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diff --git a/79060-0.txt b/79060-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e37adf --- /dev/null +++ b/79060-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4010 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79060 *** + + + + + THE + LEITH & ICELAND STEAM SHIPPING COMPANY’S + First Class Screw Steamship + “CAMOENS,” + 1264 Tons Register. 170 H.P., + + + OR other First-Class Steamer, Sails regularly + between GRANTON and ICELAND =during the Season=, + (unless prevented by unforeseen circumstances) + carrying Mails and Passengers. The “CAMOENS” is a + full-powered, fast Steamer, with superior Passenger + accommodation; has spacious Saloon, Ladies’ Cabin, + well ventilated State-rooms, and Smoke-room. + + -------------- + + Carries full staff of Stewards, & Stewardess. + + -------------- + + + FARES:—First Cabin, £5; Return, £8. Second + Cabin, £3; Return, £5. + + Separate State-rooms may be had by special agreement. + + -------------- + + For Time Bills, Cabin Plan, &c., apply to + + R. & D. SLIMON, LEITH. + + -------------- + + + + + Crown 8vo. 180 pages, cloth, limp. + + GUIDE TO ICELAND. + + + A useful handbook for Travellers and Sportsmen, + with a large Map showing every recorded site of + volcanic activity, Places of Interest, Salmon + Rivers, Reindeer Tracts, Farms where night quarters + are obtainable, Routes, &c., by W. G. LOCK, F.R.G.S. + Sent post free, on receipt of P.O. for 5s. + + R. & D. SLIMON, LEITH. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE MIDNIGHT SUN + + AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH OF ICELAND. + + -------------- + + Extract from the Notes of an Iceland Tourist. + + On board S. S. “Camoens.” + + +The entire day had been lovely. Hardly any wind was blowing, and the few +clouds, that in the morning had given some relief to the landscape +before us, had melted away with the declining sun. We were all on deck +that night, to watch when the sun would set. That there would be no +visible difference in the daylight, we knew from the experience of the +last two days; but as we were now at the highest latitude that we could +reach (66 deg. 40 sec.), some eight miles inside the Arctic circle, +there was a good deal of hope that the sun might perhaps not set at all. +Deeper and deeper it sank, assuming a fiery red colour, and painting the +snow-covered mountains with the most delicate touches of pink and +purple. However, when it came within 2 degrees of the horizon, it seemed +to stop on its downward course, and before we knew of anything we heard +eight bells. Here was twelve o’clock at night, and the sun right in the +north a considerable distance above the water, not a cloud on the sky, +not a wrinkle on the water, not a sound to disturb the exquisite +picture. Was it a wonder that we could not leave the deck? As the sun +slowly rose again, a quantity of light feather-clouds gathered on the +northern half of the sky, which were all fringed with crimson and gold, +while the sky itself ran through all the shades, from the palest yellow +in the north, to the deepest purple over the island to the south of us. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + “Iceland shone with glorious lore renowned, + A northern light when all was gloom around.” + + Montgomery. + + ------- + + From + England + to + Iceland; + + + A Summer Trip to the Arctic Circle. + + by + + GEORGE CHARLES SIM. + + ------- + + WITH FORTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS, + CHIEFLY FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS. + + ------- + + + BRADFORD: HENRY GASKARTH. + LONDON: HAMILTON ADAMS AND CO. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TO + + MY FRIEND + + JOHN SPEAK, ESQ., + + OF + + WARM LEE HOUSE, AMBLER THORNE, + + HALIFAX, + + THE COMPANION OF MANY WANDERINGS + + BY + + THE WORLD’S WAYSIDES, + + I AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBE + + THIS RECORD OF + + OUR EXPERIENCES IN + + ICELAND. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + PREFACE. + + + “Without, or with, offence to friends or foes, + I sketch the world exactly as it goes.”—Byron. + + +IN September, 1883, the author, and the friend to whom this little +volume is inscribed, visited Ohinemutu and Rhotomahana, in the famous +Hot Lake District of New Zealand. Subsequently, early in June, 1884, as +members of the Pioneer Party of the year—a party of eight, including +guides—they succeeded in forcing their way into that extraordinary +region of marvels the Yellowstone National Park, a vast tract of country +which covers a total area of more than three thousand five hundred +square miles in the Territories of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho; and has +been “dedicated and set apart by ‘Act of Congress’ as a public park or +pleasure ground for the enjoyment and benefit of the people of the +United States for ever.” + +Actuated by a natural desire to complete the chain of their experiences, +they resolved last summer to take a Trip to Iceland, the oldest—in point +of date of discovery—though now neither the most interesting, nor the +most attractive, of the Three Great Volcanic Wonderlands of the World. + +In the following pages—re-printed from the columns of the _Bradford +Illustrated Weekly Telegraph_—the writer has attempted to describe the +scenery and phenomena of Iceland; the social condition of its people; +and the incidents of a voyage to the Arctic Circle, exactly as these +came under his own observation, and in those aspects in which they would +probably have presented themselves to the minds of most of his readers. + +It is recorded that the Mayor of an English city once apologised to +Queen Elizabeth for having omitted to receive her with the customary +royal salute, and gave the three following reasons for his apparent act +of official discourtesy: first, the city had no powder; second, it had +no cannon; and, third, if it had had both, there was no one among its +population who knew anything about either. Her Majesty, under the +circumstances, was graciously pleased to hold him excused. + +Similarly, the indulgence of the reader is claimed for the omission in +this book of all abstruse scientific, or philological explanations or +theories. These may be found in other and more important works written +by competent authorities. Being neither scientist nor philologist the +author has refrained from touching, even lightly, upon the curious +problems which everywhere provoke scientific speculation and enquiry in +Iceland; neither has he interlarded his pages with those philological +puzzles, in the shape of Icelandic characters and words, with which some +otherwise very interesting narratives are, if anything, a little +over-weighted. + +His object has rather been to tell the story of his own experiences for +the guidance of the intending tourist; to furnish the general reader +with some useful information regarding a lonely island in the North +Atlantic, about which “_tout le monde et sa femme_” have hitherto +concerned themselves but little; and to help to awaken in the hearts of +his fellow-countrymen a sympathetic interest in a poor, isolated, kindly +people who claim to be included among “our kin across the sea;” and who, +after centuries of thraldom and hardship, are at last beginning, under +improved social and political conditions, to look forward to a brighter +and more prosperous future. + + G. C. S. + +Bradford, Nov. 24th, 1885. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + -------------- + + + CHAPTER I. + +Ultima Thule—a land of mystery—introductory retrospect—Bradford to +Leith—afloat—a catastrophe averted—landmarks of Auld Reekie—shores of +the Forth—the Bass Rock—John o’ Groat’s House—a gale in the North +Atlantic—Orœfajökull—no night—Portland Point—volcanic reefs—the +Westmann’s Islands—Heimaey—Heimaeyklett and Ystaklett—purity of the +atmosphere—Myrdalsjökull—Elirey and Bjarnarey—arrival of the Camoens, a +great event. + + + CHAPTER II. + +Ashore—a colonial contrast—Iceland and New Zealand—appearance of the +people—the “hufa”—early colonization by Irish—fish curing—dried cods’ +heads—view from Helgafell—the church—congregation—form of religion—how +Christianity was established—God’s acre—Thingis Hus—turf-and-rubble +cottages—dried-bird-fuel—an Icelandic Esculapius—the caves—sail for +Reykjavik—poverty of the Icelander—his difficulties—former tyrannous +legislation—the “tick and truck” system—break in cloud of misrule—dawn +of happier times. + + + CHAPTER III. + +The capital from the sea—our guide—view from the Observatory—founding of +the city by Ingolfr—why named Reykjavik—National Anthem—a +sailor-mason—cost of labour, living, and rent—marriage—influence of +præsturs—awful sufferings and disasters—climate—summer salutation—the +Althing—Upper and Lower houses, how constituted—candidate’s +qualification—the franchise—revenue of Iceland—our little company. + + + CHAPTER IV. + +A “Sing Song”—a Yankee masher—an “Amurican stoodent sawng”—start for +Thingvellir—our arrangements with Gudmundsen—a naval Centaur—barren +landscape—absence of cultivation—the tun—halt for dinner—a lava +desert—rain channels and frost mounds—a horseman’s difficulties—our +ponies—Lake Thingvellavatn—the Almannagja—the Oxara—the parsonage—a +serious question for somebody—church endowments—the Præstur—his +emoluments—and qualification—more churches than parsons—the Bishop—the +Latin School—education. + + + CHAPTER V. + +At Thingvellir—the Lögberg—scenes once witnessed there—Execution +Pool—our ponies run away—we start without guide—Ravnegja—lava floods—a +plain of desolation—wilderness, mountain, and sky—Laugerdal—Hekla—we +miss our way—snuffing—handshaking and kissing—honesty of +Icelanders—Efstaydalr—precious grass—the Bruera—a midnight halt—we reach +the Geysirs—and sleep in a church—some of our comforts—our menu—and +ecclesiastical domicile—waiting for the Strokr to spout—the Great Geysir +and the Strokr—their temperature, dimensions, &c.—a contrast—the +Grumbler—“there shall be no night there.” + + + CHAPTER VI. + +A night ride—the ferryman—the Zog—the Kalda—the ponies swim—an extra +rider required—Villingavatn—an Icelandic farm house—Eider down—our +breakfast—great Icelandic writers—no theatre in Iceland—farm +rents—haymaking—sheep-shearing—size of farms—what constitutes a rich +man—fine view—a dreary spot—Hengill—sulphur springs—scenery wilder and +more weird than ever—through the “Doorway”—an elderly equestrienne—side +saddles—women’s heads muffled—we arrive at Reykjavik—our itinerary—we +sail for Akureyri—the Liberator of Iceland—the leader of the Young +Iceland Party—good grass land a safe investment—no agricultural +implements—Snaefellsjökull—rugged coast—French fishing smacks—the +Soudan—the Australian contingent—a refractory navvy—“There she +blows”—whale fishing—discovery of Greenland and America by +Icelanders—Snaeland—origin of name Iceland—national flag. + + + CHAPTER VII. + +Akureyri—Dr. Jon. A. Hjaltalin—temperature of sea and air—Icelandic +gloves—curious custom—state of agriculture—imported seed a +failure—schools of agriculture—reason for neglect of farming—a fact +worth noting—stock raising—quality of grass—wool trade—desirability of +direct trade with England—obstacles—necessity for improvement in +fibre—peculiarity of Iceland sheep—their number—weight of wool—we go +ashore—shark oil factory—a few facts about the shark fishery—the only +trees in Iceland—the Falls of the Glera—shipping ponies—“Jack’s” love +for animals—value of ponies—homeward bound—a strange scenic +effect—within the Arctic Circle—a courteous judge—close time for birds +and animals in Iceland—indigenous birds—the Great Auk—Langenes—in a +fog—deep sea soundings—we land at Thurso—conclusion. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + -------------- + +The following illustrations, drawn by Mr Alexander Shepherd, A.M., of +Bradford, have been prepared—with a few exceptions—from original +photographs taken by the author:— + + + + PLATE I. + + 1 John o’ Groats House. + 2 Duncansby Head. + 3 The S. S. Camoens in dock, Leith. + 4 Saloon of S. S. Camoens. + 5 Amateur Photographers on board of S. S. Camoens. + + PLATE II. + + 1 Heimaey and Heimaeyklett, from the Cemetery. + 2 Lava Cairn on Helgafell. + 3 An Icelandic whaleboat. + 4 The Church at Heimaey. + 5 Altar and Candelabrum of ditto. + + PLATE III. + + 1 Turf-and-rubble-cottage, Heimaey. + 2 The Althingis Hus, Heimaey. + 3 Woman riding man-fashion. + 4 Drying birds for fuel. + + PLATE IV. + + 1 View of Reykjavik. + 2 Icelandic woman wearing holiday head-dress. + 3 „ „ „ “Hufa” or National do. + 4 Snaefellsjökull from the sea. + 5 Building stone houses in Reykjavik. Quarrying stone + in middle of street. Labourers with hand barrow. + 6 The Cathedral and Althing, Reykjavik. + 7 Lava plain, near the Observatory, do. + + PLATE V. + + 1 The Almannagja from the South. + 2 Lake Thingvellavatn and Hengill. + 3 Rocks on summit of Almannagja. + 4 A rest by the way. + 5 The Almannagja from the North. + + PLATE VI. + + 1 The Upper Fall of the Oxara, Thingvellir. + 2 The Lögberg, Thingvellir. + 3 View of plain at „ + 4 The Parsonage, „ + 5 „ Church, „ + 6 Execution Pool, „ + 7 Train of pack-ponies „ + + PLATE VII. + + 1 The Bruera and Bridge. + 2 Washing clothes in the “laugs,” or hot springs. + 3 Tourists’ tents at the Geysirs. + 4 The Great Geysir. + 5 The Strokr in the sulks. + 6 „ in action. + + PLATE VIII. + + 1 Landing place at Akureyri. + 2 One of the five trees at „ + 3 Principal store „ + 4 Fishing in the Glera „ + 5 Waterfall of the „ „ + 6 Shipping ponies „ + +NOTE.—The route followed is indicated upon the front cover, which has +been specially designed by the writer. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE I. + + 1 John o’ Groat’s House.—2 Duncansby Head. + 3 The S. S. Camoens in dock, Leith.—4 Saloon of S. S. Camoens. + 5 Amateur Photographers on board of S. S. Camoens. +] + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + FROM ENGLAND TO ICELAND. + + + -------------- + + + “This is a traveller, Sir, has ploughed up sea so far + Till both the poles have knocked; has seen the sun + Take coach, and can distinguish the colour + Of his horses and their kinds.” + + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + + +Far away on the very verge of the Arctic Circle, where the dark waters +of the North Atlantic sweep on to meet the ice-floes of the Polar Sea, +lies the Ultima Thule of the ancients—the Iceland of to-day. + +To poets and historians who wrote before and immediately after the +dawning of the Christian era it was a land of mystery, “an island hid by +snow and winter,” as one of them has well expressed it, and even to us, +whose lot has been cast in more enlightened days, it is to some extent a +land of mystery still. Modern science has unlocked many of its secrets, +and explained many of its marvels, but there are, in this great +wonderland of Europe to-day, problems yet unsolved, and regions yet +untraversed, which await the scientific enquirer and the adventurous +explorer. + +It is not, however, in either of these capacities that I invite the +reader to accompany me on a trip to Iceland. I make no pretension to be +either the one or the other. It is rather as a companion bent on +enjoying to the full a summer holiday on one of the least-frequented +bye-paths of the Northern Hemisphere; as an admirer of Nature amid her +strangest phenomena, and in her sternest, as well as in her kindliest +moods; as a wanderer familiar with much of the world and with many of +its ways; as an interested observer who has noted the conditions of life +among savage and civilised, in many a foreign clime; as a business man, +keenly alive to the increasing necessity for new markets for our +products and manufactures; and as an advanced political student, to whom +there is much that is both instructive and attractive in the story of +the little community, which for more than a thousand years, in +loneliness and isolation, and amid alternate seasons of deepest +winter-gloom and midnight summer-sunshine, has “lived and moved and had +its being,” heedless of the social revolutions which have broadened the +foundations of human liberty, and comparatively unaffected by the +dynastic changes that have drenched Europe with blood, wasted its +resources, hindered its progress, and turned it, even in this nineteenth +century, into an armed camp of professional cut-throats. + +Colonised in 874 by some of the bravest and boldest blood of +Scandinavia, Iceland for four hundred years remained an independent +commonwealth. In 