying in the middle of an extensive flat plain, which appears to be very fertile. From the surface of the lake, three or four columns of steam, indicating the presence of hot-springs, rose high and straight into the clear air. July 29th. — We reached the Greysirs at 3.30 p.m., having left Laugar-dalr at 10 a.m. On our way we rode across several large flat plains, covered with an abundaDce of grass for the cattle and sheep of the neighbouring farms. At times the track across these plains was so deeply worn, that the surface of the ground on each side was level with our knees. These tracks are made by the horses always following one another in the same path, and are deepened by the winter rain and snow. I have seen them as deep as the top of a horse's shoulder. About half-way between Thing-vellir and the Greysirs we crossed the Bruara (Bridge Eiver). The bridge, which gives its name to the river, is of rather a remarkable kind, consisting merely of a few light boards, thrown midstream across a rocky chasm, down which flashes an impetuous cascade. To reach the bridge, you have to ford the stream to within a few yards of the fall across which it is thrown ; from it, you have again to ford the river to its bank. The Geysirs (and there is quite a nest of them, large and small, together,) are situate at the foot of low clay hills on the north-west side of an extensive grassy plain. We pitched our tent on a grass-plot, which bore evident marks of being a favourite camping-place, close beneath the raised basin of the Great Geysir. We had scarcely done so, and put our pot of ptarmigan and plover to boil in a still hot- 10 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. ERUPTION OF THE GREAT GEYSIR. 11 sprin. a few yards off, when the Geysir began booming, Jith Lt sonnd, Hke a heavy cannonade heaxd at a distance which always preludes an eruption. Of course we all rushed to the basin at once, thinking that an eruption wa. about to take place immediately; but the water only boiled up vehemently in the centre of the ba.sm for a few xninutes,andthen became quiet again. Soweleftthe Great Geysir to repose for a time ; and while waiting for a repe i- tion of his spasms we amused ourselves by giving Strokr (the Churn) an emetic in the shape of a few turf pills,-- a treatment under which this fountain can generally be made to erupt. It wa^ lucky that we had not, like a recent Icelandic traveller, trusted our dinner to its punc- tuality in throwing it up again; for the fountain was evidently sulky to-day, and though it boiled and churned the sods in its pipe, which wa^ half full of water, it steadily refused to part with them. The Great Geysir, however, kept us in a constant state , of alarm by frequently boiling over: the ebullitions gene- rally lasted from five to ten minutes and then subsided; but at length, about half-past 8 o'clock in the evemng, as we were all standing on the very edge of his basm, came several reports louder than usual. Then the water in the centre of the basin immediately over the pipe sud- denly rose to the height of three or four feet, and at once sank down again, but only to rise higher than before ; and thus it continued rising and sinking alternately, bb if thrown up by a succession of powerful jerks, until a thick column of water shot up about twenty feet, and then, rising higher and higher, separated itself into several distinct jets. These kept falling back into the basin, whence they were instantly thrown up again, thus pro- ducing a remarkably pretty effect. At length, having reached a height of eighty or eighty-five feet, as nearly as I could estimate it, the water seemed to remain stationary at that height for about a minute, then it sank slowly, and not without several severe struggles, into its basin again. The eruption lasted altogether iiye or six minutes, and we were the whole time standing on the very edge of the basin. This we could do with impunity, as we were on the windward side, and the wind had sufficient force to carry the spray and steam away from us. We stayed another day at the Geysirs, but were not lucky enough to see any further eruption of the Great Geysir, although he kept us in a state of constant expectation with a frequent cannonade. But by the united efforts of ourselves and a party of friends, Messrs. Dasent, Campbell, and Lennox (compagnoiis de voyage on the Arcturus), aided by the guides of both parties, we gave Strokr such a dose of sods and turf as set him to work to churn them and throw them up again for the greater part of the afternoon. The muddy state of the water, however, goes very far towards spoiling the effect of these continuous jets, which after a dose of turf always come up in a pea-soup coloured fountain. On the 31st July we left the Geysirs; and on the second day (the journey might be done in one day) reached Selsund, a small farm on the south-west side of Hekla, lying in an amphitheatre formed by the spurs and volcanic ridges of that mountain. In our journey thither we had to cross two large rivers, — one was the Hvita (Wliite Eiver), a broad glacier stream, flowing between very high banks, to ford which is often a matter of difficulty, owing to the shifting nature of the light sands which form its bottom : the other, the Thjors^, also a glacier river, with a deep and swift stream, across which we and our baggage were ferried in a very old and leaky boat : our horses had to swim over, — a piece of duty that they did not at all relish. I 12 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. and it required the joint efforts of all our party to induce them to face the stream. Sometimes when a river is very broad and swift, it is necessary to tie the horses all together, head to tail, in a Ion- string, and to make them swim after a boat, the bridle of the first horse being held by a man who sits in the stem. But this plan is accompanied with some danger of overturning the boat, and is therefore seldom resorted to : the common way is to drive the horses into the river, and make them swim over loose. The hay- harvest is going on everywhere : at every boer (Icelandic farm) that we pass, the whole household are out in the tun making hay. The women are tossing it about with their hands, or loading the horses with large bundles of it; the men are mowing, or rather shearing, with their straight-handled, short-knived scythes, the curious mounds of earth, which give to every tun the appear- ance of an overcrowded, unkempt graveyard. These are caused, the Icelanders tell you, by the wind and wet of their winters; but whatever may be their cause, they exist, to a greater or less extent, over all the grass land in Iceland (except in ground that is always marshy), and are so universal that it is often difficult to find a spot free from them, where a tent may be pitched with any comfort. The grass walls of the tuns and turf-tops of the houses, which produce the best grass, are everywhere already mown. The hay-making season begins in June, and is not over imtil the latter end of September. At the beginning of the season many of the fishermen who live upon the coast migrate inland, and, attaching themselves to the household of some farmer, live with him during the summer, returning home again when the hay-making is over. A corresponding migration of the inhabitants of ASCENT OF HEKLA. 13 the inland districts to the sea-coast annually takes place at the beginning of the fishing-season. August 2nd.—\YQ ascended Hekla to-day, taking as our guide the farmer of Selsund. He cannot have had much sleep last night, for he was mowing up to 1 a.m. in the morning, if not later. We left the boer at 10.35 a.m. on horseback, and, riding up the valley of a small clear stream, soon came to the rising ground at the foot of the mountain. Our way thence lay over hills of volcanic sand and scoriae, up which our poor horses had to toil with much labour, for in many places the ground was very steep. After a ride of about two hours and a half, we stopped and dis- mounted at the foot of a huge stream of rugged brown lava, which had flowed from the crater duiing the last eruption, in 1845. Here, on a barren tract of sand, we left our horses in the care of one of our Eeykja-vik guides, and proceeded on foot with the farmer. We first climbed the steep sides of the lava stream, which had cooled down into the most fantastic forms imaginable. It is hardly possible to give any idea of the general appear- ance of this once molten mass. Here a great crag ha^ toppled over into some deep crevasse,— there a huge mass has been upheaved above the fiery stream, which has seethed and boiled around its base. Here is every shape and figure that sculpture could design, or imagination picture, jumbled together in grotesque confusion, whilst everywhere myriads of horrid spikes, and sharp, shape- less irregularities bristle amidst them. From piece to piece of this molten ruin we had to scramble and jump ; and although it took us only about a quarter of an hour to cross it, my boots were nearly cut to pieces. After leaving it, we came to a tract covered with scorije and volcanic slag, and soon afterwards toiled up a steep ascent of vol- I U A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. eanic sand and cinders, where the loose nature of the ground made the walking very laborious Half-way up L, we reached a steep slope of old snow, dirty and black, with the dust blown over it by many a summer storm,- sloppy and soft enough too, at this hour of the day; but anything was better than the ever-yielding sand. After traversing the snow, we toiled up slope after slope of sand, until we came to a ridge only two or three feet wide, precipitous on our left, and steeply sloping on our richt. Along the top of this we passed, still gra- dually°ascending, in the face of a strong wind, which had swept a cold clammy mist over the mountain-top, and hid all the landscape from us. We could not even see what was at the bottom of the precipice on our left. As we ascended higher we found ourselves in a storm of «ow and sleet, and, unfortunately, a^ we approax^hed the top the weather grew worse: it was so bad when we reached the summit (4.5 p.m.) that it was impossible for us to descend into the crater and explore it. We could only gaze over its precipitous sides at the ice which filled its bottom. After staying about ten minutes at the top, we again descended, following the tracks of our ascent; but it was not until we were half-way down that we emerged from the snow and mist Here waa the only spot from which we obtained a good prospect of the country beneath us. The view was neither grand nor beautiful, but it was strange and curious. At the foot of the moun- tain, lie lonir ridges of flat-topped hills, with sides, here Heep and precipitous, there in rounded slopes, but all perfectly l»are, though not wanting in contrast of colour. On the ieft rose a hill, red as one of the Grampians when the heather is in fullest bloom ; whilst, on our right, a mountain-ridge of ashy broN\Ti ran out into the grassy flats below, and on the green plain stood warm coloured streams OUR GUIDE. 15 of umber-tinted lava, here ending abruptly, as if suddenly cooled in their molten course,— there fading into a distant purple as they extended towards the sea. Flat plains of volcanic sand, relieved by patches of green marshes, farms, and homesteads, extended to the south, beyond which again the ocean bounded the view. Our descent was easy and rapid : we reached our horses again at 5.20 p.m., and Selsund at 7.30 p.m., quite ready for the pot of ptarmigan, shot during our journey on the previous day. We stayed at Selsund three days, and left it on the 5th August. On leaving it our party was divided : Bond and Donaldson returned to Eeykja-vik to catch the Arcturus on her homeward voyage, whilst Shepherd and I turned our steps eastward. Before parting with our friends we divided with them our horses and the rest of our travelling stock-in-trade, which had up to this time been the joint property of the whole party. Shepherd and I took nine out of the seventeen horses as our share, and of the two guides we chose Olaver Stingrimson, who, although he was not of quite so bright an intellect as we might have wished, was a good fellow, of a most willing nature and excellent temper. Guide, however, he could scarcely be called, for of the country to the east of the Greysirs he knew as little as ourselves. But in this respect he was only like the greater number of Eeykja-vik guides. There were four guides at the Greysirs when we were there, and only one of them had ever been thence to Hekla, and he only once, twenty-six years previously, when he had accompanied M. Gaimard. The Icelandic traveller who goes out of the beaten track of travel has always to engage a fylgdar-madr or local guide to show his guide the way. But Olaver, although he was of little use as a guide, proved of great use in looking I. A TOCE 15 ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. « bomi, eeeing that they were properly hobbled at .l^llTon; and indeed he was almost indispensable 2?io another way. Neither Shepherd nor I could sp^ak Tword of Icelandic when we set out from Reykja-vik Ld altl«gh Olaver did not know half a dozen words of ^i^n we ^rted, yet a lingo of broken Icela^^ IjZ^ was soon established between us, which after rl!;?^^e he came to understand well enough; he L thus able to act as our interpreter. Danish I may ,,^k, U of little use t. the traveller out of the prm- frowns. In these, which are mostly Danish setUe- JZu. it is almort universally understood. Some of the priests in the country, too, can speak it; but the people coiermlly do not understand it. , ^ , _x j ^iLr bidding our friends adieu, Shepherd and I started from SeUund at 10.45 a.m. We soon left the meadow surrounding the farm, and entered a rugged desert which he* on the south side of Hekla. This desert is a sandy tract, full of blocks of tuff and lava, and everywhere bearing the trace* of the eruptions which have devastated it. As we rode on, the country became still more sandy. We were traversing a desolate wilderness, in which nothing grew but thin plots of melr grass {Elymm arenarius). This plant is a sort of wild com, which is often to be met with in the sandy deserts of Iceland. It seems especially to love the little hills of sand which have been blown up by the wind. The desert through which we were riding was lull of these hills, and on many of them were straggling patches of mek grass ; but these scarcely relieved the feel- ingB of desolation called forth by the scene around us. As we proceeded we from time to time caught glimpses of the Thri-hyrningr, (the Triangle,) a fine bold mountain ridge, with three dark points of rock at its top, which serve as a kndmark to the plains lying to the south and west^ ICE PLAINS. 17 Beyond the Thri-hyrningr we saw the snowy summits of the mountainous Tind-§alla and Eya-^alla Jokulls. A "Jokull" is any spot that is covered with perennial ice. Henderson says that the word is derived from the Icelandic " Jaki," a lump of ice, and that it signifies an ice-mountain. This is generally true, although not always so. Any one who imagined the vast districts laid down in the maps of Iceland as Jokulls to be altogether ice-moun- tains would be very much mistaken. The Jokulls are often merely immense fields of ice, which in their highest parts do not rise to an elevation of more than a few hundred feet above the level of the sea. Many of them are re- markably flat, extending for miles at nearly the same level. A great — probably the greater -— part of the vast Vatna Jokull, which is "supposed to fill a space of not less than three thousand square miles," consists of these icy plains ; and most of the high mountains in the island have exten- sive low Jokulls, or ice-plains, around their bases. These low Jokulls are not glaciers, though the word is often so translated. The number of true glaciers in Iceland is comparatively small. The general character of the ice even of the low Jokulls is that of neve, rather than that of glacier ice, — a circum- stance which is probably due to the low elevation of the snow-line, and to a much less amount of pressure being exerted upon the Jokulls than upon the glaciers. The absence of such pressure arises, I think, partly from the small elevation of the mountains, and partly from the beds of the ice-fields being unconfined by the sides of hills. WTiere their beds are so confined, and the ice flows down a narrow valley or a mountain gorge, there we find true glaciers formed. I observed glaciers descend- ing from many of the high mountains, 6. g. the Tind-Qalla, Eya-Qalla, Oroefa, Eyriks, and Bald Jokulls. Most of VOL. I. o in jg^^^Mm^^^g, itnuMOHBittrilttl „ A TOCB IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. after our horses, seeing that they were VroV^^'J^om^st St, and so on ; and indeed he w. almost jn^spen^b^ Jus in another way. Neither Shepherd nor I «^d s^^ a word of Icelandic when we set out from ^^J^i^J^^' and aUhou^h Olaver did not know half a dozen wo ds of Tngi when we started, yet a lingo of 1>-'^- Icd^^ and EnMish was soon established between us, which after Tshl-time he came to understand weU^-g^^ ^^ was thus able to act a. our interpre er. ^^^^ J ^^ remark is of little use to the traveller out of the prm rrtwns. In these, which are mostly P^sh setUe- ints, it is almost universally understood. So^ of tt>e priests in the country, too, can speak it; but the people ffenerallv do not understand it. , -r . «4. ^ ^ A^rUmn, our friends adieu, Shepherd and I started f.ot Selsund It 10.45 .M. We soon left the ^eadow surrounding the farm, and entered a rugged desert whx h ^ lies on the south side of Hekla. This desert xs a sandy tract, m of blocks of tuff and lava, and everywhere bearing the traces of the eruptions which have devastated it As we rode on, the country became still more sandy. We were traversing a desolate wilderness, ia which nothing ^ but thin plots of melr gra.s {Elymv^ areTUinus). This plant is a sort of wild com, which is oft.n to be met with in the sandy deserts of Iceland. It seems especially to love the little hills of sand which have been blown up by the wind. The desert through which we were riding was full of these hills, and on many of them were stragghng patches of melr gra^s ; but these scarcely reUeved the feel- ings of desolation called forth by the scene around us. As we proceeded we from time to time caught glimpses of the Thri-hymingr, (the Triangle,) a fine bold mountam ridge, with three dark points of rock at its top, which serve as a landmark to the plains lying to the south and west^ ICE PLAINS. 17 Beyond the Thri-hymingr we saw the snowy summits of the mountainous Tind-fjalla and Eya-^alla Jokulls. A "Jokull" is any spot that is covered with perennial ice. Henderson says that the word is derived from the Icelandic " Jaki," a lump of ice, and that it signifies an ice-mountain. This is generally true, although not always so. Any one who imagined the vast districts laid down in the maps of Iceland as Jokulls to be altogether ice-moun- tains would be very much mistaken. The Jokulls are often merely immense fields of ice, which in their highest parts do not rise to an elevation of more than a few hundred feet above the level of the sea. Many of them are re- markably flat, extending for miles at nearly the same level. A great — probably the greater — part of the vast Yatna Jokull, which is " supposed to fill a space of not less than three thousand square miles," consists of these icy plains ; and most of the high mountains in the island have exten- sive low Jokulls, or ice-plains, around their bases. These low Jokulls are not glaciers, though the word is often so translated. The number of true glaciers in Iceland is comparatively smalL The general character of the ice even of the low Jokulls is that of neve, rather than that of glacier ice, — a circum- stance which is probably due to the low elevation of the snow-line, and to a much less amount of pressure being exerted upon the Jokulls than upon the glaciers. The absence of such pressure arises, I think, partly from the small elevation of the mountains, and partly from the beds of the ice-fields being unconfined by the sides of hills. WTiere their beds are so confined, and the ice flows down a narrow valley or a mountain gorge, there we find true glaciers formed. I observed glaciers descend- ing from many of the high mountains, e. g. the Tind-Qalla, Eya-Qalla, Oroefa, Eyriks, and B4ld Jokulls. Most of VOL. I. *} I i ,8 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. them came down through narrow ravines, and fell very precipitously into the plains. About 2.15 P.M. we reached the banks of Eystri Eanga, a small rocky stream: beyond it lay before us a fine undulating country, covered with grass. Near the ford was a farm, at which we obtained a bowl of milk,-amost refreshing draught after the quantity of sand that we had swallowed in crossing the desert. Milk can be obtained at almost every farm, and no payment is ever expected font. After crossing the river, and riding three or four miles along its eastern bank, we reached Raudnef-stadr, our resting-place for the night. We pitched our tent in the tun close by the house. When we had made our canvas home snug for the night, Olaver brought us from the farm a kettle of boil- ing water to make tea with, and we sat down to supper, iisLg one of our travelling-boxes as a table. Our fare, though simple, was as good and substantial as we could msh? It consisted of cold mutton, skon-rock, which is a sort of rusk, and unlimited supplies of milk and butter. These last we obtained at the farm close at hand. The mutton was the remains of a sheep which we had bought at Selsund. We had paid for it four dollars (nine shHlings), which, although it sounds cheap enough, is by no means a moderate price for an Icelandic sheep. WE PURCHASE TWO MORE HORSES. 19 2. FROM RAUDNEF-STADR ACROSS THE LESS FRE- QUENTED DISTRICTS ON THE W. OF THE SKAPTAR JOKULL TO MARIU-BAKKI. August 6f^.— The farmer at this place is a well-to-do man, owning several hundred sheep and seventy or eighty horses. We were in want of two saddle-horses in addition to those we already possessed. Every Icelandic traveller must (at least on a long journey) have a second horse for a change. We had not been able to procure the necessary number of riding-horses at Eeykja-vik, and were anxious to supply the deficiency before we proceeded farther east- wards ; for in this part of the country horses are to be had cheaper than anywhere else at the south. The farmer was quite willing to let us have one, but he hesitated to part with two. At last, however, he consented to let us have them, and he also, after some hesitation, agreed to accept their price in English gold. We had now each two riding-horses, and besides these we had three baggage- horses laden, and two extra baggage-horses running loose. We found that our newly purchased horses were out in the pasture lands, and that they had not only to be brought in, but also to be shod before starting. We therefore sent forward our baggage and loose horses, the slowest part of our cavalcade, under the charge of our fylo-dar- madr, — we ourselves remaining behind to bring on our new horses. Whilst they were being caught, the farmer invited us into his house to take coffee. By the time that we had finished it, our horses had been driven up to the door, and the farmer at once threw off his coat and went to work to shoe them. Almost all Icelanders, from the priests downwards, are good smiths, and can put a shoe on well. The farmer of Raudnef-stadr was certainly no exception to the rule. I timed him as he was shoeing one of the horses. He pared the hoofs and fastened on all four shoes in twenty minutes, — no bad work! The shoes are always put on cold. They are generally each fastened with only four, though sometimes with six, nails ; and although the work is more roughly done than that of an English smith, yet the shoes gene- c 2 r JO A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. rally last well, and seldom hurt the horse's feet or cause lameness. , „ , ^^ r ^^ When our horses were shod and saddled, the farmer kindly volunteered to accompany us for a short distance, and put us in the right track, and soon after half-pa.t mne we started under his guidance. After riding about a couple of miles, we came to a small stream of lava lymg at the bottom of a steep barren hill. Here was the boundary of his pasture-grounds; and here, after biddmg us a hearty adieu, and giving us full directions as to our route, he left us and turned back. Our road crossed the lava stream, and ascended the hill above it. The ground of this hill consisted of shin-le and small stones, all water-worn and rounded, and laid°down on a substratum of sand, a^ smoothly and re- -mlarly as if the whole were the work of man. No macadamised road could have its surface more regularly laid. Everywhere the soil was quite bare. No vegetation of any kind could be seen, with the exception of patches of a bright green moss, which, growing here and there, marked the site of a spring or the channel of a water- course. After a ride of about an hour and a half over this sort of ground we caught up our baggage-horses. Soon after- wards we came to a more rocky tract, where was a Uttle more vegetation, though still it was very barren. We were now passing along the base of the Tind-f jalla Jokull, the lower Maciers of which appeared to be not more than an hour's walk from our path. In places these glaciers were much broken, and the bright colours of the ice shone out vividly in the sun ; but on the whole, the rounded snow- slopes looked as if they would not offer much difficulty to an ascent. The top of the mountain, as seen from this side, appeared to be a flattened dome. NORTH OF THE TIND-FJALLA JOKULL. 21 The streams from the Jokull came tumbling over the rugged rocks on our right in several pretty waterfalls. Two of them especially, not more than fifty yards apart, offered a beautiful contrast to each other. The one was broken and feathered in many a spray-spangled fountain, the other poured down in a broad, unbroken sheet of water. When we reached the N.E. side of the Jokull the scenery became of a very different kind ; close before us lay a perfectly flat shingle plain of very large extent. The shingle in it was as smooth and regular as that on the hills which we had crossed in the morning, and the ground was quite as barren. On the other side of this plain, and rising immediately from it, were numberless mountains, one overtopping the other, as far as the eye could see. It was a fine scene. Every mountain seemed to have a peculiar shape and character of its own, and all seemed to be jumbled together in a wonderful confusion. Here, side by side, were tall pyramid-shaped mountains, and low round-topped hills ; flat table-lands lying next to pointed aiguilles, and rocks riven and shattered by storms ; here were gradual slopes close beneath precipitous cones which towered above them. Equally varied was their colour. There in the distance gathering clouds cast a deep shade over the hills, whilst here a golden gleam of sunshine lit up the yellow cliffs of a sand-coloured berg ; and in an- other direction a volcanic hill showed its sides, as red in hue as a field of summer clover. We rode on through a narrow defile with rocky sides at the end of this plain, into another valley which some- what resembled it ; and then, traversing a bare moun- tainous district, we reached the river Markar-fljot, which, although not very broad, was swollen and deep. After crossing the river, our road led us along the steep side of a ridge of hills completely covered with moss, and deeply 22 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. scored by numerous water-courses. In the valley, we came upon a number of very singular mounds of black sand, apparently washed down from the hills above ; but they were so regular in shape that they looked like arti- ficial structures, rather than the work of nature. The greater number resembled railway embankments, from 15 to 40 feet high, 100 to 300 feet long, and 30 to 40 feet broad at the top, and broader at the bottom. Descending from these mounds, and fording a small stream, a tri- butary to the Markar-fljot, we found ourselves close to Gr£Ena-fjall (Green fell), a solitary gi-een hill in the midst of these barren tracts, in which, although we had been riding for nearly six hours, we had scarcely seen a blade of grass. A mournful bleat revealed to us a flock of sheep, feeding on this solitary oasis. Leaving Graina- fjall behind us, we again entered a barren desert, which must lie at a considerable elevation above the level of the sea, for we came upon several large patches of old snow, still unmelted. Soon after four o'clock, we reached a small valley, named Fangil, where there was a little gi'ass, and where it was our original intention to have camped for the night ; but we found it very uninviting. The rain had for some hours been pouring down in torrents, and had completely soaked the ground. There was little chance of our being able to make a fire. The only fuel at hand consisted of the roots of dwarf willows, and even if we could have collected a sufficient quantity of these, they were too damp to burn. There was, besides, very little grass for our horses. Under these circumstances, we determined to push on into Skap- tdr-tunga, a district lying in the Skapta-fells-sysla, sixty or seventy miles due east of Hekla, where we hoped to reach a farmhouse. So, after stopping at Fangil three- quarters of an hour to rest our horses and let them feed. M^LI-FELLS SANDR. 