1262 she passed under the yoke of Norway, and +subsequently in 1380 under that of Denmark, whose suzerainty she +acknowledges to-day. + +Famed in early times for the power and prowess of her vikings, and for +the genius of her skalds or song writers, she has not only created a +language, of which it has been said that “no one who has not read the +masterpieces written in Icelandic can judge fairly of the capacity, +force, and sweetness of this most classic tongue,” but has made it the +medium of bequeathing to the world, in her historical “sagas”—or prose +epics—a wealth of information regarding the deeds and heroes of the +Teutonic race, which has been of priceless value to the historians of +Europe. + +With the loss of her independence, however, she gradually declined in +self-respect, and speedily sank into a state of apathy and lethargic +hopelessness from which, thank Heaven, she is at last beginning to +arouse herself. Rip-van-Winkle-like she has recently risen from a sleep +of centuries, and having, by peaceful agitation, succeeded in obtaining +the right of Parliamentary self-government, there seems to be every +prospect that—in spite of their poverty, and the natural disadvantages +under which they labour—her sons will yet prove themselves worthy of +their high ancestry, and redeem their country from the decadence into +which they have unhappily permitted her to sink. + +It is in a spirit of hopefulness for her future, that I take up my pen +to record my impressions of both country and people, as well as with a +sincere desire that I may succeed in creating an interest in, and +furnishing some useful information regarding, a land about which +Englishmen generally know little and perhaps care less. + +So much by way of preface. Let me now ask the reader to suppose that we +have started together from a busy manufacturing town in the West Riding +of Yorkshire, and are hurrying on to Edinburgh by Midland Express to +catch the S.S. Camoens, advertised to sail from Leith, at noon on the +8th of July, 1885. We pass Settle, that most charming of Yorkshire +country towns, nestling at the foot of its fine background of encircling +hills, stop for a few minutes for refreshments at Carlisle, where in the +days of the old Border feuds many a Scottish reiver met with a short +shrift and a sudden death, and an hour later cross the Tweed, loved and +immortalised by “The Great Unknown.” + +We look with all a Yorkshireman’s interest upon the shed roofs and +smoking chimneys of Hawick and Galashiels, which remind us that we are +travelling through the great textile manufacturing district of Scotland. + +We see Melrose, not indeed “by moonlight and alone,” but in the “summer +gloaming” and over the heads of a small crowd of canny Scots who are +thronging the station, and thinking not of “the brave days of old,” not +of princes and prelates, of abbeys and abbots, of monks and monasteries, +but of the state of the wool market, of the prospects of trade, of +“hanks,” “pirns,” and “shots,” and of “warp” and “weft” and “web,” and +of the hundred and one other prosaic matters which demand the attention +of the industrious weaver, who has supplanted the red-handed warrior; +and whose shuttle, as it clicks from morn till night, tells of better +times for mankind than those when the sound most frequently heard in +these same streets was the clash of swords, and the clang of armed men. + +We are on our way to a land whose poverty is great and whose progress +has been slow, but as we recall the fact that, according to Macaulay, +Scotland from “having been one of the most turbulent countries in +Europe, has become one of the most highly civilised, one of the most +flourishing, one of the most tranquil;” that according to Froude “she +has scored a deeper mark upon the world’s history than any nation either +ancient or modern, perhaps the Athenians and Jews excepted,” we feel +that the Icelander need never despair, if he will but try to bring about +the regeneration of his country by pursuing, and seeking to perfect +himself in, the peaceful arts of industry. + +Night has banished twilight when we reach Edinburgh, and after a trip to +Leith by tram to see the vessel that is to be our home “on the ocean +wave” for the next two or three weeks, we retire to rest, “perchance to +dream” of the discomforts inseparable from “a life on the rolling deep.” + +On the following morning we sail from Leith punctually at the appointed +hour, and within five minutes after leaving the quay are face to face +with what seems likely to prove a catastrophe. We are gliding down +between the massive sea walls that line the channel of entrance to the +docks, when a battered old tug, having several mud-barges in tow, steers +right across our course. There is no room in which to turn, and a +collision seems inevitable. Just, however, at the instant when we are +expecting to see the little boat cut in two she manages, somehow or +other, to swing clear of our bows as we forge past. A sound of crashing +timber is heard as her stern is forced against one of the barges behind +her. A solitary seaman, who appears to be both captain and crew, rushes +to the bulwarks, and in a dancing rage shakes his clenched fist at us in +impotent fury, at the same time pouring forth a torrent of vituperation +of which fortunately only a few words reach our ears, though if judged +by the little we hear, his language is certainly strong enough to have +travelled further. + +The sun is shining pleasantly from a bright blue sky, and the landmarks +of “Auld Reekie” stand out grandly on the horizon behind the intervening +wilderness of roofs and chimneys that slope upwards from port to +capital. Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags, the Calton Hill, the Castle, +the Scott Monument, and other picturesque features which combine to make +Edinburgh, what it undoubtedly is, the most beautiful city in the world, +are all clearly discernible by the naked eye. + +On the shores of the Firth, as we steam towards Granton, before heading +for the ocean, lie the lovely seaside resorts which add so much to the +pleasures of life in the Scottish metropolis. Having transferred the +managing agent to a gaily painted tug, we circle round and steer +north-east, passing on our left the cultivated slopes and quiet little +coast-towns of the kingdom of Fife, while away ahead, over our starboard +bow, rises the shadowy form of the famous Bass Rock, whose name is +associated with some of the grimmest tragedies of Scottish history, and +in whose dungeons, in the dark days of ecclesiastical tyranny and +persecution, so many of those “of whom the world was not worthy,” were +left to perish miserably. + +Keeping well in towards the land we make steady progress at the rate of +about nine knots per hour, and have sighted and passed the lights of +Aberdeen before bed-time. Early on the following morning we find +ourselves off Duncansby Head, the extreme north-east point of Scotland, +a bold and dangerous promontory. Not a tree nor a human habitation is to +be seen on the landscape till we round the point, when we all rush to +the bridge, glass in hand, to take a look at John o’ Groat’s House, a +rather pretentious-looking new hotel built in the Scottish baronial +style of architecture, and situated near the beach, within a stone’s +throw of the Pentland Firth, whose powerful tide, so dreaded in stormy +weather, is breaking heavily upon the rocks. + +A flag-staff in the centre of a mound on the left of the hotel, is +pointed out as marking the original site of Mr John de Grout’s +residence. In some old maps, however, this is indicated upon the summit +of Duncansby Head. A small cairn of stones erected there seems to +support the theory of those antiquarians who are inclined to accept +these maps as correct, and who contend that in the old piratical days it +was much more usual for a man to build his house, as the eagle builds +its eyrie, upon some bold cliff or headland whence he could watch for +danger, and prepare to meet it; than upon a flat, or in a hollow, where +he would be liable to be surprised. Be this as it may, it is a +satisfaction to all of us to see a spot which geographical circumstances +have rendered so interesting. + +Passing through the channel, between Stroma and South Ronaldsha, two of +the Orkney Islands, and leaving the Skerries with their two lighthouses +behind us, we shape our course for the north-west. + + “As we pace along + Upon the giddy footing of the hatches” + +the outlines of Dunnet Head the most northerly, and Cape Wrath the most +significantly named, point on the wild and rockbound coast of Scotland, +gradually fade from view, and long before nightfall we are out in the +open sea, and experiencing the unpleasant effects of a heavy swell in +the North Atlantic. Towards evening the breeze freshens though the +passengers do not. Seats at table began to be vacant early yesterday, +and these increase in number “as” the ship and “the moments roll.” Even +I, who have hitherto defied Neptune on many a stormy ocean in both +hemispheres succumb at last, and begin to study the waves with a +pathetic interest, and to find myself saying, in the words of the old +song, “Oh, dear, what can the matter be?” + +On the morning of the third day out, (Saturday, July 11th), the breeze +increases to a strength of about nine windforce, equivalent to what is +known among seamen as “a fresh gale,” ten being “a strong gale,” eleven +“a storm,” and twelve “a hurricane.” The waves are tolerably high, being +estimated by our captain at from ten to fifteen feet above sea-level or +from twenty to twenty-five feet from hollow to crest, and the Camoens, +which rolls fearfully, is a mere plaything under such conditions. It is +needless to say that the number of invalids does not decrease. + +During the afternoon the wind moderates, and shortly before dinner we +sight the coast of Iceland, whose highest mountain, Orœfajökull (6,426 +feet), with its snow-clad crest and slopes, and extensive glaciers is +distinctly visible through the clear bright air at a distance of more +than seventy miles. A very considerable portion of the surface of +Iceland is covered with glaciers, which feed the mountain torrents, and +the gradual subsidence of which forms not one of the least of the +terrible dangers that constantly threaten immense tracts of country with +destruction. Orœfa is the apex, or coast extremity, of Vatnajökull, the +largest of these, an icefield, which covers an area of between 3,000 and +4,000 square miles, or about one-twelfth of the total area of the +island. The word “jökull,”—meaning ice hill—is attached as a terminal to +the names of all mountains on which glaciers are known to exist. + +As we gradually near the land Orœfa rises grandly beyond the low level +plain that lies like a long black line between its base and the ocean. +This plain, of the extent of which we can form no conception from the +sea, stretches away back to the coast range for a distance of about +thirty miles, and is at least about twice that length from east to west. +The fogs which are continually, and often very unexpectedly, encountered +in these latitudes render it a source of anxiety to navigators, who not +unfrequently find themselves aground before they are conscious of +danger, there being neither lights nor landmarks to guide them. Though +but sparsely peopled, it is covered with nutritious grass, and has +become the great pony-breeding district of Iceland. + +Ever since we began to steer north the days have been growing longer, +and night having now quite disappeared, we are able to read small print +by the light of the sun at what the chronometer indicates as midnight, +and can distinguish the coast quite clearly at an hour when in more +southern latitudes it would be shrouded in darkness. + +It is not till after 1 a.m., as we are passing Portland Point, and its +wonderful water-worn arch and fantastic group of basaltic needle-rocks, +that we go down to our berths, comforted by the captain’s assurance that +if we do not find ourselves high and dry upon the summit of some +volcanic cone which may suddenly rise under us “from the bottom of the +deep blue sea,” we may expect to be lying safely at anchor off the +Westmann’s Islands long before it is time to get up. In 1783, a month +previous to the outbreak of the Shaptarjökull—the most terrible eruption +that has ever occurred in Iceland—a submarine volcano near what are +called the Fire Rocks, forty miles south-west of Cape Reykjanes, burst +forth and covered the sea with pumice stone to such a depth and extent +that ships were impeded by it. Within a few months the volcano +disappeared, but now forms a dangerous reef. + +Having been in Java six months after the catastrophe at Krakatoa, which +in August, 1883, destroyed thirty thousand human beings; having seen the +vast fields of pumice stone then floating in the Indian Ocean and in the +Java Sea; and sailed in a steamer which, while lying in the Straits of +Sunda, two days subsequent to the dreadful disaster above referred to, +had a marvellous escape, only succeeding with the greatest difficulty in +forcing her way through the immense mass of volcanic scum that covered +the ocean for hundreds of miles round about to a depth of several feet; +having seen evidences of the fearful nature of a submarine outburst in +the huge breaches, in the massive sea wall at Batavia, made by the spent +force of the great wave which—more than a hundred miles away—had +absolutely swept two thriving cities—Anjers and Telokbetong—out of +existence; and having slept at the foot of Gedeh, a burning mountain at +Scindanlaija, which only a few years ago caused great destruction of +life and property at Tjandoer, the captain’s grim joke has a +significance for me that it might not otherwise have possessed. It does +not, however, disturb my rest. + +On awaking, the absence of motion, and a strange stillness unbroken by +the horrid grinding of the propeller—that greatest of all the bêtes +noires of the ocean traveller—satisfy me that we have safely reached +port at last. Hurrying on deck I find myself gazing upon a scene of wild +grandeur and picturesque beauty, which charms and impresses me, and +whose attractiveness increases as I become familiar with its details. + +We are lying at anchor, in smooth water, in a pretty little bay situated +on the north shore of Heimaey—(Home Isle)—the largest of the group known +as the Vestmanneyjar or Westmann’s Islands. About a mile ahead of us, on +the left shore, and partly hidden behind a rampart of black weed-covered +rocks, lies the collection of wooden sheds, and huts, and +turf-and-rubble dwellings, in which a total population of five hundred +and ten souls lives, and carries on its chief occupation of fish-curing. +The town extends from the sea inland towards Helgafell, a volcanic cone +about 750 feet high, whose shelving stone-strewn slopes, and jagged +cairn-crowned crest, standing out clearly against the bright blue +cloudless sky, form a fine background to the view in that direction. + +Turning our eyes away from Helgafell and Heimaey, and with a passing +glance at the pretty little Danish sloops moored opposite the wharf, we +face to the right about, where a gigantic rocky mountain promontory, +with two huge humps known respectively as Heimaeyklett and Ystaklett, +stretches itself, like a protecting arm, between us and the western sea. +Its precipitous inaccessible overhanging cliffs tower hundreds of feet +above the deep blue waters that kiss its feet, and every ledge and nook, +and cranny of the bold brown beetling crags that frown down upon us is +crowded with sea-fowl, whose screams as they watch us from their places +of vantage on the rock, or fly in tens of thousands above our heads, +fill the air with a continuous clamour. From the verge of the precipice +grass-grown slopes incline steeply upwards to the summits of both humps, +and on these a few sheep can be seen grazing in places where, to all +appearance, there is scarcely foothold, even for a goat. + +The clearness and purity of the atmosphere in this part of the world, +when the weather is fine,—which is not very often,—has been remarked by +many travellers. It would be impossible for us to view the scene around +us under more favourable conditions in this respect. On the coast of the +mainland, distant ten or twelve miles across the intervening Strait, +Myrdalsjökull, another well-known and beautiful volcano, asserts itself +magnificently amid the lower cones by which it is surrounded. Its white +peak, pure as an angel’s robe, its glaciers, and its slopes on which +purple and silver meet at the snow-line, gleam in glorious loveliness +under the morning sunshine. + +In mid-channel Elirey and Bjarnarey, two brown-faced weather-worn +basaltic island-rocks, with crowns of brightest emerald, rise almost +perpendicularly out of the shimmering sea, not only heightening the +effect of the scene by affording a resting-place for the eye, but +forming a striking and picturesque addition to one of the most beautiful +panoramas I have seen. We are loth to leave the deck even for breakfast, +but console ourselves with the reflection that we shall be able to see a +good deal during the twelve hours at our disposal before the time fixed +for sailing. + +Though it is Sunday morning, the cargo is meanwhile being rapidly +transferred to the large whale boats, which began to fetch it soon after +our arrival, and from the number of men employed, and the evident bustle +and excitement on shore, I conclude that the little white church, which +forms the most conspicuous object on the outskirts of the town, will +have plenty of room for the accommodation of strangers, and that the +poor præstur will not improbably have to preach to a “beggarly array of +empty benches.” + +The coming of the Camoens is a great event in the lonely Westmann’s +Islands. It not only breaks the monotony of what must be a dull and +dreary existence, but is a source of general rejoicing amongst all +classes of the community, for her freight is precious in the eyes of a +people who are compelled to depend upon an outside, and to them far-away +world, not only for the very means of life, but for many of the +comforts, and all the luxuries, which their limited means will permit +them to enjoy. I come to the conclusion, therefore, that the recording +angel who with a tear blotted out Uncle Toby’s oath will bend a +pardoning eye upon what to some would appear to be Sabbath desecration, +but what is really and in the truest sense a work of necessity. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + + “Yet still even here, content can spread a charm, + Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm. + Though poor the peasant’s hut, his feast though small, + He sees his little lot, the lot of all; + Sees no contiguous palace rear its head + To shame the meanness of his humble shed; + No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal + To make him loathe his vegetable meal; + But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil, + Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.” + + GOLDSMITH. + + +“Who’s for shore?” cries the captain immediately after breakfast. “I +am,” “and I,” “and I,” respond about a dozen of us, and in a few minutes +we are afloat in the gig, and steering towards Heimaey. We soon find +ourselves in very shallow water, and passing over, and between, a number +of black reefs, which must not only be dangerous to the fishing craft in +stormy weather, but present a grand sight + + “When there’s a gale a blowin’, and the waves run in and break + On the shore with a roar like thunder, and the brown cliffs seem to + shake.” + +The weather is rarely such that the Camoens can lie at her present +anchorage, for during the north and north-east gales the bay is “a hell +of waters” which it is impossible to enter. + +I am reminded very strongly of another lovely summer Sunday morning +nearly two years ago, when my companion and myself landed, under exactly +similar circumstances, on the very spot where Captain Cook first put +foot on the shores of New Zealand. In the pier at Heimaey, crowded with +men and women, and in the wooden huts beyond it on the hill side, and +along the beach, I seem to see Gisborne once more. + +But how different the social conditions and prospects of the two +communities,—of the Danish and the British colonist! Iceland with an +area of 40,000 square miles—little less than that of the North Island of +New Zealand, which contains 44,000,—was colonised a thousand years ago; +New Zealand a hundred years ago. Yet the population of the one, which in +the year 1100 was estimated at 50,000 has, after a lapse of nearly eight +centuries, only increased to 72,000, while the other is inhabited to-day +by half a million of people of European descent. Both countries are of +volcanic origin, both are subject to earthquakes, both boast of their +burning mountains and geysers. One, however, to use an expression more +forcible than elegant which fell from the lips of a sailor on the +Camoens, is “naething but a dawmed cinder,” the other is, comparatively +speaking, a Paradise. + +As I stand on the pier a few minutes later and watch the busy gangs of +women and girls engaged in carrying sacks of flour on handbarrows to the +neighbouring stores; or stroll among the hardy fishermen who are loafing +about in groups, eagerly discussing the news brought by our good ship; +or exchange smiles with the neatly-dressed, bright-looking, +good-featured little lads and lassies, who are looking on with childish +curiosity; I cannot help wishing that I could spirit them all away to +the “Brighter Britain” in the Southern Seas, where Nature has bestowed +her blessings upon man with bounteous profusion. I suppose, however, +that were I to tell the people round me what is passing through my mind +there is scarcely a man among them who would not turn his eyes all the +more fondly towards the little cot where he was born and bred, and where +he no doubt hopes “to die at home at last.” + + “Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, + And dear that hill that lifts him to the storms; + And as a child, when scaring sounds molest, + Clings close and closer to the mother’s breast; + So the loud torrent and the whirlwind’s roar, + But bind him to his native mountains more.” + +Meanwhile, the women, who are working in couples, toil like ponies, and +the crews of the whale boats are of course actively employed; but it +seems to me that some of the strong men who are looking on, with their +hands in their pockets, and their pipes in their mouths, ought to be +between the shafts of the handbarrows instead of “their sisters and +their cousins and their aunts.” It would be unfair to forget that they +take their share of work, as well as of danger and hardship, during the +fishing season; but I am afraid that the condition of woman in Iceland +is no better than in the fishing and agricultural districts of England +and Scotland, though probably scarcely so bad as that of the girls whom +I have seen slaving round the coal pits of Lancashire. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE II. + + 1 Heimaey and Heimaeyklett, from the Cemetery. + 2 Lava Cairn on Helgafell.—3 An Icelandic Whaleboat. + 4 The Church at Heimaey.—5 Altar and Candelabrum of Church. +] + +Let me describe the appearance of the people near me. “Place aux dames;” +of course, if only as a compliment to their industry. They are strong +fresh-faced fair-haired maids and matrons, who regard us modestly, but +curiously, out of cold pale-blue long-lashed eyes, as they trot +backwards and forwards with an energy and an alertness which speak +volumes for their physical powers. As a rule they are by no means +pretty, but there are, of course, exceptions, and here and there we see +a face which would attract notice, even in an English ball-room, where, +I have no hesitation in saying, one may look for—and find—the loveliest +women in the world. Their figures are not good, as is to be expected +from their mode of life, and owe nothing to their dress, which is +exceedingly plain and unbecoming, though, no doubt, warm and +comfortable. Their gowns, made of linsey-woolsey, or similar heavy +material, are sombre in colour, unrelieved by a single bit of bright +ribbon, or a yard of trimming, tight-sleeved, and just short enough in +the skirt to afford every opportunity of admiring a shapely foot, a neat +ankle, or a well-turned leg, were there any or either of these to +admire, which unfortunately there is not. A loose cotton jacket, a +coloured apron, thick grey worsted stockings, and peculiar sheepskin +shoes, pointed at the toes, without soles, and sewn into shape by +cross-stitching, complete their costume. The latter, which would make +very comfortable slippers, seem to be ill-adapted for a country whose +roads,—where there are any,—are so rough and stone-strewn, but are +nevertheless generally worn, imported boots and shoes being rarely seen +among the poorer classes. The hair, which is generally fair, is smoothed +down neatly on each side of the brow, and plaited at the back into two +long queues which are looped up, and fastened to the crown of the head, +in such a fashion as to form cross-festoons. + +Every woman, however, has on one distinctive article of attire, the +“hufa,” or national head-dress, a small knitted cap, in shape resembling +a night-cap, worn jauntily on either side of the head—generally on the +left—like the forage cap of a British hussar. It is invariably black, no +other colour being used, is made of either silk or wool, and is +ornamented with a heavy black silk tassel which hangs down as far as the +shoulder from a brass, silver-gilt, or solid silver ferrule about two +inches long, and half an inch in diameter, that adds greatly to its +smartness. + +The men, bronzed and bearded, are dressed in rough woollen jackets and +trousers, wear caps, billycocks or sou-westers, and bear a strong family +likeness to “oor fisher folk at hame,” the only thing which strikes us +as peculiar being the sheepskin shoes to which I have already referred. + +Our worthy captain—one of the kindest-hearted and most genial men I have +ever met, and certainly the most obliging skipper I have ever sailed +with,—informs me that the Westmann’s Islands were originally so called +because they were discovered, and occupied, by emigrants from Ireland, +who are said to have been the first Icelandic colonists. On this point +let me quote Dr Jon A. Hjaltalin, one of the best informed and most +reliable authorities in Iceland, a gentleman who has lectured in many +towns in England, and to whom I had the pleasure of being introduced at +Akureyri. In a little historical pamphlet which he wrote on the occasion +of the “Thousandth Anniversary of the Norwegian Settlement in Iceland,” +and which he has been kind enough to send me since my return, Dr +Hjaltalin says “If we can believe the Irish monk Dicuil the Irish were +the first discoverers of Iceland. Dicuil, who wrote his book ‘De mensura +orbis terrarum’ about the year 825, states that, some thirty years +before, clerics had told him that they had been to an island far to the +north, where there had been daylight throughout the night at the summer +solstice, and where they were able to do whatever they wanted by night +as well as by day. Local names, preserved to this day, as well as the +records of the old Icelanders, prove the fact that Irish monks had +visited the island before the Norwegians.” + +Subsequently the Scandinavian settlement took place, and emigrants +arrived from the Orkneys, the North of Scotland, and Ireland. It is not +surprising, therefore, that I should remark to my companion, as we leave +the pier, that if the children of Heimaey were at a port in my own +country, instead of where they are I should pass them without notice; it +is so evident they spring from the same stock as ourselves. It is worthy +of note before I leave this subject, “that the Irish do not seem to have +met with any human being, or aborigines, when they discovered Iceland, +nor have any traces of such been found in later times.” + +Passing between the two lines of female porters, who are ascending and +descending like the angels on Jacob’s ladder, we turn to the right into +a narrow macadamised path, or street, containing several little +dwelling-houses, two or three sheds or stores crammed with imported +produce, and a number of rough wooden huts filled with fish either cured +or in process of being cured. Outside each of the latter stands a deal +table on which the fish are prepared, the heads being cut off and dried +for home consumption, and the remainder set aside for export. + +These dried cods’ heads tied up in bundles, and ready for conveyance +into the interior on pony-back, may be seen everywhere, and you will +probably not meet a single train of ponies, on any track in the whole +country, whose load does not include some of these necessary articles of +diet. I am told on enquiry that they are worth about a penny each, which +I consider a high price, and that, in times of scarcity, after all the +flesh has been carefully picked off, the very bones are often eaten, +having first been softened in buttermilk. The offal is thrown to the +dogs and ponies, which sometimes also get the powdered fish bones when +these can be spared by the family. In rear of some of the houses in the +outskirts we observe large square platforms built of round undressed +lava stones, and raised about a foot from the ground. On these the fish +are exposed to dry in the sun. + +The stench in this neighbourhood exceeds the combined odours of the nine +and forty distinct smells for which Cologne is said to be remarkable, +and is such that, with our noses in the air, and taking care to sniff as +seldom as possible, we hurry on towards Helgafell, which we have made up +our minds to ascend before returning to the Camoens for lunch. We stop +for a moment at the house of the Syslumann or Sheriff to say au revoir +to our friend the captain who has some business to transact with this +official. Then we strike across a few fields so thickly covered with +stones of every shape and size that it seems as if Heaven must have +rained them from the skies; jump one or two low stone fences; stumble +over some of the thousands of green frost-made hummocks that form such a +curious feature of the landscape; tramp along the bottom of several of +the foot-deep winding rain-channels that are commonly used as paths; and +then boldly attack the precipitous mountain slope. Up, up, up we go, now +slipping upon black shifting volcanic sand; now tramping upon +sharp-edged fragments of lava; now clambering up very steep places on +hands and knees; and not unfrequently pausing to take breath, and to +wipe the perspiration from our brows at some friendly boulder, which +affords us secure foothold, or the opportunity of sitting down. + +We arrive at the edge of the crater at last, and descend into its grassy +hollow, where a few sheep are quietly grazing. Making a final rush +towards the cairns which some of our companions have already reached, we +see a panorama on every side of us to which no other name than +magnificent can possibly be applied. In front on the distant mainland +both Hekla and Myrdalsjökull rise in all their snowy beauty; and the +islands of Elirey and Bjarnarey, the harbour with its shipping, and +guardian promontory, the little straggling town stretching along the +beach and inland towards the farmhouses on its outskirts that stand +within their small stone-fenced enclosures or crofts under grass or +potatoes,—green spots which look like so many oases in a waste of +treeless barrenness—are all spread out before us. On our right and on +our left, and behind us, washing the shores of the low encircling line +of hills that beats back its surges, is the Atlantic Ocean, studded with +huge island-rocks of various shapes and sizes,—(including one which we +specially note on account of its extraordinary resemblance to a +haystack)—and so calm and peaceful under the flood of sunshine that +pours down upon its glassy surface from the blue heavens above, that one +can scarce believe that it is so often a source of dread and danger and +death to the poor fishermen of Heimaey. + +We spend half an hour in gazing admiringly upon the scene before us, and +then reluctantly, but rapidly, make our way down the hillside towards +the little white-washed church, at which we arrive shortly before the +hour of service. The præstur, or pastor, and a few of his flock are +standing outside in serious conversation, and we take advantage of the +opportunity to enter. There is only one door, which is under the +hexagonal belfry, whose clock with three dials is a hopeful sign in a +place where one sees so many evidences of poverty and so few of +progress. There are six windows with diamond panes, and the interior has +a clean and comfortable appearance. A chastely decorated altar, railed +off in front, occupies the end opposite the porchway. A handsome +candelabrum, a well-executed painting of a sacred subject, and two +smaller pictures, one on either side of the latter, greatly add to the +general effect, which is altogether rather pretty. + +It is near the hour of prayer, and men, women, and children may be seen +approaching from different directions. The sobriety and seriousness of +their demeanour, the neatness and cleanliness of their dress, and the +general air of well-being and well-doing which characterises them, +impress me favourably, and I cannot help recalling the fact that in many +of our crowded cities at home, there are at the same moment, thousands, +aye tens of thousands of people, who though rich in comparison with the +members of this little Icelandic congregation would be unable, even if +they were willing, to go to church so comfortably and so respectably +clad. It occurs to me that there may be advantages even in a life of +poverty and isolation. I remember that Cæsar, in his commentaries, over +which I used to pore in my school days, records the fact that of the +three great tribes among whom Gaul was divided in his time the Belgæ +were the bravest, “because,” as he puts it, “merchants had least access +to them to import those things which tended to effeminate their minds.” +As I remember the passage it occurs to me that the Icelander ought +perhaps to be grateful to Heaven for the poverty which protects him from +“luxury’s contagion weak and vile,” and leaves him in possession of +virtues which under other circumstances he might have been unable to +retain. + +The established form of religion in Iceland is that of the Lutheran +Church, which superseded Roman Catholicism between 1540 and 1551, as the +latter had superseded Paganism in the year 1000, at which time the +worship of Thor and Odin and the other deities of Scandinavia prevailed. +The story of the manner in which Christianity was introduced is an +interesting one. At a meeting of the Althing, or Parliament, it was +proposed to abolish heathenism, but the proposition was strongly +opposed, and there appeared to be danger of a war of religions, which +was, however, happily averted by the judgment of the Speaker, or +President of the Althing, who influenced by the bribes,—perhaps even +more than by the arguments,—of the Christians accepted the task of +proposing such legislation as would satisfy both parties. The curious +manner in which he prepared himself for, and effected this undertaking +is thus referred to by Dr Hjaltalin, who says “He (the President) went +to bed, and covered himself up for twenty-four hours. Then he rose, and +called all the assembled multitude to follow him to the Lögberg or Law +Rock. On arriving there he explained the serious consequences to which +the disruption of the Commonwealth was likely to lead. ‘If we have not +laws and religion in common,’ said he, ‘our peace is gone.’ Such was the +persuasive power of his words that both parties promised to keep the +laws propounded by him. He then proposed that all Icelanders should +become Christians by being baptised, but to pacify the heathen party, +suggested that they should be permitted to worship the old gods and to +eat horseflesh in secret. If the latter, however, was done in the +presence of witnesses, it was to be punished with outlawry. These +propositions were accepted by both parties, and thus Christianity was +established in the land.” Would that all religious differences could be +as happily settled now-a-days by the exercise of a little mutual +forbearance, and in reliance upon the old adage, “magna est veritas et +prævalebit.” + +From God’s house we proceed to God’s acre, a small rectangular area in +two divisions enclosed within four walls of turf and rubble, and covered +with a number of green mounds, from two to three feet high, each marking +a grave. One or two of these are railed round, and iron crosses have +been placed on others—(in one instance a quaint and artistically-carved +headstone)—but in nineteen cases out of twenty the Westmann’s Islanders +seem to share, not the ostentatious pride and vainglory of the great +emperor Shah Jehan, who built for himself and a favourite wife the +grandest and most costly sepulchre in the world, the famous Tag Mahal at +Agra; but rather the touching humility of his daughter, whose pious wish +engraved on the simple stone that marks her last resting place amid the +ruined tombs of Delhi, is beautifully expressed in these words, which I +remember listening to with a feeling of reverence as our guide +translated them: “Let no rich canopy cover my head; grass alone is the +only covering for the poor in spirit.” + +On our way from the city of the dead to the pier we have once more to +pass through the city of the living, and the first shanty that there +attracts our attention is the “Thing Hus,” or Parliament house, which is +really the Town Hall, although dignified with a higher title. It is a +shabby little wooden shed, to extend or reconstruct which on the same +scale would not cost many pence in the pound on even the rateable value +of Heimaey. + +Near it are several curious-looking dwellings, one of which we stop to +examine. I will attempt to describe it. Imagine a low one-storied +building, irregular in shape, and looking as if it had been built by +instalments to provide room for a crib for every separate addition to +the owner’s family. The roof is made of shingle, but the walls, built +principally of rough undressed lava stones, imbedded in layers of turf +which bind them together and fill up the chinks, are thick and +substantial. Entrance is effected through a low wooden porchway leading +into a long narrow dark passage, with turf-and-rubble walls, and a mud +floor. This passage admits to another which crosses it at right angles, +and is if possible dingier still. Into this second passage the doors of +several stuffy, inconvenient, badly-ventilated, smoke-filled dens—(it +would be a libel on the English language to call them rooms)—open. The +cooking is carried on in the “Eld hus” (Fire House) or kitchen, and the +smoke escapes into the chimney through a hole in the roof. The whole of +the exterior, except parts of the shingle roof, is covered with green +sods, which convert it into an inhabited tumulus, on which the grass +flourishes so luxuriantly that it seems a pity the half-starved ponies +cannot walk on the perpendicular like the house fly, for if they could +they might find excellent pasture on the walls and roof of the mansion +before us. + +There are a number of more modern houses built of wood, roofed with +shingle, and painted drab. We enter one of these on the courteous +invitation of the doctor, who has just been good enough to explain to us +in very broken English that the ghastly-looking, mutilated, long-billed, +dark-feathered objects which are hanging from a sort of miniature +goalpost in an adjoining croft are the bodies of sea-fowl which have +been killed, and are being dried for—“For what! Sir?” we ask in +surprise? “For fuel,” is the reply. “The breast having been removed for +food the remainder of the bird will probably be used to cook it.” I have +eaten meals in South Africa prepared over a fire made of cakes of dried +cow-dung; I have warmed myself in New Zealand and in the American +backwoods at a log fire; I have been half-stifled in a Highland shieling +by the smoke of a peat fire; I have drunk many a cup of tea in Japan +infused with water boiled on a smouldering fire of charcoal ashes, but +this is the first time among savage or uncivilised that I have come +across fuel for a dried-bird fire. “Necessity,” I remark, “is said to be +the ‘mother of invention.’ If so the life of a Patent Office official in +Iceland ought to be no sinecure, for ‘necessity’ stares one in the face +everywhere.” + +The doctor’s residence,—a humble one for the only consulting physician +and surgeon in the Westmann’s Islands,—seems to consist of little more +than what the Scotch call a “but” and a “ben.” It is scantily and +plainly furnished, and contrasts somewhat ludicrously with the gilded +salons of some of his professional brethren in the chief city of the +adjacent island of Great Britain who, with perhaps little more skill and +knowledge but greater opportunities than those of our kindly host, +pocket fees, in the course of a single forenoon, which exceed the total +annual income received by the Icelandic Esculapius for looking after the +health of an entire community. From this reference to the social +surroundings of a leading citizen,—one of an élite which scarcely +includes more than the Syslumann (Sheriff), the præstur (parson), the +doctor, and a vice-consul or two,—it will be inferred that the +Westmann’s Islands cannot boast many people of fashion or “culchaw,” and +that the population generally is a very humble one. + +After lunch, having obtained permission to take one of the ship’s boats, +we row ourselves to the caves of Heimaklett and Ystaklett, and spend an +hour in sailing into these, in awakening the echoes, and in ineffectual +attempts, at the risk of broken bones and worn-out unmentionables, to +scale the cliffs, and get among the screaming puffins that literally +darken the air above us as they dart or circle over our heads. Then we +go ashore again and take another saunter through the streets, and then +dinner-hour arrives, and our experiences of the Westmann’s Islands for +the present come to an end. + +About 9.0 p.m. we sail for Reykjavik, and as we are slowly steaming out +of the bay, a whale boat, manned by six rowers, rounds Ystaklett and +makes for Heimaey. An Icelander from America, who has just joined us, +says that the occupants of the boat having sighted the Camoens on the +previous evening have come over from the mainland to buy provisions. He +tells me that his countrymen are miserably poor, and that this year they +are even worse off than usual, the fishing having proved a failure for +the third year in succession, and the grass being late and scarce in +consequence of the inclemency of the weather. Fancy a state of being in +which an entire community literally depends for existence upon the fish +it catches in a stormy sea, and the grass yielded by its untilled +pastures! He adds that on the mainland people are even poorer than on +the islands, and mentions the case of a woman who recently made her way +on foot along the coast, and crossed the Straits in an open boat, to beg +bread for her starving children. She was so emaciated and so weak and +worn out from famine and exhaustion that she had to be carried from the +pier to a place of shelter. + +The charity of the poor towards the poor is proverbial. + + Few, save the poor, feel for the poor, + The rich know not how hard + It is to be of needful rest + And needful food debarr’d. + +The poverty-stricken Icelander is no exception to a rule that happily +applies to all mankind. Out of their scanty and insufficient store the +people of Heimaey supplied the poor creature with food for herself and +family, and sent her on her way rejoicing. + +In the course of conversation with my informant, who was once a clerk in +a store in the Westmann’s Islands, but has for some years been earning +65 dols. a month as a foreman platelayer on the Denver and Rio Grande +Railway, I learn that a number of his countrymen have emigrated to +America during recent years, not a few of whom have joined the Mormons. +One almost regrets that the whole population cannot be deported en +masse, but with local self-government, increasing knowledge, and the +stimulus of unrestricted trade, it is not improbable that the +Icelander,—who has hitherto been “contentit wi’ little” and “canty wi’ +mair,”—may yet succeed in making something out of his inhospitable +country, whose progress has been so hindered and handicapped by the +ravages of fire, frost, flood and famine. + +It is not with Nature alone that he has to contend. He has but few +sources of wealth, and even these until comparatively recently have been +prevented from development by iniquitous laws imposed upon him by the +Danish Government whose subject he is. Did I say sources of wealth? I +withdraw the words. Let me rather say means of existence. Until a few +years ago—when the Leith firm to whom our good ship belongs began to +open up a trade with his country on the basis of ready-money, which they +imported from Denmark for the purpose,—he scarcely knew what money was +like, except in the petty transactions of daily life. + +Between 1600 and 1788 he was shut out by the most tyrannous restrictive +legislation, from direct commercial intercourse with the world, being +compelled to do all his business with a few Danish Trading Companies, +who had, by heavy payments, secured from Government the privilege of +absolute monopoly. These companies took from the Icelander his dried +fish, his shark oil, his wool, and his skins, and gave him in exchange +the barest necessaries, and such articles as were absolutely +indispensable in his simple mode of life. On all imports the importer, +being master of the situation, naturally put enormous profits. + +The consequence of a business thus conducted on the basis of what is +known as “the tick and truck system” was that not only the commercial +prosperity, but the improvement of the social and intellectual +well-being of the population were grievously retarded. And as if to +render the condition of the Icelander more hopeless and intolerable +still the Danish Government by law prohibited him from building or +purchasing a decked vessel; a high-handed and one-sided policy the +object of which was to make the monopoly of the trading companies more +secure, and by the establishment of protection in its worst form to +enrich the mother country at the expense of its great island-colony. + +It is unnecessary to dwell too strongly upon the iniquity of the past +policy pursued by Denmark, and it would ill become a Briton to do so in +the face of the fact that a similar line of action adopted by the +British Parliament years ago led to the almost total extinction of the +Irish woollen trade. When we behold the mote that is in our brother’s +eye it is well to consider the beam that is in our own. + +In 1788 there was a break in the cloud of misrule which had so long +over-shadowed Iceland. The law relating to decked vessels was repealed, +and the power of the monopolists broken to a certain extent, inasmuch as +not only Danes, but all Danish subjects,—(which of course included the +Icelanders)—were permitted to engage in foreign trade. On the 25th of +April, 1854, the last vestige of monopoly was swept away, and from that +date until the present hour, the ports of the country have been open to +the traders of the whole world. Let us hope that the present policy +which has happily inaugurated a better state of things, both politically +and commercially, may result in an improved condition of the people, and +in the development of the resources of the country; and that the sun of +prosperity may rise and shine upon a land which has enjoyed few natural +advantages, and which has hitherto been prevented, by the unwisdom of +its rulers, from turning even these to the best account. + +The Icelander is accused by his detractors of being lethargic, indolent, +and wanting in ambition and enterprise. If he be so, and I am not +disposed to deny it, the reason is, in my opinion, not far to seek. No +man will work under conditions similar to those imposed upon the +galley-slave, and to enrich either trader or landed proprietor who has +him at his mercy, and who, whether by a hateful system of monopoly, or +by unjust and oppressive laws, can prevent him from enjoying the fruits +of his labour. Take away from a man or from a nation the incentive to +exertion, by denying him or them the legitimate rewards of toil, and +there must be moral and material deterioration. It has been so in +Iceland, as it has been in that unhappy country whose sons were its +first discoverers, and for much of whose misery and discontent and crime +we, as a nation, are seriously responsible. Happily in both cases rulers +have become alive to a higher sense of their duties, and now see that it +is only by drastic reforms and just laws that they can bring about +political regeneration. + +More happily still the people recognising the force and truth of the +Laureate’s words:— + + “Are figs of thistles? or grapes of thorns? + How can a despot set men free?” + +have taken their future, to a great extent, into their own hands, and +are looking forward to better times in the immediate future. May the +results in both countries be shown by their marked improvement in social +and moral well-being, and by their progress in all those things which +tend to exalt nations, and which alone can make them great! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE III. + + 1 Turf and rubble-cottage, Heimaey. + 2 The Althingis Hus, Heimaey.—3 Woman riding man-fashion. + 4 Drying birds for fuel. +] + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + + When I was at home I was in a better place, + But travellers must be content.—SHAKESPEARE. + + +Last night after leaving the Westmann’s Islands we lingered on deck till +the weird rocks that stud the ocean on the west of Heimaey had become +mere black specks on the silver sea, and the Midnight Sun, which had +just set, was filling the heavens with a halo of crimson and gold as he +rose once more on the distant horizon where sea and sky met. + +But nevertheless we were up early this morning to gaze curiously on the +capital of Iceland which we find ourselves rapidly nearing about +breakfast time. On our left a huge whale-backed mountain-island rises +magnificently from the calm blue sea, almost within a stone’s throw of +the extreme point of the barren treeless promontory that stretches away +for a mile or two in the direction of the town. An iron beacon near the +shore, and a few wooden out-buildings and a farm house on the ridge, are +the only objects in the immediate foreground; and there is not a sign of +cultivation of any kind to be seen anywhere. A round tower—the +Observatory—crowns the summit of the promontory and overlooks the +strange collection of dingy painted weather-board houses, huts, and +sheds, which form the city of Reykjavik, and which extend down the slope +to the black, weed-strewn, rock-bound shore, where two or three shelving +wooden piers, several barn-like stores, a number of small boats, a few +fishing smacks, and a group of men engaged in mending their nets, can be +distinguished without the aid of a glass. A church,—whose ugly little +tower, or belfry, thrusts itself pretentiously above the roofs of the +buildings that cluster round it,—and several public institutions, not +one of which possesses the shadow of a claim to architectural beauty, +are prominent simply because of the humility of the houses that surround +them. But neither these nor any of the other objects over which our +restless eyes wander within a radius of half-a-dozen miles at all +prepossess us in favour of Reykjavik and its suburbs, which do not +indeed bear comparison even with a small colonial settlement in the +earliest days of its existence. It is difficult to believe that the city +we are approaching was founded by a band of adventurous Norsemen more +than a thousand years ago, and in the primitive appearance of the +capital of his country we see another evidence of the poverty and +indolence of the Icelander. From a flagstaff in a prominent position the +Danish ensign flutters in the breeze, and a good deal of bunting is also +displayed on several of the Consulates and stores in honour of our +arrival. + +As we slowly creep on towards our anchorage, past several dangerous +reefs, bare at low water, an extensive panorama lies spread out before +us. The sterile water-worn snow-streaked slopes of a very common-place +mountain chain on our left, and an extensive wilderness of barren heath +which touches the grey-clouded sky on the horizon on our right, contrast +strangely with the black irregular fantastic peaks of the volcanic range +that rises picturesquely behind—though at a great distance beyond—the +city, and form an interesting picture in which nothing is so striking as +the want of life and warmth and colour. + +A three-masted sailing ship, three schooners, one yacht, a few fishing +boats, and a battered old coal hulk, are riding at anchor in the +roadstead, each and all of them + + “As idle as a painted ship + Upon a painted ocean.” + +Not a sound indicative of human existence is carried to our ears from +ship or shore to break the silence which settles down upon us as our +engines suddenly stop, and leave us to drift slowly on to our anchorage. +The deep stillness on land and sea and in the streets of the apparently +deserted city remind me of Campbell’s famous lines— + + “Ships were drifting with the dead + To shores where all was dumb,” + +and I am just beginning to wonder what manner of people they are who can +exist without noise, when the clarion cry of a rooster rings through the +air and re-assures me. It recalls a good story which I heard at the +dinner-table the other day of a cock in Iceland which, deceived by the +absence of night, crowed itself to death during the summer solstice, +under a mistaken sense of duty. Lord Dufferin, whose “Letters from High +Latitudes” are well worth reading, is credited with the authorship of +this amusing exaggeration. + +Presently, however, we observe two or three boats put off from one of +the piers, and in a few minutes are boarded by guides and +hotel-proprietors. We arrange with one of the former, by name Thorgrimur +Gudmundsen,—a big, strapping, intelligent-looking fellow, who stands +over six feet high in his stocking soles,—to accompany us to +Thingvellir, the Geysirs, and Hengill, and to have ponies ready for an +early start to-morrow. + +On landing at the pier a little later we are met with the inevitable +stench from the fish-stores, and after securing rooms at the Island +Hotel—(Island is the Icelandic word for Iceland not for island)—we +stroll out to see the city. Being desirous of a breath of fresh air we +flee from the horrors of the many stenches and from the dirty dusty +uneven uncausewayed streets, and bend our steps almost instinctively in +the direction of the Observatory, preferring rather to look down upon +the city from a purer atmosphere, and to command a view of it and its +surroundings from a respectful distance, than to stand gaping at its +one-and-two-storied, black-roofed, drab-painted, weather-board huts, +which form an aggregation of impressive ugliness that has a tendency to +induce melancholia. Thick mists are settling down upon the summits and +slopes of the distant hills, and there are signs of a change for the +worse in the weather which make us rather anxious, for to-morrow we are +to commence a ride of at least a hundred and fifty miles through a +country where there is little or no accommodation for the storm-bound +traveller. + +But the sun is shining out pleasantly, though not too powerfully, and +the air is clear, bracing, and invigorating, so we dismiss our fears, +and turn our attention to the scene before us. There is not a single +tree, nor even a bush a foot high, nor one square yard of cultivated +land anywhere. The hilly plateau on which we stand is traversed, for a +few miles, by a brown dusty macadamised road—almost the only one in the +island we are informed—on each side of which, for miles around, nothing +is to be seen but vast fields of lava, hundreds of acres of undulating +country covered with stones and boulders, so thickly strewn that, there +is scarcely room for a blade of grass to grow between any two of them, +were a blade of grass so unwise as to attempt such a feat. + +We miss the rustling leaves, the green springy turf, the yellow waving +corn, the rippling streams, and the song of lark, or thrush, or +blackbird, or even the chirping of the despised sparrow, as we look upon +the panorama before us with an interest which arises chiefly from its +absolute want of these or any other features which render a landscape +attractive. + +As we sit and chat about our experiences in many a foreign land, and +institute comparisons between the view before us and others that we have +travelled much further to see, our minds naturally go back to the time +more than ten centuries ago, when Ingolfr and his companions—fleeing +from Norway to Iceland—because as the sagas quaintly say, “it was the +only place within their reach at the time where they could live +undisturbed by kings and evil-doers,”—first sighted the snow-capped +peaks of Orœfa, and prepared to land on the silent shore. + +As they approach nearer to the coast they throw overboard the pillars of +the chief’s high seat which they have brought with them, in the belief +that, directed by the gods, these will be carried by the tide to a spot +divinely selected for the new settlement. But alas! during the night +they lose sight of the floating pillars that were to guide them, and on +landing look for them in vain. Three years pass away, and still the +search is fruitless. At length the long-lost pillars are found on the +present site of the capital, and there, in reliance upon the directing +providence of the gods, Ingolfr and his little company settle. + +Their new town must of course receive a name, so it is called Reykjavik, +or Smoking Village, because on approaching the bay the wondering +Norsemen saw steam—which they not unnaturally mistook for smoke—issuing +from the earth in various parts of the coast. + +Such is an outline of the founding of the city before us. Its progress +has been slow, and its population to-day, set down at about 2,500, is +probably not much greater than it was seven or eight hundred years ago. + +But we live in stirring times, and may, therefore, be allowed to hope +that under present conditions, which are much more favourable than at +any previous period of its history, Reykjavik may yet become the +thriving capital of a country redeemed from desolation by the patriotic +enterprise and energy of a free and enlightened nation. + +Then will these words of their national anthem + + “Eldgamla Isafold, + Astkœra fósturmold, + Fjallkonan fríth; + Mögum thin muntu kœr. + Methan lönd girthir sœr + Og gumar girnast mœr, + Gljár sól á hlíth.” + +acquire a deeper meaning as they fall from the lips of a grateful +people, who see their fatherland gradually becoming great and happy as +it steadily triumphs over the difficulties and obstacles with which +Nature, in an angry mood, seems to have tried her best to retard its +progress and hinder its prosperity. + +The words above quoted are interesting as an example of Icelandic. Dr +Hjaltalin having kindly furnished me with the following literal +translation: “Iceland old as fire, beloved native land, fair mountain +bride, thou wilt be dear to thy sons, while the sea surrounds the land, +and men’s desire is to maidens, and the sun shines on the hillside,” I +have endeavoured to turn it into English verse without materially +deviating from the original words and metre. + + Fair Iceland, old as fire, + Mountain bride our hearts’ desire + Sweet fosterland. + While woman loved shall be + By man; or sun shines free; + While land is girt by sea + Thou shalt be dear. + +The tune to which the anthem is sung—God Save the Queen—is claimed by +the Icelander. + +As we are on the point of returning to the ship for lunch we espy a +couple of neatly dressed maidens, one of whom is rather pretty. We +succeed in making the latter understand by signs that we are exceedingly +anxious to take her portrait that we may carry it with us across the +seas, and flattered by the attention, and willing to oblige, she +consents with a modest blush which we are able particularly to observe, +because her face is clean, which is more than can be said for the +Icelanders generally, who, if report be true, dislike cold water when +applied to the skin, or unless mixed with corn brandy. + +This objection would seem to be inherited, and as Mark Twain says, “to +run in the blood like wooden legs,” if we are to believe the traditions +of early history, for it is recorded that the greatest objection of the +Pagans to Christianity arose from the necessity of being baptised. This +difficulty was only overcome by an agreement that the ceremony should be +performed by immersion in one of the “Laugs” or hot-springs. + +We are fortunate in getting into conversation with a Dane, who is mixing +mortar for the walls of a stone dwelling-house in course of erection in +a side street, and at the same time superintending two labourers who are +busily engaged in carrying stones on a handbarrow. + +The first thing we note is that the rough blocks are actually being +quarried out of some large boulders which lie embedded in the middle of +the street in which we are standing, and must therefore have seriously +obstructed traffic had there been any to obstruct. Our friend the +builder, who speaks very good English, having lived in Scotland for some +time, tells us that he came to the country three years ago, and that, +though a sailor by profession, he has the distinguished honour of being +the first man to build a stone house in Iceland. When he proposed to +make the attempt he was greeted with derision, it being considered +impossible to work lava stone. “But,” says he, emphatically, “I knowed +better, and I done it.” He has now erected several substantial buildings +in Reykjavik which he points out with modest pride. + +We learn from him that he pays his labourers 2 kroner and 75 öre per day +of eleven hours, being at the rate of 25 öre per hour. Let me remark +here that the kroner is a Danish silver coin value thirteen pence +half-penny sterling, and that it contains 100 öre; the labourer’s daily +wage therefore reckoned in English money amounts to about 3s 1d. Skilled +workmen earn from 3 kroner (3s 4½d) to 3 kroner and 50 öre (3s 11d) per +day. The hours of labour are from 6.0 a.m. till 7.0 p.m., one hour each +being allowed for breakfast and dinner. There is no half holiday, but +Sunday is strictly observed as a day of rest and devotion. Flour at +present costs about 18 kroner (20s 3d) per bag of 200lb, about the same +as in England, and beef—seldom eaten—from 25 to 40 öre (3½d to 5½d) per +lb, or from 45 to 50 öre (6d to 6¾d) when scarce, or very fat and good. + +There is no such thing as a butcher’s shop in Reykjavik, but as the +Scotsman said “every one kills himself,” taking care to apportion the +animal before he does so. The people generally, however, live upon +dried-fish, flour-cakes, rye-bread, butter, and curds. Female servants +are paid about 40 kroner (45s) per annum, men receiving from 60 to 70. +They are, of course, boarded and lodged, and one of the items of their +allowance of food is 2lbs of butter per week. + +Every woman must be able to milk, and every man must know how to shoe a +horse, as I understand every Icelander does from the Bishop—who is the +greatest and richest man in the country—downwards. Sugar-candy is +commonly used instead of sugar to sweeten tea or coffee, the reason +given by the captain of the Camoens being that it is not so apt to melt +in damp weather. Our informant’s explanation is as follows: “Sugar-candy +don’t run away in their mouths.” The Icelander evidently prefers, if I +may use a common expression, to roll the candy like a sweet morsel under +his tongue. + +We enquire the cost of rent, and, pointing to the house of a tailor +close by, he informs us that it is let for 20 kroner (22s 6d) per month, +and contained three rooms and a kitchen. + +The cowskin shoes, so universally worn, cost from 2 kroner upwards. It +is a custom of the women in Iceland when they are “donned,” as we say in +Yorkshire, to wear a bright coloured apron, a white front to the bodice, +and a bow at the back, like that of the Japanese girls, made of a length +of stuff one fathom (6 feet) long. + +A marriage license costs 36 kroner (40s 6d), and people can be married +either in church or in their own homes if they prefer it, and at any +hour, according to the sensible custom which also prevails in Scotland. +The præsturs or parsons, who exercise great influence in the country, +are especially careful that the women shall be educated, and I was +reliably assured that no woman has much chance of securing a husband who +is not able to teach her children at least the elements of education. +There used to be a law forbidding a man to marry unless he owned “one +hundred of land”—land worth 120 ells of Vathmál or homespun—or “a +six-oared boat in trim.” + +We subsequently learnt that our informant unfortunately introduced the +measles into Reykjavik on his arrival three years ago, and that the +dreadful disease spreading like wildfire, carried off no fewer than 37 +persons in the thousand of the entire population of the island. Iceland +has always been subject to plague, pestilence and famine, as well as to +the havoc and desolation wrought by volcanic outbursts. In the +seventeenth century many of its unfortunate inhabitants were carried +into slavery by Algerine pirates; in 1707 from 16,000 to 18,000 people +died of small-pox out of a total population of 50,000; in 1759 famine +swept off 10,000 persons, and