23 we mounted again and proceeded eastwards. Almost immediately after leaving Fangil, we entered an extensive desert of black volcanic sand, called Mseli-fells Sandr, bounded on the north by the snow-covered hills that flank the Torfa Jokull, and on the south by the ice- fields of the Merkr Jokull. Its width is from two to three miles, and it is about fifteen miles in length. The ice-fields of the Merkr Jokull terminate in gentle rounded declivities, which come quite down to the sand. The Jokull rises very gradually towards the south, and for a long distance appears to be almost flat. A large extent of the lower part of the ice-fields was dusted over, and dirtied with black sand blown off the plain, along which the Jokull extends for many miles in almost a straight line. For an hour and forty minutes we rode over the desert at a smart trot, and at the end of that time we reached Mseli-fell, a barren mountain of considerable size, which, until we came close to it, seemed to block up the end of the desert. At 8 p.m. we reached the banks of the Holmsa. We had expected, from Gunn- laugsson's map, to find grass on the east side of this river ; instead of it we found a country green, indeed, as it is painted in the map, but green with moss only. There was not anywhere a blade of grass for our hungry horses, and for more than an hour and a half we rode across moss- covered hills and dales. At length our road zigzagged down a steep hill-side, and we entered a fine grassy valley watered by the Tungu-fljot ; half an hour after crossing which we reached Bulandsel, a boer about three miles to the west of Buland. It was now 10.30 p.m., and we found the farmer and his family retired to rest ; but on our arrival they at once got up to offer us all the hospi- talities that the farm could aff'ord. We intended to have attempted an ascent of the Kotlu- 24 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. gja. A visit to that mountain would have been parti- cularly interesting at this time, from the circumstance of its having been in a state of eruption in the previous year, 1860. We had, however, to give up this intention ; for we found that on this side of the mountain there was no place from which we could make the ascent, with suffi- cient grass for camping out, and to have gone to the south-east of the mountain, and returned, would have taken up more days than we could well spare. We deter- mined, therefore, to push on eastwards at once. Any future traveller who may wish to attempt the ascent of Kotlu-gja, should do so, I think, from the south, where there are several farms not far from its base. The moun- tain was, some years ago (1823), attempted from this side, with considerable success, by an Icelandic priest of the name of Jon Austmann. A less successful attempt to reach the summit was made by Messrs. Olafssen and Povelsen, so long ago as the year 1756. But they were obliged to give up their attempt, as they were enveloped in snow and mist, and exposed to the rage of the volcano, which had been seen to emit flames only two days before. August 1th. — We rode to-day only as far as Buland, and, the following day (August 8th), proceeded to Mariu-bakki, a little fai-m lying on the south side of the great Skap- tar Jokull, half-way between the JokuU and the sea. The country through which we passed was very different from the deserts we had traversed two days previously between Raudnef-stadr and Bulandsel. The greater part of it was a fine undulating country, well covered with grass. In crossing it, you would never have supposed that you were ridintr within a short distance of the most destructive of Icelandic volcanoes, one which, not quite eighty years ago (1783), devastated the whole of the country around it for many miles, throwing out such masses of lava, that ERUPTION OF SKAPTAR JOKULL. 25 the molten flood at that eruption from this single volcano was, it has been calculated, greater in bulk than Mont Blanc itself. Henderson (pp. 219 — 231) gives a most interesting account of this eruption, describing with graphic detail the phenomena that appeared day by day. I make no apology for quoting the following passage from his descrip- tion of it. He says, writing in 1815 — "It not only appears to have been more tremendous in its phenomena than any recorded in the modern annals of Iceland, but it was followed by a train of consequences the most direful and melancholy, some of which continue to be felt to this day. Immense floods of red-hot lava were poured down from the hills with amazing velocity, and, spreading over the low country, burnt up men, cattle, churches, houses, and everything they at- tacked in their progress. Not only was all vegetation, in the im- mediate neighbourhood of the volcano, destroyed by the ashes, brimstone, and pumice, which it emitted ; but, being borne up to an inconceivable height in the atmosphere, they were scattered over the whole island, impregnating the air with noxious vapours, intercepting the genial rays of the sun, and empoisoning whatever could satisfy the hunger or quench the thirst of man and beast. Even in some of the more distant districts, the quantity of ashes that fell was so great, that they were gathered up by handfuls. Upwards of four hundred people were instantly deprived of a home ; the fish were driven from the coasts, and the elements seemed to vie with each other which should commit the greatest depredations. Famine and pestilence stalked abroad, and cut down their victims with ruthless cruelty ; while death himself was glutted with the prey. In some houses there was scarcely a sound individual left to attend the afflicted, or any who possessed sufficient strength to inter the dead. The most miserably ema- ciated tottering skeletons were seen in every quarter. When the animals that had died of hunger and disease were consumed, the wretched creatures had nothing to eat but raw hides, and old pieces of leather and ropes, which they boiled and devoured with avidity. The horses ate the flesh off* one another, and for want of other sustenance had recourse to turf, wood, and even excremen- titious substances, while the sheep devoured each other's wool. In I 26 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. a word, the accumulation of miseries, originating in the volcanic eruption, was so dreadful, that in the short space ^^^^ f ^^^'^^ fewer than 9336 human beings, 28,000 horses, 11,461 head of cattle, and 190,488 sheep, perished on the island." Immediately after leaving Buland we came to the banks of the Eld-vatn (Fire-water), a deep river of glacier water which flows down from the Skaptar Jokull in a channel of lava, and is divided into many streams by numerous lava islands. It owes its name to having first made its appear- ance during the eruption of 1783. We did not find much difficulty in crossing it, and having reached its eastern shore, we had before us a steep ascent up a high bank, up which our road lay by a zigzag path, and at the top of which we found a fine broad plateau of marshes and grass lands. After traversing these we came to a beautiful undulating country, lying amongst green hills, down the sides of which many a silver thread of water flashed in the sunlight, and here and there, in the far distance, we caught glimpses of the blue ocean. But even here, in the midst of this beautiful country and these grassy lands, has the fire-demon left some traces of his work. In the middle of a gTeen plain we came upon an isolated hill, which was evidently of volcanic origin. It was in shape a perfect cone, and its steep sides were covered with scoria of a most brilliant red colour. From this last peculiarity it takes its name of Eaud-holt (Red- hill). It is quite barren, and on every side of the same red colour, except on the south. On that side, near the top, is a patch of black cinders. The position of this hill is also very remarkable. It stands in a broad natural foss, which nms round it on three sides, cutting through and exposing the brown soil of the pasture lands to a consider- able depth. On the other side it slopes down to the grassy plain at its base. SULPHUREOUS SMELL. 27 In the afternoon we descended from the high ground upon the village of Kirkju-boer, and thence proceeded to Prest-bakki, over a rich plain, well stocked with cattle EAUD-HOLT. and sheep, belonging to the numerous farms scattered about it. Here we halted for half an hour to let our horses feed. We had scarcely dismounted when the priest, whose house was some little distance off, came out to us, although it was raining heavily at the time, and pressed us to come in and take coffee. We gladly accepted his invitation and followed him indoors. He talked Latin well (a compliment which I cannot pay to most of the Icelandic priests), and we had a long conversation with him in that language. He told us, that in the previous May, 1861, there had been, for several days together, a strong and nauseous sulphureous smell throughout the whole of this district, which he attributed to some volcanic disturbance having occurred farther east- wards. Dr. Hjaltelin, of Reykja-vik, and others, sub- sequently informed me that a sulphureous smell had 28 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. AN ICELANDIC DISH. 29 I ji I about the same time been prevalent in the houses at Keykja-vik, to such an extent as to be very disagree- able ; and that in the district near the Vatna Jokull the sulphureous vapour had tarnished all the silver in the houses. This smell probably came from the Skeidarar Jokull, where (as I shall mention presently) there was undoubtedly some, though probably not a very great, vol- canic disturbance at that time. Coffee was handed round by a pleasant-looking woman, introduced to us by the priest as " Uxor mea." When we had finished and rose to depart, our host would not hear of oiu- going without his riding with us a short way. So he ordered his horse to be saddled, and accompanied us, although it was still raining. Friendly as was his intention, we had soon reason to regret that he had come with us. He either imagined that we had acquired an Icelander's love for imbibing coffee, or he was very anxious that all his friends should have the opportunity of seeing us. We had scarcely ridden a mile when he pressed us to go and take coffee with his father, a clergyman living about a mile up the valley, and we had not ridden more than three miles farther, when he took us up to another house, which he said was his brother's. He went in and brought the owner out to us, and they both together pressed us so earnestly to dismount and take coffee, that it would have been discourteous to refuse. We were kept waiting upwards of an hour whilst the coffee w^as being prepared, sorely grudging the loss of time, and, to judge from my own feelings, in no very amiable mood. From some cause of delay, known only to the members of the culinary department, it took all that time to get ready. "Experientia docet." Always after this, when pressed to take coffee at a way-side house, we asked for milk, or cognac, or schnapps, instead ; thus at the same time neither offending against Icelandic ideas of courtesy, nor losing much time by delay. Eeader ! If you ever travel in Iceland, take my advice and do likewise. When at length we had finished our coffee, we set out again ; the priest accompanied us for a mile or two, and then, bidding us a pleasant journey, he turned his horse's head homewards. Between 7 and 8 p.m. we reached a field of lava, part of the immense flow which descended in 1783 from the Skaptar Jokull. Across this our road led us for some distance, and as it was now getting dark, the riding here became both disagreeable and difficult. Shortly before 9 p.m. we reached the Hverfis-fljot, a broad and rather deep river, in which, however, the stream was not very strong. The bottom is sandy, but in most places we found it firm, and we got across it without much diffi- culty. From the Hverfis-fljot we had a pretty good road to Mariu-bakki, which we reached shortly after 1 p.m. The people at the farm had all retired for the night ; but, upon our arrival, they at once got up and provided us with all that we wanted for our supper. 3. PASSAGE OF THE SKEIDARA.— THE OR(EFA JOKULL.— SOUTH OF THE VAf NA JOKULL TO BERU-FJORDR. August 9th. — We were rather delayed in our start this morning by awaiting the preparation of an Icelandic dish, which Olaver had strongly recommended to us, but which turned out to be nothing more nor less than rice boiled in milk, with the addition of a few raisins. Whilst we were at breakfast, Olaver came up with a long face to tell us that the Nups-vatn was a very dangerous river, and that the farmer of Mariu-bakki was the only person thereabouts who could guide us over it and the Skeidara to Svina-fell ; and 30 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. '* he charges," said Olaver, "six dollars (13s. 6d) for the journey." At the time we thought this rather an exorbitant demand,— the ordinary charge for one day's journey and back being four dollars (9s.) But since there was only this one guide we had no choice. When, however, we had come to the end of our day's journey, we had no reason to think that he had taken any advantage of us. The extraordinary difficulties and dangers quite justified him in making an extra charge. After bidding our adieus to the inmates of the farm, — Olaver and the farmer embracing every one of them, men, women, and children, in turn. Shepherd and I, who fought shy of those dirty lips, only shaking hands with them,— we set out at 1 1 a.m. Our fylgdar-madr was such a good specimen of his class, that I must endeavour to give a sketch of his general appearance. He was a short grey-haired man, elderly, but still active, and, to judge from the pair of grey eyes that twinkled beneath his shaggy eyebrows, he still retained much of the energy of bygone years. As is the custom of Icelanders when they go away from home, he was dressed in his best suit of clothes, having on the dark woollen trowsers and short jacket worn by the country people, home-made and home-dyed, and on his feet a pair of home-made skuar, or Icelandic shoes. These, which are the shoes commonly worn by every one, are like slippers in shape, and are made either of ox-hide or sheep- skin, and bound round the ankle with strips of hide. His neck was wrapped round and round by the thick folds of a red woollen comforter, and his head was crowned by a low broad -brimmed beaver hat, which, if it ever was black, had long since assumed a mournful washed-out hue, and looked old enough to have seen the last fifty Icelandic winters with its wearer. He was mounted on a low sturdy A RIVER FULL OF QUICKSANDS. 31 little cream-coloured pony, and he dragged along behind him by a halter his second horse, which showed great un- willingness to leave the grass of the tun. Olaver's long- drawn face plainly showed that he was not over pleased with the accounts that he had heard at the farm of the difficulties before us. It was only by frequent applications to his snuff-box, that almost invariable companion of every Ice- lander, that he could at all preserve his equanimity ; and when, after an hour and a half or two hours' ride we had passed round the base of Loma-gnupr, and saw the broad river Nups-vatn rushing by, only a few inches below the ground on which we were riding, these applications became almost incessant. Loma-gnupr is the last and finest of a range of steep hills, which extend from Kirk- ju-boer to the Skeidarar Jokull. It stands out quite by itself from the line of these hills, and looks like an enor- mous square fortification ; its dark tuff rocks beetling above the plain beneath to the height of more than 2000 feet, and presenting on its south and east sides very noble precipices, sheer down from its summit to its base. Having reached the Nups-vatn, which flows in a great number of channels through a plain of volcanic sand, we crossed several of its inferior branches, and reached a large sand-bank, washed by the principal stream. Here we halted to tie the horses head to tail, as is always done when crossing a difficult or dangerous ford, and to put the baggage as high as possible on their backs, out of the reach of the water. These preparations having been completed, the guides moved off into the water, bidding us remain where we were until they had discovered a good fording- place, for the treacherous quicksands over which this river flows are continually shifting their position, and where you might have crossed safely yesterday, to-day you 32 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. II may be ingulfed, perhaps inextricably. We therefore licrhted our pipes and sat down on the sand to watch the progress of our guides. They started, each of them with two bacrc^ac^e-horses in tow, the farmer leading the way. First they crossed a side channel, and made for a sand-bank a little higher up the river than that on which we were. From this they at once entered the main stream of the river. Although the Nups-vatn is deep, and its stream strong, it is neither its depth nor its strength, but the quicksands which make it difficult and dangerous to cross. The farmer is well aware of this, and urges on his little cream-coloured horse into the stream with great caution. Cautiously does the horse feel his way step by step, as he slowly advances, pressed on by the ever-urging heel of his rider ; but all this caution is of no avail : all at once down goes the horse, head and ears disappearing beneath the muddy waters. A splash, a struggle, and a bound forwards, and the cream-coloured head again just shows itself above the surface, but the horse's hind legs are fast held in the sandy bottom. He struggles in vain to free himself. The farmer has to dismount, waist deep in water, and tug him out by main strength. Then back they come wading the stream together, until they have regained the sand-bank from which they first set out, and to which Olaver has already turned and fled. The fylgdar-madr again mounts his gallant little steed, and makes a second attempt lower down the stream. Both the man and the horse evi- dently enter it this time with more hesitation than at first, but both working together and understanding each other in a wonderful manner. Here, as the wary rider cautiously urges on his horse, the sagacious little animal refuses to proceed, and only paws the ground beneath his feet in answer to his master's commands ; and the fylgdar-madr lets him have his own way, and turns his head down stream to try A RUNAWAY HORSE. 33 another place. There, where the horse appears equally reluc- tant to proceed, the fylgdar-madr urges him on with whip and hee], and they pass on in safety. The other horses follow. Thus they slowly and with difficulty progress, trying at every step the ground before them. At last they reach the opposite bank in safety. But it was terribly trying work for the poor horses, for first one and then another (although, from being tied together, they must have been almost following each other's footsteps,) almost disappeared in a quicksand or hole. Sometimes they managed to ex- tricate themselves ; at other times they had to be dragged out by the string of horses to which they were at- tached. The state of mind with which Shepherd and I looked on at this scene may easily be imagined, when I mention that we saw our tent, bedding, saddle-bags, and boxes containing biscuits and other necessaries, all, one after another, partly or totally, disappearing under the water. Leaving the baggage-horses on a sand-bank, separated from the opposite shore of the river only by a narrow stream, the fy]gdar-madr and Olaver rode up the river, trying in several places to ford it back to where they had left us. They did not like again to face the place that they had just crossed, and did not succeed in discovering any good ford until they had ridden about three quarters of a mile further up. JMeanwhile a fresh cause of delay had arisen. One of the loose riding-horses, which had been left to await the return of the guides, after looking for some time at the passage of his companions, the baggage-horses, apparently came to the conclusion that the ford was too bad to be attempted; so, deliberately turning tail to the river, he started off at a swinging trot back to- wards :\Iariu-bakki. I started after him ; but finding that the nearer I approached him the faster grew the pace, and TOL. I. p (• 34 A TOUK IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. having in vain tried to stop him by imitating the whistle which the Icelanders use to their horses, I left him to his o^vn ways until the guides returned. On coming back they were naturally not very well pleased, and appeared m doubt how to act; until, after their snuff-boxes had been many times in requisition, and they had wasted ten minutes in words, they came to the conclusion that most men wou^d have come to at once,- namely, that one of them should take the fastest horse that we had, and ride after the runaway. He had not in the least slackened his pace, and was just disappearing round the comer of Loma-gnupr when the farmer started after him. During his absence we went to the place where he and Olaver had recrossed the river, and waited his return. He joined us before very long, bringing back the deserter, and we all en- tered the river together, he leading the way. For about half an hour we were wading through the water, which was sometimes up to our saddle-girths; at others almost covering our knees. Our horses were now walking over a firm bottom, now blundering through a quicksand, now struggling amongst sand-holes. We reached the eastern bank of the river, however, without any mishap, and found our baggage-horses still standing on the sand-bank where they had been left. After untying them from one another, we started across the desert Skeidardr Sandr, which lay before us. The Sandr is a broad tract of level sand, extending for many miles along the sea-coast beneath the Skeidar&r JokiiU. This is by far the most remarkable JokuU that I saw. Every part of it is completely black, and would pro- bably, at first sight, be mistaken for rock. It is terminated abruptly by an icy precipice, which, like a vertical wall, stands up from the flat Sandr, along its whole length, to the height of from twenty to forty feet. A WATER ERUPTION. 35 \k As we approached the middle of the Sandr, we heard, in front of us, the roar of the Skeidara. This river has recently changed its position considerably from its former course, as laid down in Gunnlaugsson's map. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that the old Skeidara has ceased to flow, and that a new river has burst out from a different part of the Jokull. The old course of the Skeidara, which was at the east end of the Skeidarar Sandr, is now marked by only a few inconsiderable streams. The new Skeidara flows from the centre of the Jokull. This change took place in May 1861, at which time there evidently was a volcanic disturbance somewhere in the interior of the Vatna Jokull. No vol- cano, however, is known to exist in these unexplored regions, which still retain their mysterious character, and it is to be hoped that before long a well-organised expe- dition may penetrate the hitherto untrodden expanse. Not only did a strong sulphureous smell, as I have before mentioned, then pervade the whole of the country to the west of the Vatna Jokull, but there was also an eruption of water from the Skeidara Jokull. Such volumes of water were poured forth from the south and south-eaist ends of this Jokull, that the whole of the Sandr beneath it was- covered with one broad flood, and, for many days, ren- dered impassable. Unfortunately there was no one near the spot to note the phenomena of this water eruption. I could learn little about it, except the fact that the Skeidarar Jokull had flooded the whole, or nearly the whole, plain with water and ice. It happened, however, that a party of Englishmen, on their way to Iceland, in the beginning of June, fell in with a stream of this water at sea, about eighty miles off the coast They appear to have at once dis- D 2 36 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. 