between the years 1781 and 1785 other +9,000 perished from the same cause. Starvation again made fearful +ravages amongst them in 1824 and 1825; in 1827 an epidemic decimated the +survivors, and there have been frequent minor calamities since. One +finds it difficult to understand how it is that, in the course of a +thousand years, the population has never exceeded the 72,000 which is +its total to-day; but the continued recurrence of such disasters as +those just mentioned, and the ravages of fire, frost, flood, and famine +help to explain the matter. It is impossible to think without a shudder +of the horrors and miseries which must have been endured by a people so +circumstanced. + +I have, however, been digressing, and must return to our friend, the +builder, who proves to be quite a mine of information. We question him +about the climate, and learn that it is by no means so severe as +foreigners generally suppose, the registered mean temperature at +Reykjavik of the whole year being 39deg., of summer 53deg., and of +winter 29deg. At Akureyri, which is further north, these figures are +respectively 32deg., 45deg., and 20deg. Rain falls heavily night and day +at frequent intervals during the months of August and September, but +from September till November the weather is fairly good. During winter +the days are necessarily short, there being, at Reykjavik, only 3 hours +and 58 min. of sunlight on the shortest day, and 20 hours, 54 min. on +the longest. A great deal depends, however, upon what people call +daylight. There are some men who would argue that in England we have +daylight in November. At midsummer in the north the sun never sets for a +whole week, and at mid-winter it never rises for a corresponding period. +Summer is so short and variable as to remind one of the Scotsman’s +advice to a friend who was about to visit North Britain: “When you get +there,” said he, “don’t take off your overcoat till midsummer day, and +put it on again the day after.” + +When summer comes it is customary for people at its commencement to wish +one another “a good summer,” just as we wish one another “A Happy New +Year.” The words used by our informant in communicating this fact are +rather amusing. They are as follows: “A man will say to you, ‘I wish you +a good summer,’ and perhaps it will be snewin’ like blazes.” The +expression “snewin’ like blazes” is worthy of the great Irish +Parliamentary orator who “smelt a rat and saw it floating in the air,” +but who nevertheless determined “to nip it in the bud.” Bidding our +friend “Good day,” with many thanks for his courtesy, and being still as +inquisitive as a Yankee interviewer, we stroll down to the Althing or +Parliament House in search of another victim who is willing to be +cross-examined. We find one in a pleasant-mannered young Clerk of the +House, who shows us over the building, the largest and finest in +Iceland, substantially built of dressed stone, and situated on one side +of a small public park or garden, which contains a statue of +Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, whose father was a native of Iceland. + +We are conducted by our guide first to the Lower, and next to the Upper +Chamber: both of which are plain square rooms of moderate size, +containing seats and desks for the members and a rostrum for the +president. They are simply furnished, unrelieved by elaborate +decoration, and quite large enough for those who occupy them when +Parliament is sitting. + +The Lower House consists of twenty-four members, except immediately +after a general election, when thirty members take their seats as the +representatives of the people. Of these thirty, however, six are at once +transferred to the Upper House by the vote of a majority of their +colleagues, where with six others nominated by the Crown,—making twelve +in all,—they form the Senate or House of Lords. Each of these assemblies +is presided over by a President, who receives an official salary. +Members of both chambers are paid 6 kroner (6s 9d) per day, while +Parliament is sitting, and receive in addition their travelling expenses +to and from Reykjavik. + +No man is eligible or qualified for a seat in either house unless he is +a Danish subject, not less than thirty years of age, and has resided in +Danish dominions for at least five years. The franchise is possessed by +“all officials, ecclesiastics, university graduates, students who sign +themselves ‘Candidat,’” holders of farms on lease, those who pay a +minimum of eight kroner per annum in government taxes, and country +people who pay cess, or parish rates, provided they are of unblemished +character, at least twenty-five years of age, and have resided not less +than twelve months in an electoral district. Women are excluded from the +franchise as in all other civilised (?) countries; so are minors, +paupers and criminals. + +The total revenue of the country in 1884 was 863,932 kroner, in round +numbers about £48,000, and was derived, according to the official year +book which our informant kindly turns up for us, from the following +sources:—(a) Land tax levied on farmers only, (b) cattle tax, (c) house +tax, (d) income tax, (e) sale of property tax, (f) tax on incomes from +other sources, (g) tax on tithes, (h) tax on exports, (i) tax on +imports, (j) tax on tobacco, (k) post office revenue, (l) light and +harbour dues. + +Deferring any further notes with reference to the history of government +till we reach the famous spot at Thingvellir where, a thousand years +ago, the ancient Althing was wont to assemble, we return to the ship to +tiffin, to find that a few seats at table will be vacant when we start +for Akureyri on Saturday, as several of our little company have already +secured quarters ashore with the intention of remaining in the country +till the next voyage of the Camoens. These are an enthusiastic angler +who has visited Iceland several times, and who has taken an excellent +trout-stream on lease; a young city merchant,—also a disciple of Isaak +Walton—a very nice fellow, the up-turned ends of whose attenuated +moustache, however, are so wonderfully waxed that one almost longs to +try to hang a hat and coat upon them; an officer of a crack regiment of +dragoons who was at Majuba, and who knows South Africa well; a +kind-hearted sociable old clergyman who put himself to great trouble to +arrange a whist party at an early stage of the voyage,—not on his own +account, but with a view of making some of us happier,—and who hopes to +return to his parish in Suffolk with recruited energies after having +made the ascent of Hekla, and bumped his poor bones over the lava-fields +of South-Western Iceland; and last—but by no means least in his own +estimation—a pawkie talkative self-opinionated exceedingly well-informed +old Scotsman, who is burning with ardour to make a weary journey across +the Sprengisandr (bursting sands) desert, and to ascend to the very +crater of a famous volcano called Askja; a feat which on a previous +visit he was unfortunately prevented from doing. He is perhaps not so +much animated by a desire to increase the world’s knowledge as to +“smash” another traveller who, having had the coveted honour of reading +a paper before the Royal Geographical Society, inconsiderately omitted +to mention his indebtedness for a good deal of information to notes +supplied to him by our injured friend. + +The remainder of our compagnons de voyage—who are “jolly companions +every one”—are going on with us to Akureyri and will stay by the ship +like ourselves till we get back to Scotland. They include two brothers +of Scotch parentage but born in England, who like myself are constantly +engaged in amateur photography; two young sparks from a Midland town +famous for the loveliness of its ladies and the beauty of its lace, and +who are familiarly known in the smoke-room as “Me and Arthur;” a tall, +dark, agreeable philologist from the Cumberland fells who reads but does +not speak Icelandic; and three gentlemen from London, viz:—an embryo +barrister, nephew of one of the greatest living novelists; a budding +shipbroker who, though a genuine Cockney, greatly admires Burns’ poems +which he has read from beginning to end, including the glossary (!); and +a fine-looking, handsome young fellow who would make splendid food for +powder should he choose the army as a profession, as his father and +grandfathers and great-grandfathers have done before him. + +Everybody has been good-tempered, our worthy skipper setting the +example, and granting us a degree of freedom in little things which many +a less genial man would have refused. The stewards and stewardess have +been most attentive to our wants, and exceedingly obliging; our table +has been well supplied with necessaries and luxuries, and the voyage has +hitherto been a pleasant one. It is astonishing how men thrown together +on board an ocean-going steamer fraternise with one another, and it is +always a real regret to me when a little community, formed under such +circumstances, begins to break up. Partings, however, are constantly +experienced in this world. + + “Friend after friend departs + Who hath not lost a friend? + There is no union here of hearts + That hath not here an end.” + +All we can do therefore is to bid our friends “Good-bye,” and to hope +that they may each and all have “a good time,” as a Yankee would say, +not only during their stay in Iceland, but on the voyage of life. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE IV. + + 1 View of Reykjavik.—2 Woman wearing holiday head-dress. + 3 Woman wearing “Hufa.”—4 Snaefellsjökull.—5 Building stone + houses, Reykjavik.—6 Cathedral and Parliament House, Reykjavik. + 7 Lava plain, near the Observatory, Reykjavik. +] + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + + “Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, + And marvel men should quit their easy chair + The toilsome way, and long long league to trace, + Oh! there is a sweetness in the mountain air + And life, that bloated ease can never hope to share.” + + BYRON. + + +There are no pleasanter memories of an ocean voyage than those that +cluster round what is known afloat as “a Sing Song,” when a little group +of fellows, whom fate has thrown together for a week or two, gather +together on deck, under the bright blue starlit sky, and to the +accompaniment of banjo or guitar, make the night-air melodious—or +otherwise—with song and chorus. + +Fletcher of Saltoun, a famous Scottish patriot, is credited with the +oft-quoted saying “Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who +shall make its laws.” I have often felt how natural is the aspiration +thus expressed, and never more than when the monotony of life at sea has +been relieved by the willing efforts of a few sweet singers. But if the +man who writes the words of a stirring song be such a benefactor what +shall we say of the professionally-despised musician whose rattling +choruses, full of melody, and easily learnt, make the strangers who sing +them feel like old friends? My own opinion is that, had he any choice in +the matter, he could desire no greater reward than the appreciation with +which his music is sung by a grateful little company, such as I have +just referred to. + +Last night a few of us held “a Sing Song” in the large room of the +Island Hotel, and spent our first evening ashore most enjoyably. The +captain had brought his violin with him, by invitation, and as we drew +our chairs round a little table near the piano, we were presently joined +in a cup of café noir by a pleasant and highly-intelligent Icelander, +who was introduced as editor or proprietor of a newspaper; by our guide, +Thorgrimur Gudmundsen, who came to report progress in his arrangements +for the morrow; and by a fellow-Yorkshireman, who has been enjoying a +few weeks’ sport on some of the trout streams, and who returns to +England with us on Saturday. Giving our melodious instincts full play, +we treated the company in the adjoining bar to a little vocal and +instrumental music, which made up for its occasional want of tune and +precision by its unmistakeable heartiness. + +It also unearthed a young Yankee “masher,” whose get-up and general +appearance, as he suddenly appeared in the doorway and approached our +merry circle, caused us to pause in the midst of a chorus to gaze at him +with undisguised astonishment and open-mouthed admiration. It was his +costume rather than his personal beauty—though he was a good-looking +young fellow—that provoked us to the unpardonable rudeness of staring. +Let me try to describe it. He was attired in a short loose velveteen +coatee, elaborately braided, and cut away in front in such a fashion as +to expose a maximum of white shirt front admirably displayed by a +minimum of velvet waistcoat. On his head he wore a little round tweed +billycock in shape like a milk-bowl, and he had managed by a supreme +effort to thrust his shapely legs into knee-breeches, tight as the skin +of a kettledrum, and fastened at the knees with buckles; while his +calves, evidently a source of reverential pride from the care taken to +show them off to advantage, stretched a pair of superfine stockings to +such an extent as to make one tremble for the stitches. His feet were +encased in a natty pair of patent leather shoes ornamented, on each +instep, with a large bunch of black ribbon, and a pair of silver buckles +which if melted down into United States currency would probably have +yielded dollars enough to pay his hotel bill for a week; and his tout +ensemble suggested alternate thoughts of a London flunkey, a tailor’s +block, and Apollo Belvidere. + +His accent was just sufficiently nasal to leave no doubt on our minds as +to his nationality, even if he had omitted—as he did not—to inform us +that he hailed from + + “The Land of the West, the land of the free, + Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea.” + +He proved himself a good fellow, and a pleasant companion, however; was +troubled with little or none of the bashfulness which is such a +distinguishing characteristic of his countrymen; and soon contributed to +the harmony of the evening by singing several songs, one of +which,—described by him as an “Amurican Stoodent Sawng,”—exercised such +a fascination over us on account of its “catching” melody, and the ease +with which we picked up the chorus, that we made the rafters ring with +it at least a dozen times before we broke up. I wrote it down from +memory as soon as I got the piano to myself, and here are the words of +the first verse, and also the air which I have transposed into the tonic +sol-fa notation for the convenience of the printer. + + AMERICAN STUDENT SONG. + + KEY C + s |s :d’ :d’ | d’ :r’ :d’ |t : r’ :— |— : : s| + When I was a stu-dent of Ca—diz, I + |s : t : d’ |r’: l : t |d’ :— :d’ |d’ : : s| + played on my Spanish guitar; Ching! Ching! I + ╰───────────╯ + Chorus. + |s : d’ : d’ | d’ :r’:d’ |t :r’ :— | — : : s| + used to make love to the ladies. I + |s : t : d’ | r’ :l :t |d’ :— :d’ |d’: :— | + think of them now when a— far. Ching! Ching! + ╰───────────╯ + Chorus. + + CHORUS. + + | d’ : s : s | d’ :s : s |s : t :—.t |t : — : l| + Ring, ching, ching, Ring, ching, ching, Ring out ye bells, Oh! + | s :t :- .t |t: — :l |s :d’ :—.d’|d’ :— :— | + Ring out ye bells. Oh! Ring out ye bells. + | d’ : s : s | d’ :s : s |s : t :—.t |t : — : l| + Ring, ching, ching, Ring, ching, ching. Ring out ye bells. I + |s : t : d’ |r’: l : t |d’ :— :d’ | d’ : | + play on my Spanish guitar; Ching! Ching! + ╰───────────╯ + Chorus. + +Stimulated by the applause with which his efforts were received our +friend the captain astonished us with the pathos he managed to put into +“The flowers o’ the forest,” “Auld Robin Gray,” and “Robin Adair,” while +his bowing and “double stopping” suggested thoughts (we were in an +imaginative humour be it remembered) of a combination of Paganini, +Sivori, Vieuxtemps, and Carrodus. + +At a late hour the would-be explorer of the mysteries of Askja stirred +to the depths of his contentious soul by the competition of rival +performers, produced an accordion on which he proved himself to be no +mean performer. + +“A sound of revelry was heard by night” in Reykjavik to which its +peaceful inhabitants were probably unaccustomed, and the “Nicht drave on +wi’ sangs and clatter.” The Icelandic editor, delighted with our +efforts, invited us to take wine with him, and a bottle of sherry was +accordingly brought in and duly emptied with mutual good wishes and much +clinking of glasses. Then an Englishman present insisted upon returning +the