1 ^ li^i tingiiished it from the sea-water by its colour ; and they saiFed through it for thirty miles. This proves that the eruption of ^ater must have been very gteat. A letter from Mr. Hogarth, one of the party, giving an account of the meeting with this stream, will be found in a note at the end of this paper. Wlien we came in sight of the Skeidara, the roar of whose waters we had heard for a considerable distance, we saw a broad sheet of murky water, rushing across the sandy plain with indescribable velocity, the waters appearing to be raised above the level of the ground on which we stood. Over the whole breadth of the stream,— either from the velocity with which it rushed before our eyes, or from the clouds of spray that flew upwards from the breaking waves,— there was an indis- tinct mistiness, such as is often seen in the heat of a summer's day hovering over the ground. The river has become much more formidable and dangerous since it shifted its position. The prospect of crossing certainly was not pleasant, even when we only heard its roar from a distance, and looked from far off on its waves leaping and gleaming in the sinking sunlight. But when we reached its shore, and stood close by the rushincr river, with its roar in our very ears, and its angry waves racing by at our feet, — when we saw in it the large masses of broken ice which were being carried down from the Jokull and hurried swiftly past us, — when we heard these crunching and grating, as they bumped against the stones or over the shallows with a loud harsh sound, dis- tinctly audible above the noise of the rushing waters,— then the river did indeed look formidable, and it seemed almost madness to trust ourselves to its fury. But there was no alternative : the only way to get across was to ride through it. BLACK ICE. 37 We reached the bank of the river at a distance of not more than 200 yards below the Jokull, and halted to make the necessary preparations for crossing. The horses were tied together, head to tail, in the usual manner, and the baggage was securely fastened high up on their backs, as much out of the reach of the water as possible. Whilst the guides were engaged in making these preparations. Shepherd took his gun, and stalked two great northern divers, which were swimming about in a pool of glacier water close by. I meanwhile walked up to the foot of the Jokull, in order to investigate the cause of its intense blackness. Many of the Icelandic Jokulls are in close proximity to large plains of volcanic sand, and the lower portions bordering on the plains are often dirtied, over a large extent of the surface, by the black sand blown upon them. But the colour of the ice beneath remains un- changed, and generally shows itself in white patches here and there; and that part of it which is dusted over assumes a dark grey, rather than a decidedly black colour. Moreover, in such cases, wherever you can see far into the interior of these Jokulls, you find, as might naturally be expected, that those parts which are nearest to the sand- plains are darker than those which are more remote. In almost every Jokull that I saw thus discoloured, the white ice of the interior retained its natural whiteness, and was merely set in a border of a darker colour. But the ap- pearance of the Skeidarar Jokull was very different. Every part of it that we could see was quite black. I came to the Jokull just at the spot where a tributary stream of the Skeidara rushed out of a dark cavern in the ice. The roof and sides of this cavern were of the same jet black hue as the surface of the Jokull. My riding-whip was the only instrument at hand with which I could break the ice. With it I could not do more than 38 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. chip ofF the angles of the projecting masses. But this wa^ enough to convince me that the sand and grit were frozen into the ice, and not merely lying upon its surface. How far the mass of the Jokull was thus impregnated with sand I had no means of discovering. It looked as if its whole body was thus discoloured. The ice in the blocks which had become detached from the Jokull and had fallen on the plain seemed black throughout, and not merely coated with sand grit ; and this was my impression after examining several of them. If I am right in this belief, the whole Jokull was probably impregnated with black sand in the same way ; and this would account for the difference of its appearance from that of every other Jokull I saw. It is difficult to account for this entire impregnation of the mass with black sand, on the supposition that it arose only from the sand having been blown over it; for in that case there would have been some white ice visible in the fissures and caverns, at least. The only solution that occurs to me, is that some volcanic eruption in the interior of the Jokull, similar to that which oc- curred in May, 1861, showered down an enormous quantity of sand and cinders on the snow before it be- came ice, and that the process of alternate melting and freezinc^, which converts snow into ice, carried the sand into the very heart of the Jokull. On my rejoining the rest of the party, we all mounted, and at once moved off to attempt the passage of the river. The farmer, who had exchanged his second horse, which he had ridden from the Nupsvatn, for his favourite cream- coloured water-horse, led the way ; zigzagging from sand- bank to sand-bank across two or three lesser streams, we soon reached the shore of the main channel. After a moment's halt the guide rode on into the stream. CROSSING A DANGEROUS RIVER. 39 Scarcely had his horse advanced half a dozen steps into the water, when the force of the current all but swept him off his legs, and the guide had to turn him back to the shore. Finding that it was impossible to ford the river at this point, we left the island sand-bank upon which we were, and rode down stream through the water for some distance, picking our way through the shallows as well as we were able. We proceeded in this way for some distance without being able to find any place where the river appeared at all practicable. At length we came to a shallow, where our guide pulled up to take a survey of our way. The water here was up to our horses' girths, and very swift ; but it served as a sort of resting-place in the midst of the deeper waters round it. Having satisfied himself as to our route, our guide again urged on his horse through the stream, and led the way towards the mid channel. We followed in his wake, and soon were all stemming the impetuous and swollen torrent. In the course of our journey we had before this crossed a good many rivers more or less deep ; but all of them had been mere child's play compared to that which we were now fording. The angry waves rose high against our horses' sides, at times almost coming over the tops of their shoulders. The spray from their broken crests was dashed up into our faces. The stream was so swift, that it was impossible to follow the individual waves as they rushed past us, and it almost made one dizzy to look down at it. Now, if ever, is the time for firm hand on rein, sure seat, and steady eye : not only is the stream so strong, but the bottom is full of large stones, which your horse cannot see through the murky waters ; if he should fall, the torrent will sweep you down to the sea — its white breakers are plainly visible as they run along the shore at scarcely a mile's distance, and they lap the beach as if they waited r t1 K ,i 40 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. for their prey. Happily, they will be disappointed. Swim- mmg would be of no use, but an Icelandic water-horse seldom makes a blunder, or a false step. Not the least of the risks we ran in crossing the Skeidara, was from the masses of ice carried down by the stream from the Jokull, many of them being large enough to knock a horse over. Fortunately we found much less ice in the centre and swiftest part of the river, where we were able to see and avoid it, than in the side channels. How the horses were able to stand against such a stream was marvellous ; they could not do so unless they were constantly in the habit of crossing swift rivers. The Ice- landers, who live in this part of the island, keep horses known for their qualities in fording difficult rivers, and they never venture to cross a dangerous stream unless mounted on a tried water-horse. The action of the Icelandic horses, when crossing a swift river, is very peculiar. They lean all their weight against the stream, so as to resist it as much as possible, and move onwards with a peculiar side step. This motion is not agreeable. It feels as if your horse were marking time without gaining ground ; and the progress made being really very slow, the shore from which you started seems to recede from you, whilst that for which you are making appears as far off as ever. When we reached the middle of the stream, the roar of the waters was so great that we could scarcely make our voices audible to one another : they were overpowered by the crunching sound of the ice, and the bumping of large stones against the bottom. Up to this point, a diagonal line, rather down stream, had been cautiously followed ; but when we came to the middle, we turned our horses' heads a little against the stream. As we thus altered our course, the long line of baggage-horses appeared to be swung round altogether, as if swept off QUICKSAND HOLES. 41 their legs. None of them, however, broke away, and they continued their advance without accident ; and at length we all reached the shore in safety. From the time that we first entered the river we were about an hour actually in the water, and it cannot have been less than a mile in breadth. The Skeidara is at all times one of the most for- midable rivers in Iceland ; but it is not always in such a dangerous state as when we crossed it. Our guide had crossed only two days before, and he then found it com- paratively free from danger. Its dangerous state was probably caused by the great heat of the previous day. We stopped for half an hour to let our horses feed on a patch of grass at a short distance from the river, and then proceeded. The country, which lies between the present and the old course of the Skeidara, is very remarkable. We found the greater part of the Sandr honeycombed, so to speak, with innumerable round quicksand holes. The largest of these were as much as thirty feet in diameter, and from ten to fifteen feet in depth. Many of them were half filled with water, generally of the milky-white colour of glacial streams. In some of them the farmer pointed out what he said was Jokull ice underneath the water; but in most there was no water, but only wet quicksands, which bubbled up as we rode by them. These holes lay close to one another, and were separated only by narrow ridges of sand, often scarcely a foot in width at the top, but sloping outwards and widening to- wards the bottom. The farmer said that they first made their appearance in the month of May 1861, when the out-flow of waters from the Jokull had subsided, and he attributed their presence to the Jokull having come down unmelted underneath the sand at the same time that the water rushed out from it. I think, however, that they were caused by the melting of the masses of ice, 11 V \ - 4, A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. wlucli were left deposited upon the plain on the subsidence of the floods caused by the eruption, and that the water coming from these masses of ice as they melted, soaked into the sand around them, and converted it into quick, sands. Henderson appears to have met with sxmilar holes filled with quicksand " in the usual channel of the Jokulsa a Breida-merkr, which he found dried up. ^ e did not meet with any such on the Breida-merkr Sandn These quicksand holes caused us much difficulty and delay ; it required great caution to prevent our loose horses, which we were driving before us, from pushing one another into them, especially when several of them tried to pass along the same narrow ridge between two of the holes at the same time. At length, after riding two or three hours amongst the sand holes, we reached an exten- sive flat tract of sand which lay beyond them. We hoped that, upon reaching this, we should find the ground better suited for riding over ; but we were disappointed, for we discovered that the surface, which here looked sound and firm enough, served only to hide the quicksands lyin- beneath it. At one place, where the sand looked damp and black, it bore the weight of the horses very well ; at another, where the appearance of the ground was pre- cisely the same, in went the leading horse, sinking into a slough of sand often shoulder-deep, sometimes deeper. From ""this he could not always extricate himself, and we had to dismount to help him out. The dry-look- ing places were no more to be trusted than the wet, for the dry sand was often a mere crust concealing a pit- fall, into which one or other of the horses would suddenly sink; fortunately, none of them were very deep. Our horses, after a little experience over this sort of ground, became very much frightened, and moved forward with the greatest caution and reluctance ; they huddled together VIEW OF THE ORCEFA JOKULL. 43 in a body, sniffed the ground with their noses, and we often had great difficulty in driving them forward, but where one horse had ventured all the others would imme- diately follow. We rode last of all, and found that the trodden sand generally bore us tolerably well, though not always, and once we saw Olaver, who was following some of the baggage-horses, suddenly disappear, horse and all, into a hole covered by a crust of sand, over which we were about to follow him ; he managed, however, to scramble out, and got his horse out unhurt. We could not have ridden less than five or six miles among these quicksands, and were not clear of them before it grew dark. A few miles after passing the Skeidara quicksands, we had a fine view of the Oroefa Jokull. There had been a thick drizzling rain falling most part of the afternoon ; but about the time of sunset the clouds vanished, and we saw the mountain with his summit glowing in the rich tints of the evening light, and looking the monarch of Icelandic Jokulls. The top of the mountain from this side appeared to be a high dome of snow, standing up out of a vast snow-field, which, with rounded slopes, fell away from it north and south, and then on each side rose again, so as to form two well-defined shoulders. From these the snow-slopes fell away much more steeply than between them and the summit. The most northern of these snowy heights, called Hvanna-dals-nukr, appeared almost to rival in height the Knappr itself. The dark rocks, which form the central dome of the Jokull, appear from almost every side like a black knob rising out of the snow; and hence it is called the Knappr, or button. From the snow-slopes beneath Hvanna-dals-nukr, a tery fine glacier falls in a precipitous ice-cataract, between two steep hills, into the plain beneath, forming with the slopes above a I.I i \ 44 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. continuous stretch of ice and snow, from the base to the summit, a height of nearly 6000 feet. ^ At length, after a long and tedious ride from the Skei- dara we reached three or four small streams, which flowed from the ea^t end of the Skeidarar Jokull, and from the Oroefa. After crossing these we felt grass agam beneath our horses' feet, and, cantering forward, soon heard the bark of dogs, and at 11.30 P.M. reached the farm of Svina- fell, our destination for the night; and we were not long in pitching our tent. The next morning (August 10th), as we were at break- fast in our tent, we heard ourselves accosted in English. The speaker turned out to be Mr. Milbanke, an English gentleman, who had come up to Iceland in the early part of the summer, and was travelling nearly the same route as ourselves. He had arrived at Svina-fell two days before us, and was lodging in the farmhouse. He told us, that when he crossed the Skeidara it was not in nearly such a dangerous state as that in which we had found it. After breakfast 3Ir. JNIilbanke proposed that we should accompany him in a walk to the Svina-fell glacier, which we had seen on the previous day from the Skeidarar Sandr, and was not ten minutes' walk from the farm. We gladly assented to his proposal; and, taking our alpenstocks, we all three started together on our expedition. We got upon it near its foot, where it adjoins the green slopes of Hafra-fell, a steep mountain abutting into the plaiu behind the farm, and shielding it from the cold winds that sweep over the icy tracts of the Vatna Jokull. The lower end of the glacier does not extend quite across the valley down which it descends, and a steep-sided hollow filled with the debris deposited by a lateral moraine separates it from the slopes of Hafra-fell. Above the bottom of this hollow rises a high bank of ice, which UPON A GLACIER. 45 forms the side of the glacier. Crossing the hollow, and scaling the bank, we gained the top of the glacier, and proceeded up it. The ice was everywhere full of minute air-cells, which gave it a white colour, and there were few places showing the brilliant colouring which is ordi- narily one of the greatest beauties of glacier ice. Even the crevasses were, as a rule, wanting in colour, — at least those on the lower part of the glacier. Higher up the vivid tints of blue and green, that lighted up the broken parts of a fine ice-cataract, fully atoned for the absence of colour below. The glacier at its lower part was not much crevassed, but its surface was broken by high ridges of ice, between which lay long and deep furrows. It looked as if it might once have been a flow- ing sea, and those long ridges rolling waves, arrested sud- denly in their onward course, and ice-bound in death-like stillness. They seemed still to maintain the lines of the swelling billows ; and one might almost fancy that it needed but some magician's wand to break the spell, and, unbinding the icy waves, let them once more roll onwards down the valley. As we proceeded up the glacier, deep crevasses opened in the troughs between the ridges, widening more and more the higher we ascended. We were too close beneath the steep sides of the Oroefa Jokull to obtain a good view of it. Far away to the west extended the dark expanse of the Skeidarar Jokull, while at its eastern end I saw a few small spots of white in its black ice-fields. After a walk of about two hours upon the glacier, we re- turned to the farm, and had our horses driven in from the pasturage grounds, and saddled for Knappa-vellir. When they had been collected together and brought in, we found one of the baggage-horses so lame as to be useless, and quite unable to go any farther. He had been badly I ?1 46 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. Strained in one of the sand sloughs on the Skeida- rar Sandr. We were in some perplexity bb to what wa^ best to be done under the circumstances, when the good people of the farm brought us a fresh horse of their own, and offered to exchange it for our injured animal. To our surprise, they were ready to do this a^ an act of hospitality, without expecting so much as a shilling to be thrown into this one-sided bargain. But their generosity did not end here; for our obligations to them were still more in- creased by their sendmg out to us, at the minute of our departure, the welcome present of a leg of mutton. It was a joint off one of two sheep, killed to provide for a funeral feast, to take place on the following day, when the body of an Icelander, who had met his death amongst the quicksands of the Skeidarar Sandr, two days before we crossed them, was to be buried at Sandfell, where is the nearest church. He and his horse had fallen into one of the holes and sunk deeply into the quicksand, and it was not without great difficulty that his body had been recovered and brought to Svina-fell. After his funeral his neighbours were to meet the next day, as is the custom in Iceland, at a feast given in memory of the dead. Bidding farewell to Mr. Milbanke, who intended to stay some days longer at Svina-fell, we started at 4.30 p.m., and after a ride of three hours and a half reached Knappa- vellir. We had determined to make this place our head- quarters for the next day or two, intending, if the weather should prove favourable, to attempt thence the ascent of the Orcefa Jokull. Our original intention was to have gone on to Kvisker, the farm from which Mr. Paulson attempted the ascent in 1794; but we were informed that there was not sufficient grass at that place for our horses, and therefore determined to stop at Knappa- vellir. BENEATH THE OR(EFA JOKULL. 47 The road between Svina-fell and Knappa-vellir was not very interesting. Shortly after leaving Svina-fell we passed beneath the Hvanna-dals glacier, one of the five or six glaciers that descend from the Oroefa Jokull towards the south. All of these are similar in character, being short steep glaciers, coming down from the heights of the moun- tain between the rocky sides of beetling fells. For the rest of the way the road lies beneath steep and lofty hills, which, like huge bastions, flank the base of the Oroefa Jokull. The ground beneath is a flat plain, consisting for the most part of sand ; though, scattered here and there in the midst of the sandy desert, a few isolated farms, with their green tuns and pasture-lands, offer a pleasing contrast to the general aspect of dreariness and desolation. The mountains, too, though barren above, are in many places luxuriantly green towards their bases; and, to judge from the large flocks of sheep that we saw grazing upon them near some of the farms, make good sheep-runs. Near to the farm of Hof we ascended a slight rise in the ground, and found ourselves upon a grassy plateau which surrounds Knappa-vellir. The grass lands here are much extended, and run out for a long distance towards the sea, ending in the flat spit of sand which almost joins the promontory of Ingolfs-hofdi with the mainland. Ingolfs-hofdi itself is a rather low, square looking, rocky headland, which runs out into the sea nearly opposite to Knappa-vellir. It is his- torically interesting, as being the spot where the Norwegian Ingolf landed on his second visit to Iceland. We reached Knappa-vellir at 8 o'clock in the evening, and found it the most populous place we had come to since leaving Eeyk- ja-vik. There are two farms here, each of them consisting of several houses ; so that there may be as many as five or six different families in the "^Ao7^e," as the Icelanders term a cluster of farms. Each farm has its separate tun. > 'I h «lt 48 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. . There being no church near, we pitched our tent in one of the tuns. It is the custom in Iceland for travellers to put up in the churches, and we generally found them very comfortable sleeping places; but where there wa^ no church, we preferred our tent to the too often close, and not very agreeable atmosphere of the Icelandic farm-houses; even although by so doing we had to make our bed upon the gi'ound, instead of sleeping literally upon mattresses of eiderdo>vn. We used, however, to obtain our necessary supplies of provisions from the houses : coffee, milk, butter, and kaku, (a sort of rye-flour damper), are to be met with almost everywhere. By the time that we had got up our tent, and spread our waterproof sheets and rugs upon the ground for our beds, Olaver appeared with a pot of steam- ino- hot coffee and a heap of kaku from the farm. So we drew one of our travelling boxes into the middle of the tent, to serve as a table, and sat down to supper. The leg of m'utton which we got at Svina-fell in the morning made an excellent addition to our fare. After supper came our evening pipes, and a bowl of warm new sheep's milk. Then we crept in between our rugs, and were soon sound asleep. ^August nth, >Su7ifZa?/.— We were naturally looked upon by the inhabitants as objects of great curiosity. Very few, if any, of them had ever seen a foreigner, except perhaps a few Danes, at Djupivogr or Eyrar-bakki, when they went there to lay in their stores of provisions. This part of the island had remained unvisited since M. Gaimard travelled through it in 1836, previous to which no traveller had been there since Henderson in 1815. The people seemed to find great pleasure in watching us, and looking at our books, maps, knives, and such sorts of things. When we were in our tent we had generally a group of half a dozen spectators clustering round the door. Their great delight CURIOSITY OF THE PEOPLE. 49 was to see us begin our meals. On these occasions we had quite a ring of people — men, women, and children — about us, who approached as near as they could, without being intrusive, and watched us until we began to eat, as if they expected to see something strange in our manner of doing so. Soon after we had begun, they generally one by one dispersed. Some of the children, who thus ga- thered round our tent, looked very sickly (one little girl was horribly deformed) ; but the men for the most part looked hearty enough, and several of them were fine tall strapping fellows; the women, too, though, like most of their countrywomen, they were not remarkable for their beauty, appeared strong and healthy. The weather all the morning was dark and threatening, and clouds of mist hung about the sides of the moun- tains. But in the afternoon it looked more promising, the clouds began to break, and the sun at intervals shone out brightly and warmly. At half-past four we set out for a stroll up the mountain behind the boer. Following up the course of a small stream, which flows down near the farms, we soon left behind us the grass lands which skirt the foot of the rising ground behind Knappa-vellir. Beyond them is a square bluff hill, standing out from the mountain, which from below appears almost perpendicular. Up this hill we proceeded : the ground of which it consists is loose shingle, excessively disagreeable to walk upon. Here and there, however, we found, to our great relief, long strips of a soft grey moss, which gave us good footing, and made the walking comparatively easy. Among the moss were innumerable berberries and blaberries, quite blue with fruit, ripe, juicy, and very tempting. After a hard pull of about twenty minutes we gained the brow of the steep slopes, and found ourselves in a sort of large semicircular basin of supervening ridges, which were wholly composed VOL. I. £ W A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. Of loose stones of various sizes, and shingle A few thin Its of rushes, a.d scattered plants of thrxft and b adder Lpion, grew amongst the stones. Both of these flowers Tmto deUght inbarren spots, where there is not soil enough sustain the growth of any other plant, and they are very eo::! on th": shmgle deserts of Iceland. The ndges above us were not very steep, and we soon gamed the rim of the basin, and came upon a large barren plateau, A FINE MOUNTAIN SCENE. St ORCEFA JOKVLL, FROM PLATEAU ABOVE KNAPPA-VELLIE. which sloped gently down from the N. and N.W. towards the S. The ground of this plateau was a shingle, made up chiefly of tuff, lava, and pumice stones ; amongst which were also a great number of small bits of obsidian, gene- rally of about the size of a nut, and blocks and boulders of a s>^enitic-looking rock. Soon after reaching the pla- teau we came in sight of the unsullied white snow-fields of the Oroefa Jokull, sparkling in the afternoon sun, which had by this time asserted his superiority over the clouds, and was shining as warmly and brightly as on an English summer afternoon. The snow-fields looked so inviting, and the day was so fine, that, had it not been too far spent to allow sufiicient light to make the ascent and return, we should at once have attempted the mountain. But it was too late ; and so, being attracted by the sound of a waterfall on our right, apparently at no great distance, we turned our steps in that direction, keeping nearly parallel to the snow-line that bounded the plain on the N. After walking for some two or three hundred yards we reached the brink of a preci- pice, which, with a corresponding precipice on the other side, bounded a narrow gorge. Through this, at the depth of several hundred feet below the plateau on which we stood, descended a steep and broken glacier, its ice coloured with the most lovely tints of green and blue. The glacier, fed by the snows of the Jokull, seemed to have broken with irresistible force through the opposing barriers of rocks, and made for itself a way towards the foot of the mountain. Sweeping round these rocks, the glacier entered the throat of the gorge, and after de- scending gradually for a short distance, fell down an almost precipitous cascade, filling up the whole width of the gorge. From the plateau upon which we were, we could peer over the perpendicular cliffs into the gaping crevasses that opened beneath. On our left, the waterfall, whose roar had attracted us, dashed with one bold leap down to the glacier, and then, after flowing along its surface for a short distance, disappeared beneath the ice. Above us farther off were the extensive snow-slopes of the Oroefa, sweeping down from the Knappr, a lofty dome of snow-capped rocks, which, like the hoary watch-tower of some ancient castle, overlooks the vast expanse of the Vatna Jokull. £ 2 52 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. UNFAVOURABLE WEATHER. 53 After spending some time in the enjoyment of this wondrous scene, we turned back the way we had come, and made across the plateau, in a N.W. direction, towards a high ridge of stones and rocky debris, which lay on the othe° side.'' This debris was evidently a moraine brought down by the ice from some dark rocks that rose out of the snow, like a vertical wall, at the distance of several hundred yards. In our way across the plateau we came to a large held of pumice sand, several acres in extent, deeply scored by the streams which flowed from the snow regions above. We found it in general very soft and friable, but in some places there lay imbedded in it great masses of pumice stone, not yet reduced to the fine powdery consistency of the sand around them. On the other side of the moraine, a broad tongue of ice ran down between two of the lower mountains of the Jokull. On this stood five or six ice-cones, varying in height from one to twenty feet, covered with black sand, and offering a curious contrast to the white ice which surrounded them. The view we obtained from this plateau was not so extensive as we had hoped. To the N. and N.E. it was confined by the Oroefa Jokull itself, and by Skadar-Qall, one of the dark buttress-like moun- tains that lie at the ba^e of the Jokull. To the N.W. it was equally shut out by the snow-slopes above us in that direction. To the W. we could see the dusky Skeidarar Jokull far beneath us, and to the S. the dark promontory of Ingolfs-hofdi set in the ocean, as in a framework of blue. Of the peaks, passes, and glaciers in the interior of the Vatna Jokull, we could see nothing. We had no time to explore more of the Oroefa that afternoon, but hurried homewards, to avoid being be- niohted. The sun was down when we reached our tent, and a daxk cloud-wrack rising up from the sea fully war- ranted the unfavourable answer we received to our anxious inquiries whether the next day would be fine. We were told that there was not the least hope of its clearing up enough to allow us to ascend the Jokull. August I2th. — When we first looked out, thick clouds hung about the tops of the mountains, but about 8 p.m. they began to clear oif, and on consulting the farmer in whose tun we had taken up our quarters, he held out some hopes of the day turning out fine after all. We deter- mined, therefore, upon making a start. The weather, which for the past week had generally been thick, clearing only for a few hours before sunset, seemed likely to continue ; so we felt that any chance of a fine day was not to be thrown away. Hoping that we might be favoured by one of those sudden changes which are common in the south-eastern parts of the island, we at once engaged the farmer to act as our guide, which he was ready enough to do, for the small sum of one dollar and two marks, not quite three shillings. Sigurdr, — for that was the farmers name, — was a fine strapping fellow of one or two and thirty, standing at least six feet high in his stockings ; but he scarcely looked prepared for a mountain expedition, when, in a quarter of an hour from the time that we had engaged him, he pre- sented himself before our tent door, with only a pair of common Icelandic shoes on his feet. Underneath the shoes, however, were two pair of stout, close-knit woollen stockings, bound below the knee, outside his dark blue breeches, with garters of blue, red, and white ; and round his neck was wound the comforter invariably worn by Icelandic guides. He had on his best dark woollen jacket and his best wide-awake hat, unmistakable signs that he was going from home ; and the heavy wooden drift-wood pole— armed at the bottom with a large iron spike of some ft. If I 6 i 54 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. three inches' length driven into the wood — spoke of the nature of his expedition. When, in addition to these, he had fastened round his broad shoulders the rope that we had provided, and had shouldered our ice-axe, he did not, after all, look so very unlike a mountaineer. Before we started, one of the people from the farm brought us each a pair of crampons, and offered to lend them to us. I preferred, however, trusting to the nails in my boots. The possession of crampons shows that the Icelanders are not alto- gether unacquainted with their Jokulls ; but as far as I could learn, they only venture upon them in search of stray sheep, or in crossing from one mountain sheep-run to another. Their national apathy and want of energy make it unlikely that they should associate themselves, like the Swiss peasants, with their mountains. Our few preparations were soon made, and we started from the beer about 8.30 A.M. Olaver remained behind, and, after bidding us farewell, stood looking after us, with a face expressive of the surprise, not unmingled with contempt, with which he regarded the foolhardiness of Englishmen, who ventured upon a Jokull for pleasure. Ascending the mountains immediately behind the boer, by a somewhat easier path than that we had chosen the day before, we soon mounted to a considerable height. At 9.50 we gained the stony plateau, which we had reached in our stroll the previous day, and after twenty minutes' more brisk walking we came to the first patch of old and dirty snow. Keeping on our left the moraine we had crossed the day before, we picked our way amongst the large stones of a water-worn gully, which lay between small hills of pumice. Passing over one of these hills, on which we found numerous bits of obsidian scattered about, we came to a spot where many cones and hard-frozen ridges of ice, covered with ORCEFA JOKULL. 55 pumice sand, marked the foot of the ice-fields of the Jokull. Here we rested for a few minutes before getting upon the ice, for we were already beginning to feel the heat of the day, the sun being very powerful, although the top of the mountain above us was still shrouded in thick clouds. Sigurdr, who felt the heat as much as we did, amused us by going to the nearest water-rill, and washing his head all over ; after this refreshing operation, he was ready for a fresh start. Indeed we could not afford a long rest, for the snow-terraces still rose before us : the hot sun would soon soften the snow, and every minute's delay would make the walking over it more laborious. We, therefore, rose from our resting-place, and in a few minutes set foot upon the ice. On the lower part of this there was no snow, and the thin coating of ice, with which last night's frost had covered the innumerable little water rills which coursed their way over the hard frozen surface of the neve, were yet unmelted^ and crackled crisply and joyfully beneath our feet. We struck across the ice in a N. W. direction, towards the mass of dark rocks, which, at the distance of five or six hundred yards from the place where we had first got upon the ice, cropped out of the bosom of the snow in a fine unbroken mass. Before we reached them a surface of snow had almost imperceptibly replaced that of ice; but as yet this was hard frozen and firm, and afforded good footing. Having reached the S. E. corner of the rocks, we kept below them till we came to their western corner. This we rounded, and proceeded up a steep ascent of snow, having the rocks on our right. Here our progress was stopped by a broad crevasse which was too wide to jump: we therefore left the vicinity of the rocks, and chose a way up the snow-slope 56 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. some distance from them. The neve (for the snow only served as a covering to it) was not much broken, and the walking was for some time very good. But by-and-by we came to a place where several crevasses showed them- selves beneath the upper crust of snow, which looked as if it concealed others. We therefore thought it better to have recourse to the rope. Shepherd and I accordingly bound ourselves in the usual manner, and tried to prevail upon Sigurdr to follow our example; but he only laughed at us, and assured us that "he had often been upon the Jokull before," and there was no "fear for him:" "he was not afraid of the crevasses." We endeavoured to ex- plain to him that our safety, as well as his own, might depend upon all being properly tied. Our persuasions were all in vain. " You are safe enough so," he repeated ; until at length, finding that nothing that we could say would induce him to link his fate with ours, we let him do as he wished, and started again. He led the way with the end of the rope loosely twisted two or three times round his right hand, in which he also carried his alpen- stock; while Shepherd and I followed roped together. Thus we proceeded up the snow-slopes, now making a circuit to avoid a crevasse, and now crossing one on a bridge of snow. The ascent for the first half-hour after we had got upon the ice was very easy. At the end of that time we had a fatiguing pull up a long snow-slope, lying at an inclina- tion of 30°, the surface of which had already been sufficiently softened by the morning sun to make the walking up it tedious work. We reached the top of this slope about mid-day, and crossed a narrow snow plateau to the slopes beyond. Here we found the last patch of old snow that we saw in the course of our ascent. The roimded terraces of the mountain that rose above us were all covered with a new and dazzling mantle. A BERGSCHRUND 57 After toiling up hill for a quarter of an hour more, we found further progress apparently barred by an immense chasm, or bergschrund, which yawned before us, right in the line of our path, and ran east and west as far as we could see. We halted on its brink to hold a council of war as to our best mode of proceeding. Sigurdr suggested that we had come quite high enough, and might as well return home at once. He could not imagine that we wished to reach the summit. He hinted that we had seen the Jokull, and that that was what we had wanted. This suggestion, I need scarcely say, did not at all accord with our ideas, and we scouted it at once. But how to get any higher was the question. It was manifestly impossible to think of leaping or descending the crevasse, for it was enormously wide and deep, and along its brink ran a broad coping of snow, upon which we could not safely trust ourselves, as it was in a very unsound and dangerous state, and we could hear portions of it now and then fall- ing into the chasm with a deep and ominous thud. After looking about us, the only possible way of crossing it seemed to be upon a frail-looking snow-bridge that spanned it at some distance to our left. On our right. It extended as far as we could see, until the brow of a rising terrace of snow hid its continuation from our view. However, the bridge looked so dangerous and un- inviting that we sent Sig-urdr off to the right, to see if he could discover any better way across. Meanwhile we sat down at the spot where we had first reached the crevasse, and while we were waiting I buried one of my thermometers an inch deep under the snow. On taking it up again it stood at -4° C, or 24-8 Fahr. Before long ' Sigurdr returned, and reported that he could find no practicable way in the direction that he had taken, so there was no course open to us but to cross the snow- :' I f 58 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. THE FOOT OF THE DOME. 59 \r bridge on our left. We therefore started again in the saml order as before, Sigurdr first, holding the rope, then J, and last in the line Shepherd. Cautiously we felt our way along the snow-coping, treading in each other's foot- steps, and sounding at every step with our alpenstocks. We sank knee-deep into the soft snow, through which we could easily thrust our alpenstocks. This was dangerous work so long as it lasted. On our right hand was the wide yawning chasm, too near to be pleasant whilst we were treading on such treacherous ground. A foot on our left was a steep declivity of snow, at the bottom of which opened another wide-gaping crevasse. Every hole made by our alpenstocks, and every deep footmark, sparkled with a lovely vivid blue. Advancing thus, we came to another wide crevasse, opening at right angles to that running across our path which had proved so great an obstacle. Luckily we found a snow-bridge by which we crossed it, though not with- out some danger, stamping down the loose snow until it became sufficiently close to bear our weight. We then found ourselves at the end of the snow-bridge, by which we hoped to be able to pass over the large crevasse. It looked formidable enough, in the treacherous condition of the snow ; for our rope, although a tolerably long one, was not long enough to reach across the whole width of the crevasse, and for six or seven steps we must all be upon the bridge together. But we had no choice, and cautiously followed one another over it. In a few minutes we had all crossed in safety. From this spot to the Knappr itself we found very little real difficulty ; but the snow-slopes ' were steep ; and since the surface of the snow was by this ime much softened, and we generally sank into it ankle deep, and often deeper, the walking was rather laborious. The few crevasses that were in our path did not give us much trouble. Indeed, we had no difficulty until we arrived at the brink of a bergschrund, at the distance of some fifty yards from the base of the dome. The upper side of this was at a considerably higher elevation than that on which we stood ; but it was not very wide, and a few fee below its mouth, it was further narrowed by a ridge snow on each side. Sliding down to that on the near side, Sigurdr jumped across the chasm, and, standing on the ridge on the other side, cut a few steps in the hard-caked snow with the ice-axe, and scrambled up. We followed ; and in ten minutes more we were all standing together on a narrow ledge of snow at the bottom of a steep snow-bank, which clung to the rocks at the foot of the Knappr or dome. It was now nearly 1.30 p. m. Sigurdr insisted that we had reached the summit of the Jokull, and that it was impossible to climb any higher. No one ever had gone, and no one ever could go higher. However, since he knew no more of the top of the mountain than we did, and since he had half a dozen times in the course of our ascent suggested that we were already high enough, we did not put much faith in his opinion. We were determined, at least, to do our best to reach the top of the dome, though we could not hope to gain much by so doing, except the satisfaction of not being thwarted in our wish to reach the summit ; for the mist, which had partially cleared away in the middle of the day, and held out to us tantalising hopes of a fine view, was now again fast rolling up the sides of the mountain, and must inevitably in a short time envelop it and us in its impenetrable thickness. There was evidently not a minute to be lost. The only question was, in what way we were most likely to succeed. The snow bank, at the foot of which we were standing, rose steeply for about fifteen feet V '< 60 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. above us. Above it towered almost over our heads, to the height of fifty or sixty feet, the perpendicular cliffs which form the sides of the Knappr, too steep to allow of any snow lodging upon them. Above these, again, rose a thick cap of snow, crowning their summit. The northern side of the Knappr was, as we had seen from below, less pre- cipitous, and was covered with snow. Up this we had hoped to be able to find a way ; but now that we were close to, and almost within a stone's throw of the actual summit of the Jokull, we discovered, to our great disappointment, that we were almost as far off as ever from this, the only way up the rocks that seemed at all practicable. We were cut off from it by a system of wide crevasses in the broken snow. To have crossed these we must have descended again half-way down the mountain, and made a long detour to the left. This we could not possibly have done before the fog closed round us. Nothing was left, therefore, but to make an attempt from our present position. Shepherd was unfortunately so knocked up by the pace we had been walking, and the heat in the early part of the day, that for a time he was unfit for any further exertion. As for Sigurdr, he was so firm in his conviction that it was impossible to climb an inch higher, that he at first refused to stir a step. But I knew that every minute of clear weather was precious, so without waiting until Shepherd had recovered, or Sigurdr would listen to my persuasions, I loosed myself from the rope, and determined to see how far an ascent was really practicable. The snow-bank was very precipitous, and the snow which composed it very soft. As I stamped it down to make a firmer footing my leg went in more than knee-deep, and it was difficult to obtain any hold for my alpenstock, which kept slipping through to its full length each time I thrust it before A STEEP SNOW-BANK. 61 me. The ascent was so steep that, as I leant for- ward in making a fresh step upwards, my chest almost touched the snow opposite; but the bank was not very high, and this upstairs work did not last long. When I was half-way up the bank, I found that Sigurdr was coming up the slope behind me. Practice is better than precept ; and when he saw that I was in earnest about attempting to reach the top, .he followed. We soon came very near to the top of the bank. It was not, as I had imagined, leaning against the sides of the dome ; but the portion of it nearest to the rocks had melted and fallen away from them, leaving' a gap of three feet between them and the top of the bank, which was merely a thin edge of snow. Leaning against this, and peering over it into the gap, I saw that the bank on which we were stand- ing was much excavated, and formed a large snow cavern beneath us. It was only the uncertain support of the roof of this cavern that we had under our feet. It was impossible to climb the rocks from this point ; and there- fore, descending a short distance down the snow bank, in order to obtain a more reliable footing, we kept along' its side for about a dozen yards. Here I thought it might be possible to scramble up the face of the rocks to a small ledge some twenty feet above the snow, and that if I could reach this, I saw a chance of being able to climb still higher. Sigurdr, who was perhaps right, declared the place to be quite impracticable, and would not attempt it. However, it seemed to me that here lay our only chance, and so I determined not to give up unless fairly beaten. I therefore again scaled the snow-bank, and, after some difficulty, managed from it to reach a small ledge of rock that jutted out at about the same height as the top of the snow. But the work of scaling the rocks was no easy matter. They were of clay-slate, the laminated 4 62 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. nature of which had indeed made numerous small shelves and edges in their otherwise precipitous face ; but these shelves^'were not only so small as to afiford a poor hold for hand and foot, but most of them had been so loosened by the weather, that they broke off and fell at the slightest touch. There is much advantage in having a good place to start from when climbing difficult rocks. The ledge upon which I was standing was only some three inches wide, and the precipice continued below me for ten or twelve feet, and there ended in a great shoulder of rocks, bulging out into the snow at their base. I managed, however, to climb up the rocks to a height of about fifteen feet above the top of the snow-bank ; but it was quite impossible to climb higher, owing to the very loose and broken state of the laminated shelves. In descending again, I narrowly escaped a dangerous fall from the giving way of the ledge upon which I was standing, but I eventually managed to regain the top of the snow-bank in safety. Sigurdr, who had meantime kept along it some way farther, now came back, and re- ported that the rocks were just as steep there as where I had attempted them. On his return, he found me in rather an absurd and awkward position. I was sitting astride the edge of the snow-bank, without being able to stir. My alpenstock, which I had been holding too loosely, had slipped out of my hand through the roof of snow into the cavern beneath, and without it I could not very well descend the bank of loose snow. Sigurdr helped me out of this predicament, and recovered my alpenstock for me : it had luckily lodged between the rocks and snow at no great distance down. The fog was now gather- ing thickly round us, and obliged us to give up further attempts to reach the summit. Descending, therefore, to the bottom of the snow-bank. WE DESCEND IN A FOG. 63 we rejoined Shepherd, and, roping ourselves together again, at 2.5 P.M. turned our backs upon the Knappr, not a little disappointed at our failure. I am by no means sure that the dome is equally impracticable on every side; although, if Paulson actually reached the foot of it (of which there is some doubt, from the account of his ascent quoted in Henderson's book), then the summit would appear to be equally inaccessible on the S. E. side. A traveller attempting to ascend the Knappr from Knappa- vellir would be most likely to succeed by crossing the ice from the shingle plateau in a N.W, direction for about a mile, and then turning up the mountain. I am inclined to think, however, that a better view of the interior of the Vatna Jokull would be obtained from Hvanna-dals-nukr, which should be ascended from Svina-fell. We cannot be said to have had any view at all : the fog shut out the distance, and we saw even less than during our stroll the previous day. Nor could I discover any traces of the crater mentioned by Paulson, although we must have been very close to the spot from which he observed it. It is possible that it has long since been filled up by snow. Our descent was rapid. We left the ice at 3.15 p.m., by which time we could only see a few yards before us, so thick was the mist, and we reached the thorpe again at 5 o'clock,— our expedition having only occupied eight hours and twenty minutes. August 13/A.— The weather was again hopelessly bad, and, anxious as we were again to attempt the Jokull, we could not afford to wait for its clearing up, and had to pursue our journey eastwards. With Sigurdr as our fylgdar-madr, we started for Eeyni-vellir at 9 a. m. The grass-lands of Knappa-vellir were soon passed, and then we came upon a flat tract of stony ground, the shingle which composed it being made up of bits of lava. I V i It , :1 64 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. pumice, slag, tuff, and obsidian. This plain, called Knappa-vellir Sandr, extended on the S. to the sea, and was bounded on the N. by the precipitous mountains that flank the Oroefa Jokull. These were separated from one another by steep narrow ravines, above which the weather-broken rocks beetled to an immense height. Down the ravines abrupt and declivitous glaciers descended to the plain. After traversing the level tract of Knappa-vellir Sandr, our road descended a sloping hill, partially covered with moss, and we entered the Breida-merkr Sandr, one of those flat, dreary plains of sand which border the coast, more or less, beneath the whole length of the Yatna Jokull. The farm of Kvisker is a little oasis in this desert, the rest of the plain being quite barren. Near Kvisker the Oroefa Jokull and Breida-merkr Jokull are united ; — indeed they are, strictly speaking, the same Jokull : for although they, as many other parts of the Vatna Jokull, are distinguished by particular names, yet in reality all these parts form but one enormous tract of ice, extending from the Skaptar Jokull on the W. to the Heina-bergs Jokull on the E., a distance of sixty or seventy miles. Unlike the Oroefa, the Breida-merkr Jokull is not a mountain, but rather an ice-plain, which nowhere rises to the height of more than 300 or 400 feet above the sea level. At its W. or lower end it terminates in a steep short incline, unlike either the terminal wall of the Skeidara Jokull or the marginal slopes of the Merkr Jokull. This incline appears to be the natural shape of the glacier, and not the result of accident. Its base rests upon a hill of shingle and gravel raised above the rest of the Sandr, which is easily dis- tinguishable from an ordinary terminal moraine, and has apparently been ploughed up by the Jokull in its advance towards the sea. It is flat at the top for a short distance from the ice, and then slopes down to the sand beneath, the AN ISLAND IN A SEA OF ICE. 65 slope being covered with heather and moss. As we pro- ceeded, the margin of the Jokull became more irregular in shape, consisting of immense blocks of ice sometimes almost perpendicular as a wall, at others fallen about in shapeless disorder. But, as a rule, the ice near the margin was not much fissured, whilst the surface of the glacier more in the interior of the Jokull was broken into large cubical blocks, that gave it a very irregular appearance. The ice was slightly coloured, being for the most part remarkably white, like that of the Svina-fell glacier, and, with the exception of the part close to its margin, was not at all discoloured with sand or grit. As we rode along, I observed one or two moraines. They come from the Breida-merkr-muli, a curious grass- covered mountain, which stands alone in the middle of the Jokull, — a green island in a sea of ice,— at the distance of about a mile from its margin. The sheep of a neigh- bouring farm are sent over the ice every summer to this mountain to graze. In one place, near the margin of the Jokull, were a number of ice-cones coated with black sand. The appearance of a group of these black sugarloaf-shaped cones upon the white ice was very remarkable. They were of all sizes, from fifteen feet downwards. Henderson describes the Breida-merkr Jokull as being subject to remarkable fluctuations. Near its S.E. corned, he discovered a track, made only eight days before his arrival, lost and swallowed up in the ice ; and the ice had, at that time, evidently advanced a considerable dis- tance beyond its bounds of fifty years before. I could not learn from any one who Hved in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Jokull that it now shows any perceptible changes in its dimensions. The only person who spoke of its advance at the present time was one of the priests at Hof, who told me that it had certainly advanced towards the sea during the last ten years. But my own observa- VOL. I. J. Ik 66 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. tions 33 to the position of the Jokiill, according as they do with the clear descriptions of Henderson (written in 1815), and the accurate map of Gunnlaugsson (published in 1845), make me doubt how far this information is to be relied upon. The Jokull is seen in the shape of a large semicircle. Its centre part projects towards the sea, anddi- minishes the width of the Breida-merkr Sandr from four or five miles to that of one. Across the narrowest part of the Sandr, the Jokulsa a Breida-merkr Sandr, generally reputed as the most dangerous river in Iceland, rushes from the Jokull with resistless impetuosity. We reached this river at 2.30 P.M., and as we approached it, it certainly looked as if it deserved the character it bears. It is sometimes possible to avoid fording the river by crossing the ice of the Jokull above it. This is the only way by which sheep can be taken from one side of the river to the other ; but, although it is generally practicable for sheep, and persons on foot, it is very seldom that horses can cross. Sigurdr, however, thought it worth while to make a reconnais- sance ; and as, on his return, he pronounced it impossible, we were obliged to cross the river in the usual way. I shall not a second time recount the adventures of the passage of an Icelandic Jokulsa ; suffice it to say, that we found the Jokuls4 ^ Breida-merkr Sandr little less dangerous than the Skeidara. Both rivers were of neariy the same breadth, and in both the current was strong, and shoals of ice were being carried down. We reached the eastern shore of the Jokulsd at 3.30, having been about three-quarters of an hour in crossing. Our road at times led us very near the sea, and the whole coast for miles was strewn with bleached and bleaching pieces of driftwood, chiefly pine logs, many of which still retained the stumps of their branches. These logs are said to come from the wrecks of Norwegian timber vessels, which have DRIFTWOOD. 