compliment, and the mirth and fun were growing fast and furious when +the gentleman with the accordion—who was a staunch teetotaller—thrilled +us with the inspiriting strains of a Scotch reel. Instantly half a dozen +of us sprang to our feet and + + “Reeled and set, and crossed and cleekit, + Till ilka carline swat and reekit.” + +For the next quarter of an hour I verily believe that the little knot of +Danish sea-captains, who had by this time established themselves in a +distant corner of the room, and the studious boy who was poring over a +book by the light of the midnight sun that streamed in through the +unblinded windows, looked upon us as a party of lunatics who had escaped +from an English asylum. + + “But pleasures are like poppies spread,” + The time came round to go to bed. + +So to bed we went, with the generally expressed wish that we might all +meet again under similar circumstances on our return from our trip into +the interior. + +At ten o’clock this morning (July 14th) our guide arrived with the +ponies, and on looking out of the hotel window we saw seven sturdy +little animals of various colours standing in the lane outside. There +are no carriages or wheeled conveyances of any kind in Iceland; at any +rate none that I have as yet seen, with the exception of a solitary +handcart of American manufacture, which does not appear to have been +much longer in the country than ourselves. All travelling is done on +pony-back, and every man, woman and child is accustomed to the saddle +from infancy. Two ponies have been provided for each of us, including +the guide, and one for our baggage, making seven in all. A brief +reference to the arrangements made with our guide yesterday may be +interesting and useful to intending tourists. We are to pay two kroner +(2s 3d) per day for each of the seven ponies which form our cavalcade; +and the guide’s fee is five kroner (5s 7½d) per day with food, or six +kroner (6s 9d) without. In addition to these items there will be a +charge of twenty öre (2¾d) per diem for pasturage for each of the +ponies, so that our daily expenses for ponies and guide, reckoning the +fee of the latter at 6s 9d, will amount to 24s in all, or 12s each +person. In addition, however, we have had to provide a supply of bread +and tinned provisions for four days, and shall have to pay for bed and +breakfast at the parsonage or farmhouse where we may stay for the night; +the usual charge for such accommodation being about three kroner. The +daily total, including the cost of the food we have purchased, will +therefore be not much less than a pound a day, which is what the tourist +may expect it to cost him. + +We are disappointed to find that our valises must be unpacked, and the +few necessary articles of clothing which we have decided to take with us +transferred to the two strong wooden boxes which already contain our +stock of provisions, and which have been slung across the back of our +pack-pony, where they rest upon a pad of dry turf to prevent chafing. +There is no help for it, however, for our guide assures us that we are +about to ride over a country so rough that no ordinary straps or buckles +can stand the jolting, and that it is also absolutely necessary to +equalise the burden of the patient little creature that is to carry our +baggage. We accordingly submit, and while the transfer is being arranged +my companion disappears and presently returns wearing a pair of huge +wading boots, and a yellow oilskin sou’wester. The former we +subsequently find to be quite indispensable in the case of anyone who +objects to wet feet, for there are fords innumerable to cross between +the capital and the Geysirs. + +At length, our preparations being completed, we mount, and driving the +three spare ponies and our baggage-carrier—(which are allowed to run +perfectly free)—before us we ride off up the hill towards the +Observatory. We have scarcely proceeded more than half-a-mile on our +journey when we hear a wild shout behind us, and are presently joined by +the captain of the Camoens, who comes tearing along on a sturdy little +brute, and begins to enliven the proceedings by sending us all off at +full gallop, which he does by a free use of one of the short-handled +flat-thonged whips common in Iceland. + +He rides like a “centaur,” not like a “sailor,” but not having served an +apprenticeship to the circus business myself, and being as yet rather +strange to the saddle, I am not altogether sorry when he reins up to +return to town. It would afford me much pleasure to have his company all +the way, but I am afraid I should only enjoy it at the risk of a broken +neck, for the road over which we are trotting is one of the roughest of +which I have ever had experience, and having a lively recollection of +colonial roads that is saying a good deal. At the first important ford +we halt for a few minutes along with seven of our shipmates who have +formed an expedition of their own under the care of one of Zoega’s men. +Zoega, I may observe, is a well-known man in Reykjavik, and has long +been recognised as the chief of the fraternity of guides. + +From this point the road gradually ascends, now crossing some wild +mountain stream, cold as the snow and ice that feed it, and clear as the +blue sky that it reflects; now winding, in and out, round the bases of +ranges of barren stone-strewn treeless hills, heart-breaking in their +monotony of unloveliness; and now traversing the dreary uncultivated +unfenced plain, on which, at rare intervals, a little turf-covered farm +house, with its adjoining folds and outbuildings, may occasionally be +seen standing in the midst of the “tun,” or “home-field,” whose +luxuriant grass tinged by the yellow butter-cup, refreshes the wearied +eye, and forms a pleasant contrast, to the desolation that reigns +everywhere around. + +The melancholy cry of the curlew as it flies above our heads is the only +sound—except the clatter of our ponies’ hoofs—that breaks the deep +stillness, and the pretty wild flowers that—like the seed spoken of in +the parable of “The Sower”—have “sprung up in stony places,” are the +only other living things that seem to whisper a word of hopefulness to +the despairing landscape. If people were but willing to look for it, +there is always something to beautify the dreariest desert, just as +there is always some tender spot even in the hardest heart, some good +thought in the most selfish mind, and some good deed even in the vilest +life. How many men travel only to indulge in constant carping and +captious criticism; to find fault with everything they see, and to abuse +everybody they meet. How many seem even to turn away their eyes lest +they should observe anything which they might be tempted to admire. +Iceland is no place for such men, for they would find too much +occupation, and make themselves and their companions miserable by their +continual growling. Happily there are none such in our party. + +But the sky begins to grow grey and clouded. Not a streak of blue is to +be seen either before or behind us, and the deep shadows that fill the +fissures and ravines of the distant hills are clearly defined against +the brown weather-beaten water-worn slopes. As we plod along we are at +pains to examine the nature and depth of the soil where opportunity +occurs, and soon come to the conclusion that there must be tens of +thousands of acres of land in Iceland which might be brought under the +plough. From the bright appearance of the “tun” to which I have already +referred, as well as from the fact that potatoes and turnips are grown +in small patches, here and there, as food for man and beast, we are +forced to conclude that the absence of cultivation must be due quite as +much to the want of energy and enterprise of the farmer, as to want of +capital, or the recurrence of unfavourable seasons. On this point, +however, I shall be able to speak more authoritatively after we have +seen more of the country and learnt more of its natural conditions. + +About 2.0 p.m. we halt for dinner, and to give the ponies a rest and a +feed. By this time a Scotch mist has begun to fall and the air has grown +much colder; but as we recline on a damp grassy bank with a chunk of dry +bread in one hand and a portion of stringy Australian beef in the other, +the weather does not materially interfere with our enjoyment. After a +stoppage of about an hour we on-saddle and resume our journey, but soon +pull up for a minute or two on the edge of a stretch of flat country +literally covered, as far as the eye can see, with stones and boulders +large and small. + +There is no path through this lava-desert, but the route is indicated by +the scratches and marks made upon the rocks by the shoes of the trains +of ponies that daily travel to and fro between the capital and the +interior; and at points where the ground is higher than the general +level, large heaps of stones, or cairns, have been erected to guide the +traveller when the country is under snow. As my pony steps cautiously, +but confidently, upon this lava field, I begin to wish that I had +insured my life in the Accidental. I also recognise the wisdom of the +wily old Scotsman who played the accordion last night, who not having a +single tooth in his head has prudently prepared himself for his journey +over the Sprengisandr by bringing with him a small case in which to +place and pocket his false teeth, that he may not inadvertently swallow +them, or gash his poor gums, when stumbling over a tract of country like +that before us. + +After a long and fatiguing march across this stone-strewn waste we once +more get on to turf, only, however, to find ourselves riding along a +succession of the deep narrow rain channels, which form almost the only +paths throughout Iceland. These wind in and out among the millions of +grave-like frost-made mounds that give the landscape for many miles +round the appearance of a huge cemetery, and remind me somewhat of the +ant-hills so common in parts of South Africa, save that they are green +instead of brown. Indeed the resemblance between the scenery of Iceland +and that of many parts of Cape Colony is very striking, the chief points +of difference being the numerous streams of clear running water and the +prevalence of snow on the mountain peaks and slopes. + +It is no easy matter, even for an accomplished horseman, to ride across +country in Iceland, for when the pony is not picking its way painfully +over a wilderness of stones, it is probably ambling between two rows of +these frost-mounds, which are often so near each other on account of the +narrowness of the track, and so high, that if the rider be not careful +to keep a sharp look-out ahead and to tuck in his toes he is liable to +come into contact, with them, and to find himself pitched out of the +saddle, especially as the girths are never properly tightened. + +If, however, he should come to grief, as he may expect to do +occasionally, he has the satisfaction of knowing that, if he do not +break his neck in the fall, he need fear nothing from his pony, for more +docile hardy willing and good-tempered little creatures than the Iceland +ponies do not exist. During the summer the grass of the home-field is +reserved exclusively for the cattle, whose lot in winter even under the +most favourable conditions is often one of semi-starvation. But the poor +pony, after a summer of hard work and no corn, is turned out in winter +to try to find wild-grass enough to keep him alive till the melting +snows give him another chance of putting some flesh on his emaciated +frame. + +About 7 p.m. we sight Lake Thingvellavatn, the second largest lake in +Iceland, a fine sheet of fresh water about twenty-five miles in +circumference, in the middle of which rise two or three small islands +black as night, and absolutely destitute of vegetation. These and the +surrounding ranges of barren hills, deeply shaded in tones of dark brown +and black, are reflected upon the glassy surface of the dull blue-gray +waters, and serve but to intensify the gloomy grandeur of a picture +which is only relieved from its oppressive blackness by the white peaks +and snow-streaked slopes of the distant mountains, prominent among +which, away to the south, towers the rugged form of Hengill. The scene +is one that would inspire a Dante or a Doré by its wild and weird +magnificence. + +An hour later, we stand upon the summit of the Almannagja—(“‘all men’ or +‘great’ rift,”)—so called because in ancient times “all the people” met +upon its eastern flank during the sitting of the Althing or Parliament. +It is one of the great sights of Iceland, so we pause to observe and +describe it, before descending the steep and rugged path which leads to +the valley below. The Almannagja is the result of a rupture or gigantic +crack caused by the subsidence of the lava-field, which stretches away +for many a mile beyond it, though at a considerably lower level. Two +huge walls, from two to three miles in length, have thus been formed one +on each side of a narrow defile. That on the left, said to be about 180 +feet in height, is absolutely perpendicular; is cracked in ten thousand +times ten thousand places; and looks like an immense barrier built by +Titanic hands. That on the right, which is about 80 feet lower, has +evidently fallen away from the precipitous rock opposite; but the two +together as they frown down upon the ravine below, give the scene such +an appearance of gloom and desolation that it seems a fitting entrance +to the Infernal regions. + +The summits of both cliffs are covered, all along the sky-line, with +rocks of various shapes and sizes, some of which overhang in a manner +which seems to threaten destruction to the train of men and ponies below +that sink into insignificance in comparison with the majesty of their +surroundings. + +A few hundred yards beyond the place where the valley is blocked by +hundreds of moss-clad boulders, piled one on the top of the other in +picturesque confusion, the river Oxara (Axewater), which has just taken +a magnificent leap from the top of the precipice a little further on, +completes its descent to the plain, by tumbling, with loud roaring and +impetuous fury, from rock to rock till it takes its final plunge into +Execution Pool, whence it flows silently on, past church, parsonage, and +graveyard, into Lake Thingvellavatn. + +Descending by the rough precipitous path—whose difficulties and dangers +have, we find, been somewhat exaggerated in a description given to us +before we left Reykjavik—we ride along the bottom of the rift, and, +looking round about us, or glancing upwards to the black frowning crags +on the ridges over our heads, are struck with the desolate wildness of +the scene which impresses us even more forcibly than it did from the +heights above. Leaving the Almannagja, near the second fall of the +Oxara, and fording the stream a little to the right we reach Thingvellir +at last, and are not sorry that the day’s journey is at an end. + +My companion and Gudmundsen, having fortunately preceded me, have +managed to secure not only the best room in the parsonage, but, what is +much more important, the two best beds. They have thus forestalled the +members of the other expedition, who have resolved themselves into a +committee of ways and means and are deeply engrossed in discussing the +serious question as to which of the seven ought,—in virtue of age, +delicacy of constitution, or other sufficient reason,—to occupy the only +two remaining beds. It is an anxious moment for the five unfortunates +who after a hard ride of nearly forty miles—(which in at least one +instance has resulted in the loss of a few square inches of +epidermis)—will probably have to lie down upon bare boards. + +Another serious matter is also weighing heavily upon their minds. They +have already been on the premises for upwards of an hour, and it is now +nearly nine o clock at night, yet there are no signs of supper, and they +are all desperately hungry. “All things come to those who know how to +wait,” however, even in Iceland, and shortly after my arrival a repast, +which includes coffee, brown bread, cheese, butter, and boiled char (the +latter fresh from the lake) is spread before us and enjoyed. + +Having satisfied our appetites, we stroll through the churchyard, where +we see the famous stone used in days of old as the national standard of +measure. The church itself, like all the sacred edifices in the country, +is a plain little wooden structure capable of holding comfortably about +fifty or sixty persons. Here we meet our host the