67 foundered from time to time in the Northern Sea; but they are too numerous to be thus accounted for, and some must, I think, be drifted from the Norwegian coast. The quantity is so great, that not only does it serve the people for firewood, but they also build and repair their houses with it. The priest at Bjarna-nes, where the church had been newly restored, informed me that the repairs had been made wholly of timber cut from driftwood found upon the coast near the spot. After continuing our mo- notonous ride over the dreary Breida-merkr Sandr for two OECEFA JOKULL, FJttOM BEYNI-VELLIR. hours and a half from the Jokulsa, we came to a place where the Jokull takes a sharp turn towards the N.E. It continues this direction for a short distance only, when its continuity is interrupted by Fell, a high rocky moun- tain, ending in steep beetling crags, and split in two from top to bottom by an enormous fissure. The disrupted cliff looks as if it might at any minute fulfil an old prophecy, — that it shall some day topple over, and annihilate the little farm at its base. p 2 68 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. PARVUS IMBER. 69 We reached Eeyni-vellir at 6.10 r.M. Soon afterwards the clouds cleared off from the Oroefa Jokull, and we ob- tained a fine view of its summit and snowy slopes. August 14^^.— We were in the saddle again, aad started for Bjarna-nes at 8.35 a.m.: the morning was as warm and sunny as could be wished. For the first part of our way we rode beneath a mountain range, that extends along the south of the Jokulls, and bars their progress into the plain. The south sides of these mountains form impos- ing precipices, that, coming sheer down into the valley below, terminate in grassy banks, strewn with masses of rock that have fallen from the cliffs above, amidst which the flocks were browsing. The cliffs are much broken by the weather at their summits, and Echo makes them her favourite haunt, judging from the frequent response she sent back to the baying of the Eeyni-vellir dogs. The grassy slopes beneath them are bright with buttercups, w^hite clover flowers, campanulas, and forget-me-nots, all growing in great luxuriance. Leaving these mountains behind, W€ rode across a broad tract of sand towards Kalfa-fell- stadr, near which we had much difficulty in crossing the morasses. After passing these, our road led us close to the sea, round the point of a projecting mountain called Hestr- gerdis-nukr. High up in the cliffs of this mountain is a very singular-looking group of red basaltic organ- pipes, arranged with great regularity of structure, though bulging out considerably from the face of the rock. Soon aft«r 5 o'clock we reached Holtar, a farm which stands in a large marshy plain on the W. bank of the Horna- fljot, a broad glacier stream flowing from the Heina- bergs Jokull. Here we had to engage a fresh guide to take us across the river, which is about two miles in width, and has a sandy bottom, in which are said to be many quicksands. The road across it was marked out by stones and poles stuck in the water, and we found no great diffi- culty in fording it. The water was not in any place deeper than up to our horses' girths, and the stream was not swift. Far away on our left were several long brown mountain ridges, running back from the plain for two or three miles into the white Jokull, which came down between them in a broad fan-shape stream, spreading out considerably as it approached the plain. Other ridges jutted out into the valleys between the Jokull and the sea. At the base of one of these lay Bjarna-nes, the centre of a great number of farms that lined the green shore of the Horna-fljot. We reached it at 6.50 p.m., and pitched our tent in the tun adjoining the priest's house. August I5th. — We were unwillingly detained at Bjarna- nes the whole day by a raging storm of wind and rain, whose fury it was impossible to think of facing. Our host called it ^'Pai^us imberJ'^ Parvus imher^ indeed ! A north-easterly gale tearing over the mountain-tops made his whole house quiver in its blast, whilst the rain swept past in almost vertical torrents, ever hurried onwards to- wards the dark cloud-shrouded Jokull. For half the night the wind shook the canvas walls of our tent as though it would tear them into shreds, and drove the rain through them in showers. When we were awake, — and the night was not such as to leave our sleep altogether undisturbed, — ^we were in momentary expectation of seeing the fasten- ings give way, or the pole snap, and of having the wet canvas flapping about our ears; but pegs and pole held out bravely. In the morning we found the ground on which we were lying a perfect pool of water, and we were fairly driven out of the tent, and fled for refuge to the church. The churches are, as I have said, commonly used for i^**! Li 70 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. the reception of travellers ; they are usually built of wood, but often have the additional protection of a thick turf wall : with the difference of being built of wood only, or of wood and turf together, they are, with few exceptions, of the same type everywhere throughout the island. They are small oblong buildings, with no more architectural design than a bam. The entrance is at one end, and from it a passage between rows of open seats leads to a square space at the other, in one corner of which stands the pulpit, and in the middle the altar-table is railed in. Above the altar there is generally hanging, or painted on the wooden wall itself, a rudely daubed picture. The one here repre- sents the Crucifixion : the scene is laid in a valley between snow-covered mountains, with a large house on the left, for- cibly reminding me of a print that I have seen of the Great St. Bernard Pass. Sometimes, though less frequently, the panels of the pulpit are also painted. The churches are often so low, that the head of a person standing in the pulpit is above the beams which support the roof. Some of them have a loft running half-way down their length above the beams, used as a repository for the saddles, nets, dresses, and such like things of the families who live at the houses adjoining; where there is no such loft, the things are hung upon the beams themselves, or on nails driven into the walls. It seemed strange at first to use the churches as sleeping and living rooms; but we soon got used to it, generally making up our beds in the space on each side of the altar-rails. And since the churches are in most places kept in good repair, and are usually cleaner and more airy than the houses, we always pre- ferred them to sleep in, when we left our tent for the shelter of a roof. August 16th, — Although the hurricane had somewhat abated its rage, yet the wind was still strong and furious ; THE ALMANNA-SKARD. 71 but not enough so to deter us from proceeding. We left Bjarna-nes at 11.30 A. m., and after skirting the hills to the N.E. for some distance, turned towards the S.E. across the Laxar-dalr, a large, flat valley, for the most part fer- tile, but in places sandy and barren. About 1 p.m. we reached the little farm of Thinga-nes, which lies beneath a high and steep ridge of mountains, that, running out from the base of the Heina-bergs Jokull, continues in a southerly direction to the sea, there ending in the point called Vestra-horn (West Foreland). Under this ridge, which forms a complete barrier between Laxar-dalr and the country to the E., we rode for some distance over rough, rocky ground, close to the sea. Sometimes the rocks were strewn so thickly that we were obliged to ride into the water to find a passage. After half an hour over this sort of ground, we suddenly turned towards the N.E., up a steep narrow path, which led obliquely up the face of an almost precipitous slope in the ridge, to the Almanna-skard (All men's gap), a mountain pass,1by which alone the range can be crossed. The mountain side, up which the path rims, consists of loose rocky debris, and stones, which have fallen from the heights above, that ever threaten to sweep it with fresh avalanches. The horses, as they passed along, set in motion, and sent clat- tering down the mountain, heaps of loose debris. Sure- footed as they were, it required all their agility to prevent themselves from sliding down with the slipping ground they trod upon. On reaching the top of the'' pass we came to a mountain valley, which sloped gradually down towards the N.E. to a level plain lying at the base of the range. The mountains on each side were very fine, many of them consisting of immense, perfectly-shaped ppamids of whitish basalt. Eiding down into the valley, we passed, along the shores of Papa-fjordr, a narrow bay, ' i 72 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. extending for many miles along the coast, and bounded seawards by a long flat bar of sand, which runs in an almost unbroken line between Vestra-horn (West Fore- land) and Eystra-horn (East Foreland). When we reached Vola-sel, a farm in the plain, we had to obtain the services of the farmer to guide us across the often dangerous Jokulsa i Loni. He was out in his hay-grounds when we arrived, but, on being summoned, at once left his work. As his horse had to be caught and saddled, we accepted his invitation to come into his house and take cofiee. The house was the poorest that I saw anywhere in Iceland, and very dirty. En- tering it through the low door in the thick turf wall, we stepped down to the floor of the low-roofed entrance- passage, which, as in all Icelandic houses, was sunk a foot or two below the level of the ground outside, for the sake of warmth. After groping our way along this passage in complete darkness, we came to a door which led us up a pair of steps into the general living and sleeping room of the whole family. It was a long, low, narrow, mud-floored room, along one side of which was placed a row of low bed-straddles, covered with thin mattresses and coverlids. Here slept all the family — men, women, and children — in the same room. Everything in it bore unmistakable signs of squalid poverty. Upon the beds were lolling two or three girls, and as many children were playing on the mud floor. In one corner was a fire, over which the goodwife was stooping, engaged in cooking something, which did not improve the stifling atmosphere of the room. The only light that found its way into the chamber at all, struggled faintly through a little glass pane, placed high up in the four-foot thick turf wall, and no air conld enter except through the door and along the passage. Passing through this room, we were shown A PRIESTLY RECEPTION. 73 into another about six feet square, containing a small table, a bedstead, and a wooden chest, as its only ftirni- ture. On pegs in the walls were hung the clothes, &c., of the diff'erent members of the family, and upon the window- ledge stood the bottle of corn brandy and its one com- panion wine-glass, which are almost always to be seen in the guest-room of every Icelandic farm-house. The window itself was rendered impervious to the weather, by being made so fast as to defy all attempts at opening it. The closeness in both these rooms was intolerable, and we were glad to escape again into the open air. In front of the house a large heap of Icelandic moss (Fjalla-gros) was drying for winter use. The Jokulsd was much flooded, and we had to ride two or three miles up the valley before we were able to cross it ; which, however, we did without difiiculty, although its width is considerable. After riding some distance across the flat plain, through which the Jokulsd runs, at 8.15 p.m. we entered the tun of the priest of Stafa-fell, and again took up our quarters in the church. The priest himself was not at home when we first arrived, but on his return he at once came out to welcome us. " Salve, domine ! " I hear, shouted out in a jovial voice, as I stand in the church- yard, and, turning round, see his reverence in his shirt- sleeves, and hatless, his long gray hair tossed about in the still furious wind. " Salve, domine ! " and he grasped my hand with the cordiality of an old friend, nearly tumbling headlong into me, as he stumbled over a grave in his eagerness to welcome me. Then, after putting some question to Olaver, and making a remark to himself sotto voce, away he rushed again, and, diving through the low doorway of his house, soon reappeared, followed by two of his women-servants, struggling against the wind towards the church, beneath mattresses and beds of eider down. 74 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. LONS HEIDI. 75 '1 By the time our beds had been made to our host's satis- faction, it was quite dark, and he lighted for us the two large tallow candles which stood in massive brass candlesticks upon the altar. Then away he dashed into the darkness, again to appear after a short time, when, seizing one of the candlesticks, and bidding Olaver take the other, with more words of welcome he invited us into his house, and we were soon seated at his table, supping off a well-cooked dish of mutton, washed down with copious draughts of warm new milk. August nth,— ''Bonus dies, clomine!'' shouted our host, whilst yet a dozen yards off, as he skipped over the gTaves towards us, soon after we were up. He then invited us to come in and take coffee and breakfast — for in Iceland coffee always comes before breakfast. Indeed, it properly comes the very first thing in the morning. Whenever a guest passes a night in an Icelandic house, lie is awoke in the morning by the entrance into his room of one of the women of the house (generally the wife or daughter of his host), with a cup of coffee and a rusk, which she deposits by his bed- side. The priest sat down to breakfast with us, and we chatted away of England and Iceland as fast as we could make each other understand. When, after breakfast, we were starting again on our journey, all the family came to see us off, and we found that the priest and two of his sons intended to ride some way with us. When we bade adieu to our kind entertainers. Shepherd made one of the boys a present of a knife, and narrowly escaped being kissed by all the family circle in token of their gratitude. A curious mountain forms the principal feature in the view from Stafa-fell. It is the end one of the range that runs out to the Vestra-horn, and is split into three irre- gular pyramids,— the two outside leaning over towards the centre. It is several miles distant from Stafa-fell, on the other side of a perfectly flat plain. After riding with us for some distance, the priest turned back with one of his sons, leaving the other to guide us to Hof, where he advised us to stay the night, promising us that we should find the priest there a " vir egregius,'^ When we reached the eastern end of the plain, in which Stafa-fell is situated, our path took us over a rugged field of rocks, which lay at the foot of the mountains, and ex- tended quite down to the sea ; so that, in several places, we again found it better to ride through the water. Leaving the plain, we ascended a rocky way up the mountains, by the side of a pretty stream, full of leaping falLs and rocky pools and rapids, to the top of Lons-heidi. Near the top, a good-sized fall of water leaped over the rocks into a dark pool beneath, a depth of thirty or forty feet. As we ap- proached the summit of the pass, a cold misty rain began to fall, which, driven by furious gusts right into our faces, prevented us from seeing far into the dreary waste of the Heidi. After some time we descended from the high ground into the plain of Starmyra, lying to the E. of the moun- tains we had just crossed. In the descent, our road ran by the side of a dark and boisterous mountain tor- rent, that rushed down from the hills between high walls of rock, and flashed over many a foam-whitened rapid. At more than one spot, I observed running out from these walls very striking basaltic dykes ; and near the bottom of the descent we had to ride down a natural staircase, over the tops of upright basaltic columns, which few but Ice- landic horses could have managed to descend. It was very like riding down the steps at the Giant's Causeway. After galloping across a sandy plain, washed by a Jokulsa, which flows from Hofs Jokull, we arrived at Hof about 5.30 p.m. i [ 1 1 76 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. As we approached the house, the boy rode on to tell the priest of our arrival, and no sooner had we pulled up close by the tun, than a rather short, elderly man, who turned out to be his reverence in person, rushed out of the house to- wards us with outstretched hands, shouting at the top of his voice, " Engelskman vescou ! Velcom Engelskman ! In domicilium meum vescou!'' We dismounted, and fol- lowed him in, and were soon at home with the hearty old gentleman, who seemed quite delighted to have us there, and before long had placed before us a substantial supper of fish,— soles, flappers, and hard-dried cod. The "vir egregius'' had forgotten most of his Latin; but he still remembered a few words, and with the sweep- ing invitation of " omnium honum'" he invited us to accept his hospitality. According to Icelandic custom, we were waited on by the wife and daughter of our host,— the former a large-sized, kindly matron, though not a little dirty ; the latter a stout blooming girl of one or two and twenty, who looked as if she had all the health of Iceland in her rosy cheeks. We talked of Henderson, of whom the old priest had never heard — of Graimard, whose expe- dition in 1836 he well remembered — and of Col. Shaff- ner's and Dr. Kae's Atlantic Telegraph expedition of the year before (1860), of which he had heard from the people at Djupi-vogr. He himself had never seen an Englishman before, and we were great objects of interest to him and his wife, who, when not employed in waiting, stood behind his chair, and from time to time took a pinch of snuff from out of her husband's proffered box. We contrived to carry on a lengthened conversation in as much Icelandic as we were masters of, interlarded with Latin words and sen- tences. The Icelandic priests neither talk nor understand Latin so well as I had anticipated, —indeed, very few of CONVERSATION IN LATIN. 77 them could speak it at all grammatically, and most of them knew only a few words. Their attempts were often very amusing ; but the most amusing of these futile efforts was made by a priest living in the eastern district, at whose house we stopped one night. He was a farmer, like most of his brother priests, and had heard or read of the efficacy of mowing machines, and was ambitious enough to wish for one himself; not thinking, simple man, but that they would cut the little thin crop of an Icelandic tun, as well as they lay the long, heavy grass swathes of an American prairie or an English meadow. He in- troduced the subject in these words — " Suntne in Ame- rique machinum graminuTn ex'plorandumV — a sen- tence which I should probably have had some difficulty in interpreting, if it had not been accompanied by an explanatory gesture. But for his excuse, I must say that he did not profess to have kept up his classical learning, or, to give you his own words, " multum neglexi Latinum loquareJ*' When bed-time came our host offered us a bed either ^' in domicilium meum'' or "m templum Dei." Upon our choosing the latter, he sent out mattresses for us into the church, and made up very comfortable beds there. Just as we were getting into bed, the blooming daughter made her appearance with a large basin of new milk, which she deposited on one of the seats near the altar, and then, wishing us good night, left us to our dreams. August ISth, — Being Sunday, we stopped the whole day at Hof. At breakfast we were joined by a son of our host, a young man who was also a priest. Yesterday he was out making hay in the marshes near the sea, and only returned home late at night. The day was stormy, and the priests in consequence did not expect that any body would come to church; but nevertheless, about 1 p.m., several men 78 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. SERVICE IN CHURCH. 79 Ul' h r ' 1; I • * having ridden up for mass, the old priest sent a man out to ring the church bell, whilst he changed his dress and pre- pared^imself to perform it. Since the nearest house was at a distance of two or three miles off, the bell was not likely to collect a congregation ; but a few more persons ar- rived before service commenced. As each of them entered the room in which we were sitting, the bottle of cognac that stood on the window-sill, with its one companion wine- glass, was in constant requisition : for the old priest treated each member of his congi'egation, as he arrived, with a glass of cognac, helping himself each time he did so to a like potion by applying his own mouth to that of the bottle. In Iceland, owing to the distance at which most of the people live from the church, there is only one service on Sundays, and it begins about mid-day, or as soon after- wards as a sufficient number of persons to form a conoreffation have arrived. On this occasion, as soon as half a dozen persons had collected together, our host, followed by his congregation, went into the church. We were detained in the house by his son for a quarter of an hour after the service had commenced, and I was on the point of reminding him of his promise to show us where we should sit in church, when the cause of the delay was cleared up by the appearance of his sister with a cup of coffee for each of us. We had only been wait- ing for this; and having finished it, were at once con- ducted into the church, our bed-room of last night. We found our host (the vir egregius\ standing within the altar-rails, dressed in surplice and stole, with a large red and gold cross upon his back. The altar was covered with a worked cloth, and the two candles upon it were liorhted. The Icelanders are in creed Lutherans, and almost the whole of their church service is chanted, — the priest sometimes singing a solo, at others the congregation joining in the chant with him. The congregation took their part in the singing with greater goodwill than harmony ; but throughout the service they all appeared to be very attentive. We were much amused by a little in- cident that took place. Whilst the service was going on a servant-girl from the house entered the church, and took down from the pegs on which they were hanginf^ two bundles, covered with coloured handkerchiefs, which from their shape evidently contained bonnets. She carried these out of the church, and soon afterwards we saw our host's wife and daughter come in, each wearing a bonnet of the latest Copenhagen fashion, surmounted by quite a garden of artificial flowers. After the sermon, which came near the end of the service, there were a few short chants, and then, having dismissed the congregation with a blessing, the priest took oflf his vestments, and shook hands with us, one after another, all round ; the bell was then again rung, and we all left the church. August I9th, — We started again this morning under the guidance of the young priest, who kindly volunteered to ride with us half our day's journey, and show us the way. We first rode down to the lower end of the valley in which Hof is situate, thence we passed along the sides of bold rocky hills running out between Alfta-fjordr and Hamars-fjordr. The latter is a very pretty and bright- looking bay, lying in a semicircular basin of green terraced mountains. Seawards it is protected by several groups of small islands, studding its entrance. Be- yond these we could see the white-crested coursers of the ocean driven furiously along by an easterly gale. The blue waters of the fjordr beneath us seemed to be uncon- scious of the raging wind. Their bosom only heaved gently, like that of one in a calm sleep. But round the 3 t 80 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. comers of the mountain the wind blew so tremendously, that sometimes we could scarcely make way against it, and the waterfalls above us, many of them of no inconsiderable size, were actually blown upwards and dispersed in spray, without appearing ever to come to the bottom of the cliffs. At the head of the fjordr we had to cross a deep, though not dangerous river; on its eastern bank stands the farm of Hamar, which gives the fjordr its name. We reached it at 3.30 P.M., after a ride of five hours from Hof. Here the priest bade us farewell and started back home. We engaged the farmer to be our guide to Beru-fjordr, and proceeded along the N. side of the fjordr as far as Hals, which was the first place where we could cross the steep mountain range which separates Hamars-fjordr and Beru- fjordr. About three miles from Hamar our road crossed a steep slope, called Kauda-skrida, consisting of red vol- canic debris, the pieces of which looked very much like bits of broken tiles and burnt earth. Two miles further on we came to Hals ; here we turned up a steep track, that led us across the mountains and descended into the valley of Beru-fjordr, some two miles above the little Danish settlement of Djupi-vogr (Deep Bay). From the top of the pass we could just see the masts of a ship safely riding at anchor in the harbour, heedless of the gale that raged outside. Djupi-vogr is (I was informed) at present a very small settlement, containing only three or four houses ; but, being the first safe harbour along the southern coast to the E. of Cape Eeykja-nes, it is an important place. We proceeded along the shore of the fjordr in a N.E. direction towards its head. It is bounded on both sides by steep mountains ; from those beneath which we were riding, large masses of rock had fallen down, and strewn our path with their debris, or rolled on into the water, and become gardens for the seaweed which clung to them in BERU-FJORDR. ^i tangled meshes, and under their cover were flocks of eider-ducks sheltering themselves from the wind. We reached the farm of Beru-fjordr, at the head of the fjordr, soon after 9 p.m.; and after a supper, in the house, off salmon-trout and eider-ducks' eggs hard-boiled, we made up our beds and turned in to sleep in the church. 4. FROM BERU-FJORDR, BY WAY OF BRU, MY-VATN AND SURTS-HELLIR, BACK TO REYKJA-VIK. August 20th.~The morning was fine, although lio-ht clouds of mist hung about the tops of the mountaL. The calm blue fjordr, running away seawards beneath its green terraced hills, looked very lovely. The tops of the hills on the N. side of it are weather-worn and serrated here and there rising in rocky aiguilles and minarets encircled, when we saw them, with wreaths of snow. We left the farm at 10.40 a.m., and ascended a very steep hill close behind it to the N. This ascent was so difficult that we were obliged to dismount ; but the way in which our horses climbed was astonishing. Now they were on steep slippery rocks -now they followed one another along an almost overhanging track - now they zigzagged up banks of loose soil, and in some places we could only scramble up after them on all-fours. On this hill we found a great number of zeolites. These are beautiful crystals, circular in shape, and having bars or spicula, often as fine and delicate as hairs, radiating from a common centre to their circumference. It is not uncommon to find two of them connected at the circumference. When broken they generally form very pretty segments, terminating in pyramidical points. VOL. I. a 82 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. COUNTRY NEAR THING-MULL 83 »'i As the day advanced it became like one of those dull days, not uncommon in our English autumns, which colour every- thing with a cold grey tint. Such a day exactly suited the scenery that surrounded us when we reached the top of the mountain. We found ourselves upon an extensive heidi, called Breid-dals-heidi, for the most part a flat, uninterest- ing wa^te of sandy and stony ground. Every^vhere, from the withered grass in the sand marshes close at hand, to the stony hills in the distance, the whole of the country that we could see assumed the same dull grey-brown colour. The only relief to the eye was in the vividly green patches of moss that grew here and there. At length we came to the Mula^, a small rocky stream, running in a northerly direction. The mountain which, on the side of our ascent, rose almost precipitously to the height of nearly 1300 feet above the sea, sloped gently down towards the N., and we followed the course of the Mulaa for nearly eight miles before we reached a small lake which lay at its foot. Here, for the first time in the day, we were able to put our horses into a gallop, and in about an hour reached a field on the banks of the river, where a great number of men and women were at work hay-making. Amongst them oiu- fylgdar-madr recognised the priest of Thing- muli, at which place we intended to stop the night. The priest, when he heard of our intention and who we were, immediately had his horse saddled and rode home with us, where he made us welcome with all the hospitality his house could afford. He was a well-read and gentle- manly man, and talked Latin grammatically and fluently. He could not speak English, nor understand it when spoken, but he had read a little of it ; and from out of his small store of books he produced " The Vicar of Wakefield," and two or three other English books, and was very glad to get a lesson in English reading from us. Dr. Rae and Col. Shaffner had passed a night in his house the previous year (1860) whilst on their expedition in con- nection with the North Atlantic Telegraph, and our host was especially interested in the success of the adventure ; being very anxious that the line selected should be that which has been proposed along the N. of the Vatna Jokiill, although he was somewhat sceptical as to its practicability. We again made the church our sleeping quarters. August 2lst — The morning was very bright and warm, and the sharp lines that marked the edges of the lights and shadows on the mountains and in the valleys produced a very beautiful effect. Thing-muli lies at the foot of a steep mull, between the fork formed by the confluence of two streams, which, after descending separate valleys, are here united. The river thus formed flows northwards down a long narrow dale, inclosed by steep mountain-ridges. Such dales and moun- tain-ridges form the principal feature of the eastern district of the country. Any one who looks at a map of Iceland will see that the E. and N.E. part of it is tran- sected by numerous rivers, flowing northwards in lono* straight courses. These are, in most instances, glacier streams, originating in the Vatna JokuU. The valleys down which they flow are generally narrow and deep, and are separated from one another by mountain-ridges, formed by spurs projecting from the high-lands in the in- terior of the island. The sides of these ridges are steep and bold. Their tops are often table-lands, and for the most part barren; but the valleys are fertilised by the rivers, and the mountains on each side have long trian- gular strips of vegetation running up them. We started from Thing-muli at 10.40 a.m., and after a pleasant ride for four or five miles down the valley, crossed the ridge on our left, and descended through a forest of li G 2 84 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861 THE SWING BRIDGE AT BRU, 85 r low dwarf birch trees to Hallorm-stadr, a farm situate on the E. bank of Lagar Fljot. The Fljot is a glacier stream, which, a few miles to the S. of Hallorm-stadr, widens into a narrow lake, having little or no current. It retains the same character for a long distance towards the N. The whole of the district in its vicinity is thickly studded with farms, and is considered one of the most flourishing parts of the island. The pasturage grounds here are fertile and extensive, and the large forests of birch-wood afford to the inhabitants opportuni- ties of obtaining a supply of fuel such as few of their countrymen can enjoy. From Hallorm-stadr we rode up the course of the stream through a very extensive forest of dwarf birch — extensive for an Icelandic forest, — for in England we should scarcely deign to call it more than a grove. The trees in it, however, were the tallest that I saw in Iceland, some of them being at least twenty feet high. At the top of Lagar Fljot the river is deep and the current strong, and the only way to cross it is by swim- ming the horses. But by going three miles farther up the valley, we forded it without difficulty above its junction with one of its tributaries. We reached Valthjof-stadr at 5.15 p.m., and were, as usual, kindly received by the priest. His hospitality was not confined to giving us a good supper and providing us with well-made beds in the church, but, as we were on the point of retiring for the night, he brought us into the church a whole box full of cigars, and, having deposited them on a window-sill within our reach, bade us good night. He had seen us smoking a short time previously, and imagined that we might be " smoke-hungry " again before morning. Auf/ust 22nd. — We were delayed some time by one of our horses having strayed during the night. When at length we had found the truant, we started again, accompanied by the priest and one of his sons, who acted as our guide. The day was bleak and windy, and Snse-fell, whose fine, pointed top we had seen the previous day standing out cold and white against the faultless blue sky, was now shrouded in clouds. After riding about four miles up the valley on the W. bank of the river, we turned sharply to the right, and with much difficulty climbed a steep zit^zao'crina; ascent up the ridge on that side. At the top we found an extensive barren plain. Over this we rode for more than four hours, passing several small lakes. Our route was marked out by vardar, small heaps of stones ; much of it was over sand and stony land, but in places the ground was swampy. We descended from the ridge by a path almost as steep as our ascent had been, and at 6.45 p.m. we reached a little farm called Vad-brekka, in the valley beneath. Here the priest and his son bade us farewell ; but the priest insisted upon our stopping to take a parting cup of coffee with him, and this delayed us so lono- that we did not reach the Jokulsa a Bru, which is only half an hour's ride from Vad-brekka, until 8.15 p.m., when it was beginning to get dusk. The farm of Bru (Bridge), where we intended to stay the night, was on the far side of the Jokulsa,which is here about seventy feet broad, and flows with a strong current. The channel of the river is deep ; its sides are formed by rocky precipices of from twenty to thirty feet in height above the water. Opposite to Brii, a klafr, or swing-bridge, is thrown across the chasm, but it would only carry us and our baggage across, and we had to drive our horses some way farther up the stream, where its banks were lower, and make them swim over. Having done this, we re- turned to the klafr, in order to cross the river our- 86 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. selves. This swing-bridge, although a rude and primi- tive contrivance, is of sufficient importance to give its name of Bru.both to the farm and the river. It consists merely of a wooden box, only just sufficiently large to carry a man and an ordinary horse burden (that is, about 2 ft. wide, 2 ft. 6 in. long, and 2 ft. high), suspended above the stream by means of two ropes, which run at each side of it, through holes in upright posts placed in its corners. The ends of these ropes are secured on each shore to beams of wood, which are kept in place by a number of heavy stones heaped up round them. A third rope is fastened to each end of the box, so as to admit of its being drawn I I*, KLAFR. backwards and forwards by a person on either side of the river. We found the klafr fastened to the beam on the far shore, and all our attempts to haul it across to our side proved unsuccessful. Here was a dilemma : we were left with our baggage on one bank of the river, and our horses were on the other, but there appeared no way of getting across it ourselves; the farm was too far off for us to make the people hear, and every minute it was growing darker and darker. At length our fylgdar-madr hit upon a plan to get us out of the difficulty ; by getting astride upon both ropes, and working himself on by his hands, he managed with a good deal of difficulty to reach II REINDEER HORNS. 87 the far shore. There he unfastened the kUfr, and we drew it across, and getting into it one at a time with a load of baggage, all crossed the river in turn. The klafr is not a very pleasant sort of bridge. Owing to the slackness of the ropes, the box slides down rapidly till it comes over the middle of the stream ; there it stops with a sudden jerk, quite enough to throw a person who is unprepared for it overboard into the angry curdling waters beneath. But the last part of the passage is the worst ; for one has to haul oneself up the sloping ropes to the shore ; and this was no easy work, even although we had the assistance of the fylgdar-madr, who was stationed on the shore to which we were going. By the time we had all crossed it was quite dark. So, leaving our boxes on the bank of the river, and our horses to take care of themselves, we proceeded up a grassy slope to the farm, which is only about five minutes' walk from the river. After supper we retired to rest in the small church. August 23rfZ.— After riding up along sloping hill to the N.W. of the boer, we came upon Jokul-dals-heidi, one of those dreary wastes which are so common in Iceland. On our way up the hill we met a long string of horses re- turning to Bru from the heidi, so laden with hay that they were nearly hidden under their loads, and looked like walking hay- cocks. The hay consisted as much of twigs and leaves of dwarf willow as of grass. I observed that the pegs on the bearers, upon which the loads were hung, were in many cases made of reindeer's horn, and on questioning the farmer, it appeared that he often picked up the horns of reindeer in the heidi. He had never seen the deer themselves, except in winter, when the ground was covered with deep snow, and he had never attempted to shoot them. Judging from his finding so many horns, reindeer cannot be very scarce in this district. The heidi M 1. 1 88 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 186!. WE PASS THROUGH A GJA. 89 would have been quite barren except for low scrub- wood of dwarf willow here and there, and a few green swamps round the shores of several small lakes that we passed. On most of these we saw two or three pairs of wild swans swimming about ; but the wary birds kept too far out from shore to allow of our getting a shot at them. After a ride of several hours, our path led us down a steep declivity into a narrow valley, most desolate and gloomy. The soil of the valley, and that of the hills which inclose it, consisted of dark volcanic shingle, lying amongst tracts of black sand ; the only vegetation to be seen was a scant plot of melr, and everywhere else the black earth was quite barren. The spot appeared to be shunned by every living thing ; no footmark of any beast could be discovered upon the loose sand ; not a bird could be seen hovering along those dismal hill-sides. The valley seemed to stretch for miles away towards the S., right into the heart of the country. We rode across the head of it and up the hill on its far side ; the descent was very steep, and we were obliged to dismount and lead our horses. At its foot we came to an extensive tract of black volcanic stones and sand : no traces of life or vegetation relieved the dreary barrenness of the scene. Whichever way we turned our eyes, we saw only a gloomy wilderness extending over the bare, black, stony hills that surrounded us. Over this desert we rode for several hours in a westerly direction, at one time crossing an immense level plain, at others descending gradual declivities or steep slopes. Before us a steep range of hills stretched across our path. As we approached these, I was puzzled to know how we were to get across them ; there ap- peared to be no way of doing so, except by making a circuit of several miles, but our guide continued to ad- vance straight towards them, leading us along the deep worn bed of a dried up river. At length, when we came (juite close to the ridge, there appeared before us in its side a broad fissure of from twenty to thirty feet in width, extending from top to bottom, into the mouth of which w^e rode, and found ourselves in a very singular causeway. The floor consisted of gravel and small stones, and it was evidently the bed of a winter torrent, though when we passed, only a small stream flowed through it. Its sides were high precipitous walls of igneous rock, having the ano'les of their projecting masses clear-cut and square above, but worn by the stream near their base; the fissure was not straight like the Almanna-gja, but had several sharp turns and windings in it. In about ten minutes' time from entering this gjd we emerged on the sandy plain of Modru-dalr. In almost every part of it were numerous hillocks of sand, covered with luxuriant crops of melr, which looked quite cheerful after the barren scenes through which we had been riding so long. We reached Modru-dalr at 5.15 p.m. Some three or four miles from it a line of isolated rocky hills, which had the appearance of extinct craters, ran out from the mountains on our right towards the centre of the plain ; they were none of them of any great height, and each one diminished in proportion to its distance from the mountains. We could see a similar line of hills at some distance on our left. We were received at Modru-dalr with even more than common hospitality by Mr. Jonson, the intelligent owner of the farm ; he is a wealthy man, having very large flocks of sheep, which find ample pasturage on the banks of the neighbouring Jokulsa. August 2Uh. — Our host this morning pointed out to us our old friend the Knappr, far away to the S., across the whole breadth of the Vatna Jokull. If our attention had not been called to it, we should probably have missed seeing i 90 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. 'i LS> the mountain, in the intense glare of the snow-blink which hangs over those immense fields of ice. But there was no mistaking the shape of his white crest, which we could distinctly make out, although the distance could not have been less than eighty miles. He seemed to be far higher than any other mountains that lay between him and us. This circumstance leads me to believe that there are no high mountains in the central and northern part of the E. end of the Vatna Jokull,— -an opinion which is confirmed by the fact, that Mr. Paulson, in his ascent of the Orcefa Jokull, descried the summit of Snae-fell towards the N. The most striking feature, however, in the view from Modru-dalr is the great volcano, Herdu-breid (Broad Shoulder). This noble mountain, which is only about thirteen miles distant, rises from amongst a bevy of small hills, that are grouped around its base, in the middle of an extensive flat plain, to the height of more than 5500 feet. Its appearance is very singular. Its lower part appears to be cylindrical, and for a long way up its sides are nearly vertical precipices of rock. These are surmounted by a squat cone of perennial ice and snow. A snow-capped mountain has often been compared to a cake coated with sujrar, but in no case could this simile be nearer the truth than in its application to Herdu-breid. An uninteresting ride of four hours and a half from Modru-dalr, for the most part over a desert abounding with sand hillocks, brought us to Grim-stadir. The farm here is a little oasis, standing on a small sandy plateau above the level of the surrounding desert, the sides of which are so blown and washed away by wind and storm that we had some difl&culty in finding any way up to it. But the tun upon the top of it appears to be pretty good land. There being no church here, we pitched our tent and made it our sleeping quarters, taking our meals, however, in the boer. MY-VATNS OR(EFI. 91 August25th,— Being Sunday we stopped at Grim-stadir. The view of the surrounding country is extensive, but one of the most desolate that can possibly be conceived. On the E. is a continuation of the gloomy desert mountains that we crossed between Bru and Modru-dalr ; on every other side are extensive sandy plains, beyond which rise "a number of fantastically shaped volcanoes, that crowd the scene in almost every direction." Herdu-breid, with his precipitous sides and ice-covered summit, forms the chief feature in the landscape. Beyond the farm the eye wan- dered in vain over hill and plain to seek for any traces of vegetation. There is no church nearer to this place than Modru-dalr, and service is only performed there once in three weeks. This was not one of the days for it, so the family could not go to church; but the farmer, as the head of the family, about mid-day summoned his relations and servants into the boer, where they read together portions of the Bible. August 26tL—We left Grim-stadir about 10.30 a.m., and rode for an hour in a north-westerly direction through the sandy desert until we came to the banks of the Jokulsa Axarfirdi, a deep and swift river, over which there is a ferry with a boat on each side. After swimming our horses across, and transporting ourselves and our baggage over in one of the boats, we again mounted, and proceeded westwards across the plain towards My-vatn. A strong wind blowing right in our teeth carried clouds of sand with it, like a simoom, making our ride very disagreeable. The small black particles filled our eyes, noses, mouths, and ears, and our faces soon became almost as black as sweeps. Not very far from the Jokulsa is a curious insulated volcano, now extinct, and, so to speak, in ruins ; for its « 92 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. II.' I i ? 141 \i eastern side has fallen away, and left an opening into the circular hollow of the crater. It is called Hrossa-borg (Horse Fort), from its looking like a fortress, and having been used to drive horses into. After riding some distance the plain became less sandy, and was covered with a low vef^etation of dwarf willow, birch, and juniper {Juniperus nana). Beyond this an ancient flow of lava, which has in bygone ages overrun the plain, still presents a scene of desolation. In some places it is remarkably flat, and forms a level pavement for several hundred feet square : in others it crops out from the soil in irregular waves of stone, or opens in gaping fissures, and exhibits large chasms beneath its surface. For the most part it is bare, being discoloured, rather than covered, with a grey moss, corre- sponding well with the hoary tints of the lava itself. But here and there, where the sandy soil has collected upon it, grow plants of dwarf willow, birch, and blaberry, their leaves, now turned bright red by the touch of Autumn's finger, contrasting prettily with the hoary grey of the lava. At 4 p. M. we reached the farm of My-vatn-sel, on the W. side of the desert, and as we approached it we saw a number of steam-jets rising into the air at the foot of a line of low brown hills that rose before us. These were the well-known Sulphur ]Mountains of My-vatn. The steam-jets marked the Namar, or boiling mud-pits, at their base. We were now within a few miles' distance of Krabla, which stood out prominently amongst a number of volcanic hills on our right. On our left in the distance were three or four remarkable insulated table-mountains with very steep sides, whilst farther off the massive Herdu-breid towereds against the sky. From My-vatn-sel we rode over a hilly tract of sand and stones for about a couple of miles, then, crossing a black field of jagged lava, very old and rotten. THE SULPHUR MOUNTAINS. 93 we came to the foot of the Sulphur Mountains. Since we intended to stay several days at My-vatn, we reserved our visit to the boiling mud springs for a future occasion, and proceeded at once up the steep brown clay banks that form the sides of the mountains, and through the Nama- skard, a deep-cut winding gorge that leads across them. After riding through this gorge under uneven banks of reddish-brown clay and bolus for nearly half a mile, we reached the western brow of the hills. Immediately beneath us lay a plain of sand and clay, in every part of which hundreds of little mounds of red and yellow clay were steaming and smoking as if they were the chimneys of Vulcan's forge itself. Beyond the plain extended My- vatn ( Gnat lake), the second largest lake in the country, full of dark islands of lava. We descended amidst steaming mounds of hot clay and beds of sulphur efflorescence, relieving the barren hill- side with its bright yellow colour. In one place stood a great lump of it weighing several hundred weight, and there were patches of it on every side of us. The mineral here is very pure and might easily be worked; but the cost of carrying it to the nearest port over such a rough country, where there are no roads, has as yet oiBFered an insuperable obstacle to the undertaking. We proceeded under the ridge of hills which form the continuation of the Sulphur Mountains over another rugged lava-field, full of gaping fissures and caverns, bridged over by arches of the lava, until, suddenly round- ing a corner of the hills, we found ourselves at Keykja-hlid, our destination. The farm of Keykja-hlid lies at the N.E. corner of the Lake of My-vatn, almost in the midst of a solid stream of lava, which was poured down by the neighbouring volcano of Leir-hnukr in the year 1725. The spot where it stands li i I 94 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. 3* 'If was formerly a fertile meadow, but the whole plain on the N. and E. shores of the lake was devastated by the ravages of this eruption. Not only did the boiling flood overflow the land, but it continued its course into the lake itself, forming in it numerous little islands, and to a great extent filling it up. The fiery stream came pour- ing over the low hills just at the back of the boer, and destroyed it, as well as the surrounding meadows. The church escaped destruction in a manner that appears almost miraculous. The molten river ran on straight towards it, and in a few yards more would have reached the wall of the little churchyard, when it diverged into two streams, which, pursuing their course round the church- yard, were united again almost directly after passing it, and flowed on into the lake. This lava stream, which is described as having run slowly along, appears to have become very viscous by the time that it reached the shores of the lake. In most places it presents the appearance of large vapour-distended domes, rising like big blisters. The surface of these is marked with little circular elevations, which Henderson has well compared to the coils in a roll of tobacco. Beneath the thick slabs, which form the surface, the lava is generally hollow, and in many places has fallen in, leaving exposed dark arches and caverns. We made Reykja-hlid our quarters for a week. It was not our first intention to have stopped there so long, but for the first four days the weather was so bad that we were not able to do or see very much. A cold northerly wind brought with it continuous storms of snow, sleet, and rain, and winter seemed regularly to have set in. However, on the evening of the 30th, the wind got round to the S.E. and cleared away the storms. That night there followed a sharp frost of between — 5° and — 6° C. (or THE SULPHUR DISTRICT OF MY-VATN. 95 23° and 21° Fahrenheit,) and the morning of the 31st turned out gloriously bright, with a clear crisp air. The ground was covered with snow, four or five inches deep, sparkling in the sun like myriads of diamonds. Every ridge and gully of the whitened mountains on the far side of the lake were mirrored in its still waters ; the Sulphur plain sent up its innumerable little jets of steam straight into the breathless air ; and the dark gloom on the lake and the lava-fields and deserts was all dispelled. After breakfast we started for Krabla under the guidance of a boy from the farm, and of Olaver, who had been here the previous year, our road as far as the Namar being the same as that by which we came. In passing the Sulphur plain we stopped to examine the steaming excrescences of clay. The approach to them is over beds of sand and clay, out of which they rise in variegated blotches and pustules of blue, white, red, and yellow, all the colours being mixed indiscriminately together. The clay is of about the con- sistency of soft putty, and so hot that you can scarcely bear your hand upon the surface. A few inches under- neath it is too hot to touch. In many places it is covered by a hardened scab, over which you must tread warily, or you will go through into the loose burning soil beneath. About an inch below the crust is a layer of pure sulphur, produced by the sublimation of the sulphurated vapours rising through the ground. On every side are hundreds of these coloured tumours steaming like mimic volcanoes. Passing through the Nama-skard, and reaching the eastern base of the hills, we turned northwards over a tract of sand and slag, keeping the range of hills on our left. •They are here covered with dwarf willow and birch, upon which we saw a few goats browsing. After a short dis- tance we came to a stream of lava, descending the valley from the mountains lying to the N. We rode up the r ll I 96 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. eastern side of this, and after some distance mounted a rid-e connecting Krabla with Leir-hnukr. This ridge, aB well as the sides of Krabla, was blotched with steaming patches of red and yellow clay ; in a gulley on our right, half-way up the mountain, a large steam jet rushed out of the ground with a loud harsh roar, and all around there were" unmistakable evidences of the terrible nearness of the subterranean fire. A short but hard pull iip a steep bank brought us to HERDU-BREID FHOM KRABLA. the edge of a deep circular basin, evidently an ancient crater, on the S.W. side of Krabla, at the bottom of which, more than fifty feet below us, lay a deep pool of bright blue water, intensified in colour by the contrast of the white snow which covered its steep banks. The water is now cold and quiescent, but when Henderson visited it he found it a boiling cauldron " of black liquid matter, from the middle of which a vast column of the same black liquid was erupted with a loud thundering noise." There is still close above it another small pool, in which the f THE OBSIDIAN MOUNTAIN. 97 water boils and steams continually, but no eruptions take place. We sent our horses round the mountain into the valley between it and Hrafn-tinnu-hryggr, the Obsidian mountain, whilst we walked to the top. The view from the summit was certainly striking, but not nearly so fine, I think, as that from Hlidar-fjall, which we ascended sub- sequently. The most striking feature was the plain between the Jokulsa Axarfirdi and the Sulphur range, with the high table-mountains I have before mentioned, and Herdu-breid looming in the distance. The accompany- ing sketch is one that I took from the top of Krabla. We descended the steep slopes of the mountain into a valley on the S.E., which separates it from Hrafn-tinnu- hryggr (Raven-flint-back), the well known Obsidian moun- tain. The sun had already melted the snow on the hill- tops, and the large blocks of obsidian were glittering like the diamond mountain in some fairy tale. No better description of Hrafn-tinnu-hryggr can be given than is to be gathered from its name. It is a long sharp- edged dorsal ridge, running from N. to S., and consist- ing for the most part of obsidian or volcanic glass. This is a highly vitrified stone, in many respects resembling lava, but in appearance like opaque glass or flint. Its colour varies from a raven black to a smoke grey, but some pieces that I picked up contained tints of olive-green and jasper-like red. Many of the blocks are full of minute vesicles, others are perfectly compact. The blocks which are strewn on the sides of the mountain appeared to have been separated from a raised centre of obsidian, forming, as it were, the spine of the ridge. After exploring the mountain, we crossed it and descended into the plain on the E.. After having again crossed the fields of sand and slag to the S. of Krabla, we came to the foot of the Sulphur VOL. I. H 98 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 186!. ii t i: mountain. Here we turned aside to visit the Namar, or boiling mud-pits. The ground which surroimds them is sloughed with burning quagmires and bogs of hot clay. Dismounting, therefore, on the edge of the sandy desert, we proceeded on foot towards the sputtering and steaming cauldrons : — " Ineedis per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso. " The surface of the ground is covered with an ulcerated scabby crust, caked by the heat of the fevered ground be- neath, which consists of beds of hot miry clay and sulphur. More than once the foot of one or other of us broke through the crust, leaving, as we withdrew it, a steaming hole in the soft ground, which warned us that we could not pick our way too cautiously. There are no less than twelve of these boiling cauldrons, all, except two, lying close together. As we approached them, volumes of steam, strongly impregnated with sul- phureous gases, were blown into our faces. When we reached their brink and looked down, a sight, as repulsive and horrible as it was strange, met our eyes. At our feet lay a row of mud-pits, sunk in the ground upon which we stood, full of a disgusting, thick, slimy liquid, boiling or simmering with greater or less vehemence. The mire in most of these puddles was of a dark grey slate colour, but in some it was almost black, in others nearly blue. In one, the muddy soup appeai'ed too thick to boil ; its surface re- mained quiescent for about half a minute, and then, after rising up a few inches in the centre of the basin, emitted a puff of steam, and subsided into its former state. The fluid was so viscid that the rings formed by these successive jets remained for several minutes visible above the surface of the pool. Others of the cauldrons sputtered and boiled vehemently, scattering their contents on every side, and covering the edges of their basins with a nasty scum of BOILING MUD SPRINGS. 99 slime. Others were contented with squirting, with sudden jets, little bullets of mud in every direction. In the centre of one, a low column of the thick semi-liquid mud rose and subsided with such regularity, that I was strongly reminded of spring opera-hats sometimes exhibited in the windows of London hatters, which continually open and shut by clock-work. The largest of all the pits is one of the two lying apart from the others towards the N. Its diameter cannot be less than fifteen feet, and it is a sort of mud geysir ; for at intervals a column of its black liquid contents is thrown up to the height of six or eight feet. These eruptions, which are frequent, are accompanied with a rush of steam, and in the intervals between them the mud is much agitated and boils furiously. September 1st, Sunday. — In the afternoon we took a stroll up the stream of lava at the back of the farm. We had scarcely left the tun when we descried a falcon sitting at the top of one of the low hills behind the house, and looking so exactly like one of the grey stones around him, that we were in doubt at first whether he was a bird or not. However, a quick movement of his head, as we ap- proached, cleared up our doubts and sealed his fate. He was sitting in rather an exposed position, and we had to stalk him cautiously and warily. But by separating, and one of us diverting his attention in front, while the other went round and approached him from behind, we managed to get him into our trap, and in ten minutes he had fallen to Shepherd's gun. He proved to be a fine young ger- falcon, in capital plumage. As we proceeded up the stream of lava, it became narrower, and, like a river, flowed down in a well-defined channel in the dip between two ridges, now spreading out and growing more shallow as the channel widened, now becoming deeper and narrower where it was contracted by the hills on either side. Al- H 2 I I r 100 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. thoiigh its surface was generally uneven and irregular, yet in places it was smooth and almost level. About three miles from Keykja-hlid we reached the base of a fine triangular mountain point, which ends a range of hills that run for a considerable distance towards the N. Olaver, and the guide who brought us from Grim-stadir, had told us that this mountain, which forms a conspicuous object from the shores of the lake, was Leir-hnukr ; but the proper Leir-hnukr, so well known for the destruction which its eruptions have caused to the country in its vicinity, is rather an inconsiderable ridge lying somewhat to the E. of this mountain, between it and Krabla. From the heio-ht of this mountain, its position on the map, and the absence of any crater upon it, I cannot doubt that it is Hlidar-Qall, which, according to Mr. Gunnlaugsson's measurement, is rather more than 2300 feet high. The day was very fine and clear, and we climbed the moun- tain in the hopes of obtaining a good view from its sum- mit. The ascent cost us much labour and some little danger, for the sides of the mountain are not only ex- cessively steep, but are covered with the debris of fallen rocks, which lie upon the slopes in large blocks of stone. These, as we stepped upon them, often came sliding down in great masses, to the no small danger of our legs. How- ever, at length we reached the summit in safety. During the ascent we saw a falcon battling with two ravens, like a hawk persecuted by crows, and, as we approached the top, another skimmed along the ridge and disappeared behind a mass of rocks. There was a small cairn at the top, which was evidently a favourite resort of these birds ; and as we threw ourselves down to rest beside it. Shepherd remarked how singular it would be if one of them should happen to settle on the cairn whilst we were there. Not five minutes afterwards we heard a sudden rushing sound. A GERFALCON MISSED. 101 and, starting to our feet, found that a falcon had actually alighted upon the stones just above our heads. I do not know which was most startled by the occurrence, he or us. Shepherd, who alone had brought his gun with him, seized it and fired at the bird, but missed, and the falcon es- caped unhurt. This was at least the third falcon we had seen in our walk. No doubt an ornithologist making his head-quarters at My- vatn might soon add several interesting specimens to his col- lection. The lake abounds with water fowl, principally eider ducks, but there are also many other species to be found there, and the hills in the neighbourhood are a favourite resort of ptarmigan and golden plover. This morning, as I was on my way to take a dip in the lake, I saw a small hawk just beginning to devour a plover he had killed. I went up and took his prey from him ; but he would not be frightened away, and only flew to a haycock near at hand, where he sat eyeing me so anxiously that I relented and gave him back his breakfast. The ptarmigan appear to be'' attracted to this spot by the abundance of lyng and blaberries growing among the scrub on the hills and in the crevices of the lava, and the falcons no doubt follow the ptarmigan. The view from Hlidar-fjall was rather more extensive than that from Krabla. On the N. the landscape was crowded with barren hills, beyond which, in the far distance, I fancied that I could make out the blue expanse of the ocean. To the S. lay the My-vatns Oroefi, the desert plain between Jokulsa Axarfirdi and My-vatnthat I have before described, extending southwards into the Od^da Hraun, an immense unexplored tract of lava that has devastated the whole of the country between Herdu-breid and the Vatna Jokull. On the side of this plain beyond the Sulphur I II 102 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. mountains was a very remarkable hollow, basin-shaped hill, called from its shape Hver-fjall (Cauldron-fell). The annexed woodcut is taken from a sketch that I made of it from this spot. I :*■ HVER-FJALL. In the valley close below us, on the E., was the dark lava stream that we had ascended ; beyond it rose the brown banks of Leir-hnukr, varied with red and yellow blotches ; beyond these again the squat cone of Krabla, and the dark lidge of Hrafn-tinnu-hryggr, backed by the desert My-vatns Oroefi, and the barren hills beyond the Jokulsa Axarfirdi, looking of a lovely bhie colour in the distance. To the W. lay My-vatn, so crowded with dark lava islands that tliere appeared to be almost as much land as water within the circun]ference of the lake. Beyond it rose a steep mountain range, its top and sides still white with the snow, which had quite disappeared from the valleys. We lingered on the mountain-top until evening be^^an to close UK when we retraced our steps to the farm. THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. 103 September 2ml— The northern lights last night, fitfully coming and fading in every part of the heavens, were very beautiful. At one time, an arch of pale yellow light spanned the sky above us ; at another, the horizon was lit up by a reddening glare like that of a distant fire. Now a flash, coming with the suddenness of summer lightning, and only lingering as long, flickered for a moment in the W. ; now a bright body of light, like a moonlit vapoury cloud, flitted across the sky. It is said in England that an Aurora is the forerunner of bad weather, but we could not well have had a finer day than this turned out to be. We intended to have left Reykja-hlid to-day, but we stayed one day longer for the purpose of visiting Hver- fjall, the curious hollow hill that we saw yesterday from the top of Hlidar-fjall. It lies about three miles to the S. of Reykja-hlid, between the Sulphur district and the lake, and we went straight to it over the field of lava bordering the lake. The first part of the way was not very bad walking, for amongst the blocks of lava were here and there patches of grass growing on the soil, which had in the course of years collected there. But after about half an hour the character of the lava-field was changed, and it became most disagreeable to walk over. Imagine a field of solid stone turned up by a giant plough, so as to form high ridges and furrows of broken blocks of stone of all shapes and sizes. Such was the ground over which our way led us, and we w^ere not sorry when we at length reached a narrow tract of sand beyond it, on which stood Hver-fjall. This hill, which is evidently the crater of an extinct vol- cano, rises only to a height of about two hundred feet above the plain, and consists entirely of sand and blocks of scorise, some of which are of great size. Its sides are deeply scored by water courses, and very steep. On reach- III li 104 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. r ing the summit, we found ourselves on the edge of an im- mense circular basin, about two miles in circumference, in the centre of which rose a large circular mound of sand and scoriae. A similar hill rises from the plain at a distance of a few miles towards the S. Sept Srcl — We started for Akreyri. The weather still continued very fine, and the days were warm and bright, though the nights were cold with hard frosts, the minimum thermometer in the morning generally standing at from -5° to -6° Cent. (23° to 21-2° Fahr.). Our road took us round the north end of My-vatn to the banks of the Laxa (Salmon Eiver), which flows from it on the W. The whole of the N. shore has at some time or other been inundated with lava. The greater part of it is now covered with grass, but the numerous fissures and crevasses that gash its surface still show the depths of the stony stream beneath. In many places you can see how the surface of the lava has become hardened, whilst the molten stream underneath still flowed onwards, leavino- great caverns beneath the crust, and exemplifying the process which led to the subsidence of the lava field of Thing-vellir. Having crossed the Laxa, which flows between walls of dark lava, we crossed a broad heidi covered with a low vegetation of heather, lyng-berry, and blaberry, and as well stocked with ptarmigan, as a Norfolk stubble is with partridges. We must have seen several hundred birds in the course of our ride. Our fylgdar-madr had brought his dog with him, and the wretched hound, who pursued everything he saw, was often quite distracted by the number he put up. A ride of about eight hours from Reykja-hlid, brought us to the Skjalfanda-fljot, a broad Jokulsa, which, rising in the Tungna-fells Jokull, flows northwards through the heart of the country. We crossed THE GODA-FOSS. 105 it without much difficulty, and in half an hour more reached a little farm on the banks of a lake, called Liosa- vatn (clear water). The next day (Sept. 4th), before proceeding to Akreyri, we rode down to the Skjalfanda-fljot to visit Goda-foss, reputed to be the largest waterfall in the country, but I was rather disappointed with it. The dark rocks which frown above the pool, into which the water leaps, are fine ; but the fall itself is neither remarkably beautiful nor particularly grand. A ride of less than two hours brought us to Hals, where we paid a passing visit to the priest, and then rode down through a good-sized birch forest to the banks of the Fnjoska. At this river we fell in with a party of excursionists, who had ridden out from Akreyri for the day. We joined them and rode in their company across the steep snow-covered mountains of Yadla-heidi, which separate Fnjoska-dalr from Eya-fjordr. One of the young ladies of the party enlivened our journey, by singing popular English airs, such as " Cheer, Boys, cheer," and "Beautiful Star," with Icelandic words. The Icelanders generally are not musical. I have once or twice heard a man humming a chant, or a mother singing to her child, but, merry and light-hearted as the people are, they do not appear to care much for any kind of music. After descending from the heidi, we waded a wide river at the head of Eya-fjordr, in which were a number of low islands where the people were making hay. Akreyri lies near the head of the fjord on its western shore. It is little more than a village ; the houses, like those of Keykja- vik, are mostly tarred or painted black. We had some difficulty in finding any place at which to put up, but at length a merchant agreed to receive us, and we passed two nights very comfortably in his house. We left on Sep- tember 6th, and rode northwards for about eight miles 106 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. ' .^ ?" 1* along the shore of the Fjordr; then we turned in a S.W. direction up the valley of the Horg^, a rocky stream, which looks as likely for trout as any that I saw in Iceland, and after an easy ride reached Stein-stadir. Here we stopped tlie night, and were most hospitably treated by the owner of the fiirm, who had only lately returned from Keykja-vik, whither he had been to fulfil his duties as an Althing-man. Sept, 7th. — We proceeded up the valley for ten or twelve miles, in the course of which we found much difficulty from the numerous bogs and morasses. On approaching the head of the valley we turned westwards across a moun- tain-ridge, called Oxnadals-heidi, and from this, entered another valley, and rode along the precipitous banks of a small river, which we had to cross and recross several times, until we reached Blondu-hlid, a long open valley, running due N and S., as fertile with grass and as thickly studded with farms as any in Iceland. Here we again found a good deal of difficulty from the boggy nature of the ground, and did not reach Mikli-boer until after dark. The following day (Sept 8th), being Sunday, we remained at Mikli-boer. The church here is rather large, and nearly forty persons came in to the service. This was the largest congregation that I saw anywhere out of Eeykja-vik. Since everybody, who does not live ac- tually upon the spot, rides to church, however short the distance may be, there was a goodly collection of horses left standing outside the churchyard, whilst service was going on. On such occasions, the Icelanders in order to prevent their horses from straying, tie them together in pairs, head to tail, in such a way that the poor beasts cannot stir, even to nibble the grass at their feet, and it was rather a ludicrous sight to see some fifteen pairs of horses, standing together all bound in this fashion. Se- n HAYMAKING IN A SNOW-STORM. lo: veral of the congregation had been indulging rather too freely in corn brandy, before they came to the ser- vice; and half a dozen of these fellows hung about the priest's house all the afternoon, making a great noise. At length, one by one, they mounted and rode away, shouting uproariously as they galloped off, and sitting so unsteadily in their saddles, that I expected every minute to see them tumble. This was the only occasion upon which I saw such a drunken scene out of Eeykja-vik. There, unfortunately, such disgraceful scenes are too fre- quent, when the country-people come in to lay in their stores of coffee, sugar, dried fish, wood, &c., in exchange for their wool and knitted things. Sept 9th, — The day was ushered in by storms of hail and sleet, and before noon, a heavy fall of snow commenced, which continued without intermission through- out the day. We started about 10 a.m., and after crossing the river at the bottom of the valley, and passing over a tract of boggy ground beyond it, rode for several hours over a mountain tract, till we descended into the valley beyond, upon a farm called Bol-stadar-hlid. The ride was bitterly cold : a N. W. wind met us full in the face, and seemed to drive through everything we had on. The storm prevented us from seeing any distant view. In one place we passed a good-sized lake, upon the shores of which were two or three men making hay, as if a single day during the summer, however wintry it might be, was too valuable to be lost. On the mountain I saw a brood of ptarmigan, crouching down in the snow ; their plumage was already nearly white. It has been a question amongst ornitholo- gists, whether there are two or only one species of ptarmigan in this country. As far as my own observation goes, I believe that there is only one, and I am confirmed in this belief bv the natives. A ride of about five miles 108 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. v1 I'' I •V- r If- In I; L' iri ♦I from Bol-stadar-hlid, took us to Stori-dalr. In our way we had to ford rather a deep river, named Blanda (Mixed river), and to cross a tract full of deep morasses, which caused us much difficulty, The house at Stori-dalr, was small and very dirty ; but the farmer, a merry little old man, was most hospitable, not only to us, but also to every one about him. As his men, who had been out mowing all day, came dropping in one by one, he gave every one a liberal draught of corn-brandy. But he did not forget himself either, and whilst he gave his men the bottle to drink from, he applied the keg to his own lips. As usual in Icelandic houses, there was no fire in the guest-room ; we were therefore glad, when the haymakers came home, to warm ourselves at the forge, where they were repairing their scythes for the next day's work. Sept lOth. — The morning was fine, and there was not so much snow on the hills as we had expected to find. We started about 9 A.M., and rode up the valley, passing in our way two small farms, on the walls of one of which were hung up a dozen skins of wild swans. The birds had been knocked down by sticks, when moulting. In about an hour we reached the fells, over which our road lay. The surface of the ground here, as in many an Icelandic heidi, is everywhere cut up into little mounds, separated from each other by deep and narrow ruts, and covered with dwarf willows, with long and straggling roots, but low and scrubby branches. We passed several large lakes, on most of which we saw two or three pairs of wild swans. At 3 p. m. we reached a stream with some grass on the banks, and we therefore stopped for an hour to let our horses feed. The desert extended around us as far as we could see, and the dreary aspect was considerably increased by a dull grey autunmal sky. Towards the south a white THE HIGHEST ROAD IN ICELAND. 109 glare rising above our horizon marked the position of the Arnar-fells, and Lang Jokulls. When we started again, a drizzling mist surrounded us, but fortunately it was not very thick, and did not prevent us from seeing our land-marks, or we should pro- bably have lost our way, for there was no track across the desert. More than once travellers on this route have been overtaken by snow-storms and perished, and the bleaching bones, which here and there give a conspicuous whiteness to the vardar, or cairns, that at intervals mark the route, point out the spots where horses have met with a similar fate. At 6 p.m. we reached Sand-fell, the highest point of this the highest road in Iceland, which is said to be at an elevation of 2212 feet above the sea. Before this we passed a hill, the whole side of which was crowded with basaltic columns. Beyond Sand-fell we entered the Stori Sandr, an immense stony desert, full of large angular blocks of stone, laid close together on a ground of sand. There was but little snow here. At leno-th we reached a part of the Sandr, where a road for several miles has been made by clearing away the stones from the surface. This was done some years ago at the expense of several of the merchants of Keykja-vik, who were anxious to establish a better communication between that place and Eya-fjordr. But the good work was never carried out, and the amount of labour and expense re- quired to finish it is, I fear, too great to give much chance of its ever being completed. We rode on till 9.30 P.M., when we came to a small stream, which we could only just see glistening through the darkness. After looking about, we found a spot on its banks, covered with grass, where we pitched our tent for the night. Sept lUL — There was but little grass near our camp, and two of our horses during the night wandered away i 110 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. > if P J' in search of pasturage. The stream turned out to be the Budara,, which flows into the largest of a numerous group of lakes, named Arnar-votn, not far from our camp, where there was some grass. The rest of the country was a dreary desert. When we found our horses we proceeded in a S.W. direction, past the Eyriks Jo- kull, a fine mass of dark rock, supported by a number of precipitous buttresses, jutting out from its equally precipitous sides. I counted no less than eighteen of * THE LAVA FIELD OF SURTS-HELLIR. these. The mountain seems to be an extinct volcano. Its summit is a blunted cone, bisected apparently by an immensely broad fissure, filled with ice. Soon after passing it, we came to an immense field of lava, filling up the whole breadth of the valley between the Arnar- vatns-heidi and the outlying hills of the Eyriks and Lang Jokulls. The fiery stream, which probably originated in the Bald Jokull, has flowed round the Eyriks Jokull, and come surging down the valleys of the Hvita and Nord- SURTS-HELLIR. Ill Jinga-fljot, its molten waves rising high up against the sides of the neighbouring mountains, and driving the rivers into fresh channels. In many places the lava-field is remarkably level, but in others, its surface swells and falls like a sea of stone ; some of the lava domes on it being of great size. It is here that the great Surts-hellir, or caves of Surtur, the prince of darkness and fire, are situated. The accompanying woodcut shows the aspect of the field from near the entrance to the caves, looking S. towards a low mountain called Strutr.* In about an hour after crossing this lava plain we reached Kalmans-tunga. Sept I4:th. — After breakfast we started with Olaver and the farmer of Kalmans-tunga to explore the Surts-hellir. After retracing our steps of the previous day to the lava- field, and traversing it for some distance, we struck across it towards a varde or heap of stones, which marks the principal entrance to the caverns. This is an extensive chasm formed by the falling in of a part of the lava roof of the caverns. Leaving our horses in charge of the farmer, we descended into the chasm, and found ourselves right in the mouth of the caves. The main cavern runs towards Strutr in an almost straight line, and is nearly a mile in length. Its dimensions are somewhat irregular, but its average height is about 40 and its breadth 50 feet, though towards the far end it becomes more contracted. The lava crust, which forms the roof of the caves, is about 1 2 feet thick, and has the appearance of being stratified, and columnar, like basaltic pillars, in its formation. Many of the blocks of lava thus formed have become detached, and fallen into the cavern, where they lie piled up in great heaps. We had brought with us some of the candles of our * For this sketch, as well as those of the entrance to the second portion of Surts-hellir, and the Lang Jokull, I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Capt. Campbell. 112 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. I- ' f I If. 11 1^1 y^' :i cooking lamp, and, each lighting one of these and following Olaver— who had explored the caverns twenty years previously — we entered the dusky passage before us : it was not quite dark, for some way on, the roof had fallen in, and through the aperture a disk of light glimmered in the distance. Immediately after entering, we turned aside out of the main cavern to visit a large chamber on our rio-ht. The floor of this is strewn with bones of oxen. ENTRANCE TO THE SECOND PORTION OF SURTS-HELUR. sheep, and horses, killed (so says tradition) by a band of wild outlaws, who made this their robbers' den, and lived by depredations on their neighbours' flocks, and herds. The country-people still believe in the existence of a race of outlaw robbers, who inhabit the unexplored tracts in the centre of the country. ' How else,' they ask, ' can you account for our losing so many sheep yes.T after year ? ' From the robbers' cave we reached the main cavern affain ICE GROTTO IN SURTS-HELLIR. 113 by a small side branch, and soon afterwards came to the aperture through which we had seen the light from the entrance. We passed this, keeping on a rampart of lava that runs at the height of ten or twelve feet from the ground along the western wall, and after entering the cave beyond it in a short time reached a second aperture very similar to the flrst. Leaving this, we were soon in the profound darkness of the cavern, which seemed to make still fainter the faint light of oui* flickering candles. The walking here would have been bad enough in the light ; in the dark it was execrable. We had to scramble over the fallen blocks of lava, slipping and stumbling into the holes betw^een them, varied by pools of water, and masses of snow. After proceeding for some distance, we reached another aperture, at the farther side of which the cave is divided into two by a wall of lava. We first entered the left aperture which is at a lower level than that on the right. At the bottom of it was a pool of water, nearly knee deep, lying on a floor of ice. After passing this we found we had come to the end of the cavern, and were therefore obliged to retrace our steps to the opening. We then entered the other division of the cavern, and here the walking was much better. After some time we came to another opening in the roof. Having passed it and entered the cavern beyond, we found at its bottom a floor of the clearest ice, which was apparently of great thickness, since we could not see the lava beneath it. Olaver had never been into this part of the caves, but there is really no need of a guide to explore them, and so on we went. The \valking was delif^htful over the smooth ice floor, which sloped consi- derably downwards. In five minutes we reached the most beautiful fairy grotto imaginable. From the crystal floor <5f ice rose group, after group of transparent icy pillars, while from the glittering roof, most brilliant icy pen- VOL. I. I • (. I I*. f I* ; lii 'I 114 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. dants hung down to meet them. Columns and arches of ice were ranged along the crystalline walls ; the lights of our candles were reflected back a hundredfold from every side till the whole cavern shone with wondrous lustre. I never saw a more brilliant scene ; and indeed it would be difficult to imagine any thing more fairy like. The pillars, which stood " Like natural sculptnre in cathedral cavern," were many of them of great size tapering to a point as they rose. The largest were at least eight feet high, and six feet in circumference at their base. The stalactites were on an equally grand scale. Through this lovely ice grotto we walked for nearly ten minutes. After leaving it, in five minutes we reached the foot of a steep bank, upon the top of which we discovered the cairn built by Olafsen and Povelsen in 1753. We found here, amongst numerous other coins, the Danish half-crown (dated 1688) which they deposited, and could still decipher the seal upon it, which represents two dogs fighting with some animal (a hedgehog according to Henderson). After repairing the cairn, we left upon it three English coins, as a memorial of our visit, and again proceeded. We reached the end of the cavern, after a few minutes' easy walk over a level floor of vitreous lava, covered with small black glassy projections, that glittered brightly in the light of our candles. We then returned to the nearest aperture, and after scrambling up the sides of the tunnel to the upper air, mounted our horses and galloped back to Kalmans-tunga.* Sept Uth.— The next day we proceeded to Reyk-holt * The temperature of the cares was from 8° to 10° C. (46° to 50° Fahrenheit), that of the air outside being 12° C. (63° Fahrenheit). !:1 y^ ki /% FROM REYK-HOLT TO THING- VELLIR. 115 .o 3 ^ (Smoke Hill), where we stopped the two following days, visiting the numerous hot springs in the neighbourhood. Many of them are very quaint. One of the largest groups has, by a continual process of incrustation, raised for itself a small island in the middle of the glacial waters of the Hvita: and numerous others around the island come spitting up through the icy water from the bottom of the river. For a fuller description of them I must refer my readers to the accounts of Sir Gr. Mackenzie, Hen- derson, and other travellers. Sept l6th.~We left Eeyk-holt and crossed the fjall to Thingvallas-veit. Our road was S., across the Valley of Eeyk-holt, and up the mountains on the far side of it across a desolate flat plain at their top. After some time we came into view of the circular insulated Ok JokuU. Its top was shrouded in mist, and it looked low and insignifi- cant ; next we saw the ice fields of Oeit-lands Jokull, as the most westerly part of the great Ldng Jokull is called. Further on were several small lakes not yet deserted for the sea-shore by their wild swans, and then we passed Skjald- breid, a volcano well known in the annals of Iceland, which has devastated a vast tract of country to the S. We rode for several miles along the side of an extensive plain of lava, which has flowed from this mountain, and after traversing a tract of volcanic sand, ascended a steep moun- tain from the top of which we saw the valley of Thing- vellir extended at our feet. Descending into the head of the valley, we rode across it towards the lake ; but since the day was drawing in, and our ride had been a long one, we stopped short of Thing-vellir at Hraun-tun (Lava-tun), a little farm lying in the midst of the lava, and completely hidden by it until you approach almost to the tun wall. The following morning (Sept. 17th) an hour's ride brought us to our old quarters at Thing-vellir, where we I 2 116 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. 117 t I I 1 r i *» Stopped that night, and the next day proceeded to Eeykja- vik. We had been informed before starting on our tour that the Arcturus would arrive on her return voyage about this time, and we stopped four days at Eeykja-vik daily ex- pecting her. We found, however, plenty to do there. Two days we spent at the interesting fossil-beds of Foss- YO(n which are only a short distance off. A third, I took my rod to the Laxa, and though the river was low, and the season late, caught one salmon and half a dozen very good sea-trout. On Monday, Sept. 23rd, there being no signs of the Arcturus, we set out for a short tour of six days, to Krisuvik (the Sulphur Mountain of the S.), Eyrar-bakki, and Keykir, (the little Geysii'). On our return we found that the Arcturus had at last arrived. But a tremendous storm, which lasted four days, detained her from sailing, and it was not imtil the morning of Oct. 3rd that we weighed anchor and steamed down the Faxa-fjordr in a S.W. gale, which lasted us the whole way, until we again placed foot on terra jirma in Scotland. APPENDIX. The only regular communication between this country and Ice- land, is by the Arcturus steamer. The agents for which, are Messrs. D. Robertson and Co. at Grangemouth ; and Messrs. Kock and Henderson at Copenhagen. The fare is 5/. each way, or 9Z. for a return ticket, available for the same voyage only, and giving about a week in the island. The tariff on board is reasonable. The currency of Iceland is Danish silver : Danish notes are useless : but English notes and English gold, can always be exchanged for Danish money at Reykja-vik. There are no roads, and therefore no carriages in Iceland, and consequently the only way of travelling is on horseback. The distances between the places are too great, the rivers are too furious, and the bogs too extensive, to allow of a walking tour being made. Horses should always, if possible, be procured before- hand. Probably the steamboat agent at Reykja-vik would un- dertake to get any number that might be required. Their price is from about 21. to 4Z. We paid for ours from 16 dollars (IZ. 16s.) to 33 dollars (3Z. 14s. 3cZ.) each. Riding-horses cost a little more than baggage-horses. If the traveller prefer it, he can hire horses for his tour at the rate of about three marks a day for a riding- horse, and two for a baggage-horse. The value of a mark is fourpence-lialipenny. The horses can be sold again after the journey, and generally fetch between one third and one fourth of their original price. From these data, the traveller can judge for himself whether to buy or hire the required number of horses. Buying has some advantages, as for instance, the being able to make a swop in case of a horse being lamed. I should re- commend travellers who intend to take a long journey, to buy ; those who are going for only a fortnight or so, to hire. Those who merely wish to visit Hekla, the Geysirs, nnd Krisuvik, could probably make a bargain for the price of horses for their iff 1.^ ■!♦ !i 'if 118 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. journey, irrespective of the time occupied by it, at a somewhat cheaper rate than if they took them by the day. One oreat difficulty of an Icelandic traveller is with regard to guides. As I have mentioned, most of the so-called Reykja-vik « ft! pad for these should be taken from England. No Icelandic traveller should be without Gunnlaugsson's (Olsen's) map, or omit to read Henderson before he sets out. The best time for travelling in Iceland is from the middle of June till the middle of September. In June the horses are getting fat and strong, and the eifects of the scantiness of their food during the winter has passed away. The days, too, are then longest; indeed, there is scarcely any night at all, and the rivers are gene- rally in good order for fishing. Towards the end of September the days become too short for a long joiuney. There is still room for exploration in Iceland. The N.W. peninsula is almost unknown. Even Henderson went but a very short way into it, and no one, I believe, has since attempted to explore it. The interior ice-fields of the great Vatna Jukull have never yet been trodden by foot of man, but it is to be hoped that they will not long remain so. A visit to the Skaptar Jokull would be especially interesting. The difBculty of exploring this district arises from the absence of pastiu*age in the deserts near at hand. But probably an attempt to explore the W. end of the Vatna Jukull might be made successfully, even without a regularly organised expedition, by way of Fiski-votn, where I am informed there is plenty of grass. It has been recommended that a party going out to explore the Vatna JokuU should make Beru-fjordr their starting point, but I think that this is a mistake. I believe that the best point of attack would be from the W., and not from the E. or S. Added to which, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to procure the necessary number of horses in that part of the island. They would have to be taken thither fiom the N. or W., which would be attended with considerable expense. There are many Jokulls which it would be well worth while to ascend. So far as I am aware no one has ever yet reached the actual summit of any Jokull. The Snaj-fells Jokull has been several times attempted, but never with complete success. Of all those that I saw Snae-fell in the E., and Hvanna-dals-nukr on the Orcefa- Jokull appeared to be most worthy of an ascent. The tra- veller must not expect to find in Iceland any mountaineers who are acquainted with their Jokulls, and can act as guides, but he will in most cases be able, for a trifling sum, to obtain the services of some peasant, who will be willing to accompany him on any mountain expedition. FinaDy, I would say, that not only the member of the / APPENDIX. 121 Alpine Club, but the geologist, the botanist, and the ornitho- logist, wiU, each in his own line, find much to interest him in Iceland. The lover of fine scenery wiU find there a wild, weird country, abounding with rugged cliffs, rushing torrents, noble mountains, and leaping waterfalls, but having also its softer scenes, its blue fjordrs, its grassy valleys, its flowering banks, and its quiet homesteads ; and every one who goes there will meet with such open, warm-hearted hospitality as it would be difiicult to find equalled in any other country. Edward Thurstan Holland. Note 1. The following letter was written by Mr. Hogarth to Mr. W. Longman, and appeared in the Times towards the end of last June (1861). "Eyrebaki (Eyrarbacki), June 13th. " Dear Sir, — I drop you a few lines to acquaint you with an in- teresting circumstance, which has taken place here within a few days, but, unfortunately before our arrival, although we did fall in with a part of it before reaching the coast ; which was, meeting a large body of fresh very brown water, about eighty miles off Ingolfo Head [Ingolfs-hofdi], on the morning of Monday last, the 10th instant, the temperature of which was 46°, two degrees lower than the previous day. We continued to sail through this stream of fresh water for about thirty miles, when we sighted the high land of the Oroefa Jokull, and came into green water, which we carried with us into the shore, a distance of fifty miles, wdien we met the ordinary mild water of the snow-streams of the land. " On mentioning this circumstance on our arrival here, we were informed that the Oroefa and Scapta [Skaptar] Jokulls had both been in a state of eruption a few days back, the particulars of which we have been made acquainted with by the minister of that neighbourhood, who was present and witnessed it, and the account which he gives is as follows : — On the 23rd of May the first signs of eruption were observed by an unusual flow of waiter from the Orcefa, and on the morning of the 24th they were awakened by a strong smell of sulphur, which became overpower- 122 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. i ing, and which was quite apparent at Reyk-javik, a distance of 200 miles ; at the same time all metals, except iron, had become tarnished, although in many instances ' carefully wrapped up in cotton. It appears to have affected these metals at a distance of fifty miles from the mountain. The Rev. Mr. Pollson, our infor- mant, states that this is the first real volcanic eruption which has occurred in the Oroefa Jcikull, although the rivers Skeidava [Skeidara] and Neepo [Djupa (?)], flowing fi-om the Skapta, have been regularly flooded every sixth year, the latter invariably fol- lowing the former afler the lapse of twenty- four hours, on all of which occasions large masses of ice are brought do"\vn fi'om the mountain, and remain in the low country for years before they disappear. On this occasion an interval of ten years has elapsed since the last regular flooding of these rivers took place, and the quantity of water sent down by the present eruption completely inundated the flat land between those two rivers, a distance of twenty miles. Smoke in great quantities has been ejected on this occasion from both these mountains, a circumstance not before known. Mr. Pollson was called from home three days afler the eruption commenced, when it was as vigorous as ever, but has heard since that it has subsided, which we can corroborate, as we sailed close along the land on Tuesday morning last, and had a fine view of the whole mountain range ; but the absence of any imusual quantity of fresh water on the ocean near the land, while it abounded at eighty miles off, proved the thing. " The quantity of debris from the Oroefa appears to have been very great, as the coast here, a distance of 150 miles from the moun- tain, is covered with pumice stone and brushwood. I have taken the liberty of communicating these circumstances to you, know- ing the deep interest which you take in these matters, and regret that as we (Major Wyatt, C.B. and self) are on the eve of starting for our fishing lodge in Thingvalla valley, we are unable to collect any further particulars. I may mention that we had a pleasant passage out from Aberdeen by a sailing vessel in eight days, and have only further to say that I have seen a very beautiful specimen of Surturbrand upwards of a foot through, and as hard and black as a coal, and that you may make any use of this letter you may think proper for the benefit of those whom you thinV it might interest ; and I remain, dear Sir, yours sincerely, " Williain Longman, Esq., 36 Hyde Park Square, London." "William Hogarth. APPENDIX. 123 Note 2. The annexed account of Mr. Paulson's ascent of the Oroefa Jokull is taken from a note in Henderson's Iceland (p. 203). " We left Qvisker (a small solitary farm at the eastern base of the mountain) at 5.45 in the morning of the 11th of August 1794, with a clear atmosphere and calm weather, aft;er having furnished ourselves with a barometer, a thermometer, a small compass, a pointed hammer, a long pole, and a rope about ten fathoms in length. Our route lay up the precipitous mountains which form the base of the Yokul, till we gained the ice at 8.45 a.m., when we rested a few minutes on a small height, at the base of which we observed several specimens of the beautiful Alpine plant, Eanunculus nivalis, some of which had abeady withered. Such as had recently blossomed had snow-white petals, but those of longer standing were more or less red, resembling a saffron yellow. This plant is very rarely to be met with on the Southern Alps of Iceland. " The barometer had now fallen from 28° 4^', where it stood at Qvisker, to 25° 4^', and the heat was 8^' of Reaumur. " The margin of the Yokul had evidently pushed forward against the height on which we stood, and raised a waU of small stones and sand nearly half up its side, but had again retreated to the distance of several fathoms. " Having boimd myself to my two companions by means of the rope, leaving a distance of two fathoms between each, that we might assist each other in case any of us should happen to fall into a rent of the ice, we proceeded up the Yokul, but had scarcely advanced twenty paces, when we heard a noise louder than thunder, runnino- as it were longitudinally through the whole ice mountain from S. to N., accompanied with a perceptible concussion under our feet, which lasted for about a minute. " My companions now wished to return, but though this shock retarded our progress for a few moments, a kind of natural impulse to visit these icy Alps prompted me to contmue my ascent; and we afterwards found that the report was occasioned by what is caUed Yiikla-brestr, or Yokul-burst, the ice having disrupted and fallen in from either side of a gully, about a mile (five English miles) in length. " We continued our route up the S.E. side of the Yokul, where it 124 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. (»' 1 . 1 , f h was least acclivltous, passing a number of black tufFa rocks, and crossing a multiplicity of fissures deeper than the eye could reach. Here, as is common at such elevations, the atmosphere got too thin to admit of our breathing with freedom. One of our party was so much affected, and felt such an inclination to sleep, that he remained behind us, and on lying down on the bare ice, imme- diately fell asleep ; the other, naturally subject to a beating at the heart and melancholy, found himself more relieved and cheerful the higher we ascended, without being sensible of any particular fatigue from the tenuity of the air. We at length gained the S.E. peak of the Yokul at 11.45 a.m., and found, that, in conjimction with the three or four other peaks to the W. and N., it describes the side of an immensely large crater of a circular form. These peaks on the summit of the Yokul are so precipitous, that the mass of ice has in different places disengaged itself, and fallen do^vn from them, leaving a number of black calcined rocks, the tops of which are covered with hats of frozen snow, and for the most part inac- cessible, as a single false step would inevitably precipitate the tra- veller into the imfathomable chasms at their base. The barometer feU here to 22° 6'', or 5° 10^", from what it was at Qvisker. The thermometer, at the same height with our eye from the surface of the Yokul, stood at 1 1^° of Reaumur. The atmosphere was clear, and the wind blew keenly from the N. We could not discover any irregularity of the compass, and the whole of its variation was two points towards the W. " The prospect was naturally enchanting. We had a view of all the Yokuls and moimtains towards the N.E., between the spot on which we stood and Homafiord, and the situation of Mafabyg-dir, a little to the N.W. of Breida-mark mountain, from which two chains of sandy and stony mountains project towards the S.E., to the spot where the river breaks forth from the foundation of the Yokul. Towards the W., the Eyafialla Yokul rose majestically before us, and in a northerly direction we could descry the summit of Sniafiall, but were prevented from seeing the regions in the in- terior by the peaks of the Yokul intercepting our view. " We again reached Qvisker, much fatigued, about 4.30 in the afternoon." APPENDIX, 125 Note 3. The following is a list of plants which I collected during my tour. For their classification and names I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Babington. I have added the names of the places where I gathered the different specimens, but because the name of a single place, or of one or two places only are placed opposite the name of a plant, it does not at all follow that the plant is not to be found in many other places. I may add that I know nothing about botany, but was induced to make this collection at the request of a friend. Eanunculacees. Thalictrum alpinum, Linn. Akreyri. Ranunculus acris, Linn. Between Reyni-vellir and Holtar. PapaveracecB. Papaver nudicaule, Linn. Jokul-dalr near Stafa-fell. CriLcifera. Arahis petraea, Idnn. Geysirs, Cardamine pratensis, Linn. Raud-nef-stadr, Eeykja-vik, Volasel. Draba ineana, Linn. Modru-dalr. CapseUa Bursa-pastoris, Linn. Modru-dalr. Cakile maritima, Scop. Keykja-vik. Violacea. Viola tricolor, Linn. Akreyri. CaryophyllacecB. Silene maritima, With. On sand by the river near Valthjof-stadir. Hof near Torfa JokulL Silene acaulis, Linn. Kaud-nef-stadr, under Orcefa Jokull, near My-vatn. Lychnis alpina, Linn. Amar-vatns-heidi, Surts-hellir. Spergula arvensis, Linn. Keykja-vik. Arenaria norvegica, Gunn. Breid-dals-heidi. Cerastium alpinum, Linn. Akreyri, Geysirs, Kaud-nef-stadr, Keykja- hlid, Kalmans-tunga. GeraniacecB. Geranium sylvaticum, Linn. Near Beru-fjordr, between Grim-stadir, and My-vatn. LeguminoscB. Vicia Cracca, Linn. Kaud-nef-stadr. TrifoHum repens, Linn. Heina-berg. 126 APPENDIX. A rt .1 J. I Eosacecs. Spiraa Ulmaria, Linn. Between Reyni-vellir and Holtar. Dryas octopetala, Linn. HaUorm-stadr-hals, Geysirs. PotentiUa Comarum, Nesl. Reyk-holt, Akreyri, Selsund. Potentilla alpestris, Hall. Breid-dals-heidi. Geum rivale, Linn. Hvita, Skaptar-tunga. Alehemilla vulgaris, Linn. Akreyri, Raud-nef-stadr. Alchemilla alpina, Linn. Geysirs, between Reyni-vellir and Holtar, near Stafa-fell, Mikli-bcBr. OnagracecB. Epilobium latifolium, Linn. Sandy river-bed, S. E. of Torfa Jokull, under Orcefa, Skeidarar Sandr. CrassulacecB. Sedum Rhodiola, B.C. Alfta-^'ordr. Sedum villosum, lAnn. Breid-dals-heidi, Akreyi, S. of Ok Jokull. Saxifragacea. Saxifraga aizoides, Linn. Jokul-dalr, near Stafa-fell, Breid-dals-heidi Saxifraga Hirculus, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi, Jokul-dalr, Stafa-fell, Hvita, Eld-vatn. Saxifraga ciBspitosa, Linn. Selsund, Breid-dals-heidi. Saxifraga hypnoides, Linn. Raud-nef-stadr. Saxifraga stellaris, Linn. Sandy river-bed, S. of Torfa Jokull. Parnassia palustris, Linn. Geysirs, between Reyni-vellir and Holtar. Umbdlifera. Angelica sylvestris, Linn. Beru-fjordr. RubiacecB. Galium borcale, Linn. Selsund. Galium pusillum, Linn. Raud-nef-stadr, Kalmans-tunga. Galium verum, Ldnn. Selsund, Jokul-dalr, near Stafa-feU. Comfosita. Erigeron alpinus, Linn. Geysirs, Breid-dals-heidi.' Gnaphalium norvegicum, Gunn. Breid-dals-heidi. Matricaria inodora, Linn. Mikli-boer. Achillea Millefolium, Linn. Valthjof-stadr, Modru-dalr, Akreyri. Apargia autumnalis, Willd. Beru-:Qordr. Campanulace^. Campanula rotundifolia, Linn. Beru-fjordr. Calluna vulgaris, Linn. Orcefa Jokull, Grim-stadir. Vaccinium uliginosum, Linn. Breid-dals-heidL APPENDIX. 127 GentianacecB. ' Gentiana Amarella, Linn. Selsund, Stein-holt, Hraun. Gentiana campestris, Linn. Selsund, Beru-fjordr. Gentiana nivalis, Linn. Stein-holt, Leir-hnukr. Pleurogyne rotata, Griseb. Modru-dalr, Arnar-vatns-heidi. Boraginacece. Myosotis arvensis, lAnn. Raud-nef-stadr, Akreyri. Myosotis coUina, Hoffm. Beru-fjordr. Scrophulariacea. Rhinanthus Crista-galli, Linn. Raud-nef-stadr, Knappa-veUir. Euphrasia officinalis, lAnn. Upsalir, Breid-dals-heidi. Veronica alpina, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi, Hallorm-stadr-hals. LabiatcB. Thymus Serpyllum, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi, Mikli-boer. Lentibulariacets. Pinguicula vulgaris, Linn. Selsund, Stein-holt, Raud-nef-stadr, Knappa- vellir. BlumbaginaceeB, Armeria maritima, Willd. Reyk-holt, under Orcefa Jokull. Tolygonax;e(B. Polygonum viviparum, Linn. Akreyri, Hallorm-stadr-hals, under Orcefa Jokull, near My-vatn. Rumex acetosa, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi. Oxyria reniformis, Hook. Breid-dals-heidi. Empetracea. Empetrum nigrum, Linn. Oroefa Jokull, near My-vatn. AmentifercB. Salix lanata, Linn. Heidi. Salix herbacea, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi. ConifercB. Juniperus nana, Willd, W. of Skjald-breid, My-vatns Oroefi. OrchidacecB. Habenaria hyperborea, B. Br. Geysirs, Selsund, Buland, Prest-bakki, Stein-holt, between Reyni-vellir, and Holtar. Melanthace^. Tofieldia palustris, Huds, Akreyri, Breid-dals-heidi. p' FV 128 A TOUR IN ICELAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1861. Juncacea. Jimcus balticus, WiUd. Upsalir. Cyperaceis. Eriophorum angustifolium, Linn. Upsalir, Grim-stadir. Carex rigida, Linn. Breid-dals-heidi. GraminecB. Elymus arenarius, Linn. On sand-hills, in the desert below Hekla, be- tween Stori-vellir and Hekla, Modru-dalr, Grim-stadir. Equisetacea. Equisetum umbrosnm, Willd. Skjald-breid. Filices. Woodsia ilrensis, R. Br. Selsund. Cjstopteris fragilis, Bernh. Mikli-bcer, Selsund, Surts-hellir. Lycopodiacea, Lyeopodinm Selago, Linn. Surts-hellir. Lycopodium selaginoides, Linn. Orcefa Jokull. "This is a very interesting set of pLants, chiefly because it was formed in parts of Iceland from whence we have not pre- viously received any collection. With the exception of a small packet formed near Akreyri, on the north coast, by Mr. Isaac Carroll, of Cork, in the com-se of the summer of 1861, all our previous knowledge of the plants of Iceland was derived from an examination of the south-western part of the island. As might be expected to be the case in a collection made by a traveller who did not make botany the primary object of his tour, it is wanting in some respects. But few of the less conspicuous plants are contained in it. It is especially deficient in the orders Composite, Ericacece, Ametitifercey Orchidacece, Juncacece, Cyperacece, Gra- minece, and Filices. There is no addition made by it to the known flora of Iceland. I hope, as soon as other engage- ments will allow, to draw up a more scientific accoimt of this and Mr. Carroll's collections, in conjunction with a review of the list of plants gathered by myself in Iceland in 1846. "(Signed) Charles C. Babington. "March 18, 1862." CHAPTEE n. THE OBER.ENGADIX. 1. PONTEESINA TO CHIESA, IN THE VAL 31ALENCA ; PASS OF THE EOSEGG GLACIER AND COL DI SCERSEN; TOUR OF THE BERNINA. 2. ASCENT OF THE PIZZO BERNINA. VOL. I. m Il W! ' «l THE PIZZO BEimiNA MT Kennedys Bout£ — . . , „ MrMUvians Route ____ *i Crirruior f> 3reakf