præstur, Sira Paulsen, +who speaks English fairly well, and whom we find to be an exceedingly +pleasant well-informed gentleman. + +Subsequently in conversation with our guide I learn that churches are +built by subscription, and that land (the best in the country) generally +comprising from three to four farms, is set apart by the State in every +case as an endowment. These farms, which of course vary in value, are +called “Kirk farms” and are let to tenants, with the exception of what +is called the “home farm” which surrounds the præstur’s house, and is +cultivated by himself. The præstur receives marriage fees, rents of Kirk +farms, and tithes on live stock and produce. A house is also provided +for him which he is bound to keep and leave in good repair. On +induction, or ordination, he is presented with from one to four cows, +and from six to twenty-four sheep, according as the living is a poor one +or a rich one, and on leaving is required either to restore these in +good condition, or to provide satisfactory substitutes. The average +income of a well-paid clergyman from all sources does not probably +exceed a thousand kroner, and he is therefore “passing rich” on barely +“sixty pounds a-year.” In many cases the stipend is not half of this +sum. As regards his qualifications for his sacred office, he must have +attended the Latin School for five or six years, and subsequently spent +two years at the Theological College. If approved on examination he is +appointed to a church either by the Bishop, or by the Governor with the +sanction of the Bishop, according to the conditions of the presentation. +There are, however, more churches than parsons at present, and it is not +uncommon for a præstur to have to officiate at four or five different +places at a considerable distance from each other. In such cases the +services are of course occasional. The people strongly disapprove of the +present system of patronage, and are agitating for the right of electing +their ministers, which will, it is thought, probably be granted by the +Althing next year. There is only one bishop for the whole of Iceland, +who resides at Reykjavik, and whose official salary is 3,416 rixdollars +or about £380 per annum. But in each of the different counties—of which +there are altogether twenty-one—there is a dean, or Bishop’s deputy, who +looks after the temporal and spiritual condition of the churches, and +superintends the education of children. + +There is one Government School called the Latin School at Reykjavik, and +a School of Science has recently been established in the north near +Akureyri. Education in these is free, and the students who attend them, +having generally been privately prepared by the præstur, or by tutors, +may be considered the pick of the country. Those who are too poor to +support themselves receive an allowance from the State for maintenance. +The remainder of the schools are what are known in England as “private +adventure schools,” and the fees usually paid in these vary from ten to +twenty kroner per session of six months, commencing on the 1st of +October and ending on the 1st of April. During summer education is at a +standstill, the children being engaged in haymaking, and other work, or +permitted to enjoy a long holiday. They thus probably forget a good deal +of what they had learnt during the winter. Our guide, who is a +schoolmaster, informs us that he teaches his pupils reading, writing, +arithmetic, orthography, geography, history, mathematics, Danish, and +English, but no branch of either art or science. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE V. + + 1 The Almannagja from the South. + 2 Lake Thingvellavatn and Hengill.—3 Rocks on summit of + Almannagja.—4 A rest by the way. + 5 The Almannagja from the North. +] + +But it is getting well on to midnight, and we have a long ride to-morrow +so I shut up my notebook and make for the house, stopping on the way to +my own room to take a look at the arrangements made for the five poor +fellows who are to sleep on shake-downs. I find them ruefully +contemplating sundry deal planks and wooden boxes, on which, without +bedding, and with a bare sufficiency of rugs or other coverings, they +are about to stretch their weary bones. I feel that it would sound like +a cruel mockery to wish them a “Good night,” and as I turn into the bed +that has been prepared for me on the sofa in our sitting-room, it is +with an uncomfortable feeling that there is something decidedly selfish +in the satisfaction I experience at being better off than my neighbours. +But + + “Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, + The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, + Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, + Chief nourisher in life’s feast,” + +soon seals my heavy eyelids, and ends my first day’s experiences of +travel in the interior of Iceland. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + + “From Nature’s constant or eccentric laws, + The thoughtful soul this general inference draws, + That an effect must pre-suppose a cause.” + + PRIOR. + + +The weather is so charming, the sky so clear, the sunshine so bright, +and the air so pure and invigorating that it would be a shame to lie +abed under such circumstances, so in spite of the fatigues of the +previous day we are up early on the morning after our arrival at +Thingvellir and have visited and photographed half-a-dozen interesting +scenes before breakfast. These are the Almannagja, described in the +previous chapter, the Upper and Lower Waterfalls, Execution Pool, the +ford of the Oxara, and the famous Lögberg, or Law Hill. + +The latter,—by far the most classical spot in Iceland,—is interesting to +the traveller principally on account of its historical associations. +Before I refer to a few of these let me try to describe its appearance. + +The Lögberg is situated on the same side of the river as the church and +parsonage, is reached by clambering over two or three hundred yards of +hilly ground, and is simply a long irregular-shaped tongue of grass land +in the centre of an undulating plateau which forms the summit of a low +lava-hill. + +Two immense fissures, one on either side, completely surround it, save +at the point of approach. These fissures, into which you can look down +from their precipitous edges, vary in width in different places from +perhaps ten to twenty feet. It is impossible, however, to judge their +depth with any accuracy, for, at about thirty feet from the surface, +they are filled with beautifully clear water, which flows into and out +of them by subterranean channels, and almost converts the Lögberg into +an island. + +Here, however, on the green oasis under our feet, which contrasts so +strikingly with the grey moss and bare rocks that encircle it, the first +Althing, or Parliament of Iceland, assembled in the year 929 to consider +a code of laws which had been drawn up, and submitted for adoption, by +one of the settlers well versed in the laws of the mother-country +Norway. + +Here occurred the scene, already described, when Christianity subverted +Paganism; and here parliamentary meetings, and general courts of justice +continued to be held for centuries. + +Here also as recently as June 26th, 1873, as if to seek inspiration in +their struggle for civil liberty amid scenes that reminded them of the +brightest days of their history,—the days of the Icelandic +Commonwealth,—a great gathering of delegates from all parts of the +country assembled, and pledged themselves to obtain either absolute +independence or the right of self-government. + +And when in 1874 the new constitution was signed by the King, and +Iceland received that which is the inalienable right of all free +nations, Home Rule—subject, and wisely subject, only to Imperial +interests—it was towards the Lögberg that the hearts of the people +turned in all their rejoicings. + +And here, too, in “the good old days,” which have happily given place to +better and older days, many a dreadful tragedy was witnessed. Below +yonder, where the Oxara takes its second leap, is a deep quiet pool in +which, under the very eyes of the assembled multitude who looked down +upon the scene from the spot on which we now stand, it was customary to +drown poor miserable women convicted of offences against the moral law. +There, close by, criminals were executed, and witches burnt to death; +and on the plain at the base of the hill many a quarrel between +individuals or parties was settled by an appeal to the ordeal of combat. + +Thank Heaven the days of Feudalism, of Kingcraft, and of Priestcraft +have all but come to an end in Iceland as in other free countries, and +there is now “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” + +On returning to the parsonage to breakfast we are met with the +unpleasant news that three of our ponies have taken it into their heads +to run away, and that our guide has started in search of them. As we are +bent upon visiting the Geysirs, and also upon crossing Hengill, a task +which some of the knowing ones at Reykjavik have pronounced to be too +difficult to be performed in four days, the delay thus caused is both +unfortunate and annoying. There is nothing for it, however, but “to +possess our souls in patience.” + + “Whatever can’t be cured, + Must with patience be endured.” + +The traveller,—especially the traveller in Iceland, which is not a land +flowing with milk and honey—can learn no more useful lesson than the one +contained in the foregoing couplet from an old English song. It will +stand him in good stead “many a time and oft,” and will even help him +occasionally to derive amusement from his misfortunes. + +About noon after three or four hours’ hard riding Gudmundsen returns to +report his non-success, and shortly afterwards sets out again in another +direction. Growing tired of loafing about the graveyard, or paddling +down the river in the parson’s boat, we make up our minds to go on with +the three ponies which are standing tethered to the church gate; leaving +our guide to follow should he find the wanderers before nightfall. Sira +Præstur Paulsen who kindly volunteers to accompany us a few miles on our +way, gives us careful instructions as to the route, and at our request +also furnishes us with the following question which we take down in +Phonetic Icelandic, “Whar er veyaguerin till Geysis?” which means “Which +is the way to the Geysirs?” He further instructs us to enquire for a +farm called Efstaydalr, about half-way, and to wait there till +Gudmundsen joins us, as he thinks it may not be safe to ford the Bruera +without a guide. + +After winding along the plain by a narrow and very rough path for +several miles the kindly parson pulls up, bids us “good bye,” and starts +off to hunt up Gudmundsen, having learnt that the missing ponies are in +custody on a neighbouring farm. We ride rapidly on, and gradually ascend +through a country which seems to grow wilder and drearier as we advance +into it; passing on the way several lava-rifts similar to, but smaller +than, the Almannagja, the largest of which is called Ravnegja, or +Raven’s Rift. + +It is recorded in Professor Geikie’s work on Physical Geography that +“the floods of lava which poured from Shaptarjökull during the years +1783–5 were the most tremendous ever known. Torrents of molten rock +destroyed the surface of the country for many hundreds of square miles, +filling up water courses, ravines, and lakes, and reaching to an extreme +distance of forty-five miles in one direction, and of fifty miles in +another. In some level places where the lava spread out, the stream +attained a breadth of fifteen miles, and a thickness of one hundred +feet, but it accumulated in narrow valleys sometimes to a depth of six +hundred feet. It has been computed that the total mass of lava poured +forth during that series of eruptions would form a mountain equal in +bulk to Mont Blanc.” + +The awful nature of such occurrences as the foregoing is a subject of +conversation during the next two hours, at the expiration of which we +reach a veritable plain of desolation, covered on each side of us with +boulders of immense size, and broken fragments of lava of the most +fantastic shapes. + +The snow-drifts in cleft and crevice that look, as Shakespeare says: +“like snow upon a raven’s back,” contrast vividly with the shelving +slopes—black and smooth as those of a colliery embankment—of the group +of hills on our left, whose steep overhanging summits wear crowns of +grim and jagged rock, that literally appear to have become solidified in +the very act of boiling over while the lava was in its molten state. + +On our right the stony wilderness, terrible in its utter desolation, and +unrelieved by a single tree or patch of cultivation, stretches away till +it meets the sky, and Hope and Despair kiss each other on the horizon. +Away ahead of us, and many a hundred feet below, lies the plain whither +we are hastening, bounded by a chain of distant mountains, beyond which +we hope soon to see the snow-clad crest of Hekla. + +No trains of ponies, tied head to tail, such as we often met yesterday, +plodding patiently along the stony paths with their burdens of timber, +cod’s heads, brandy-skins, and other necessaries and luxuries are to be +seen either before or behind us, and there are neither folds filled with +bleating ewes waiting to be milked, nor little grass-covered farm +houses, with their adjoining cattle-shelters, to indicate the presence +of human beings. A few birds, with breasts the colour of the moss from +which they rise, are the only living things that meet our eyes for at +least an hour as we ride over a landscape whose description may be +summed up in three words—wilderness, mountain, and sky. + +But after a long descent by a steep path which winds round the base of +one of the hills on our left, we arrive at an extensive plain called +Laugerdal, on which sheep and ponies are grazing not far from a party of +men who have pitched tents in the middle of it. We have hitherto +followed the track without much difficulty, but are now a little at +fault. Riding up to one of the tents, however, we put our one question +and are understood, the path is pointed out, and away we go across a +barren undulating plateau till we reach a second plain, where, on the +shores of a large lake, we see steam issuing from the ground in various +places, these being the first signs that we are at length nearing the +region of volcanic hot springs. + +Away beyond the lake,—distant about fifty miles, and lying to the left +of two other cones which seem to rival it in height, but lack its +shapely beauty,—rises Hekla, once included among the seven wonders of +the world, and still the best known, though perhaps not the most +important, of the burning mountains of Iceland. Unfortunately its summit +is shrouded in mist, and we are only able to distinguish the lower +portions of its snow-covered slopes, which rise gracefully behind a low +intervening range of hills. The setting sun throws the latter into +complete shadow, and it lies across the horizon like a line of intensest +black, above which the white glistening mountain beyond shines like a +dream of heaven. + +Turning to the left we skirt the plain, ford the river, pick our way +over a stretch of bog-land, scramble up a rocky slope, and at last reach +a church and a farm house, where being satisfied that we have missed the +road, we apply to a youth for information, dwelling particularly in our +enquiry on the word Efstaydalr. + +We manage to understand one another, and with the help of a bright +little fellow, who joins us, and who knows what “milk” means, succeed in +conveying to the good lady of the house the fact that we should like +something to eat, and are accordingly shewn into the best room and +presently served with hot milk, coffee,—excellent coffee too—and sweet +biscuits apparently home-made. I have never tasted better coffee in any +part of the world, and attribute this to the fact that the beans were +ground in an adjoining room while we were waiting. It is the favourite +beverage of the Icelanders, and they take care to have it good. + +While we are refreshing ourselves, the youth first addressed, a +pleasant-faced good-natured intelligent fellow persists in addressing us +in Icelandic, stopping in his discourse every now and then to apply to +his nose a snuff bottle which resembles a small brandy-flask. This is +generally made of wood, and has a stopper attached to it by a few inches +of silver chain. The snuffer having removed the stopper puts the neck of +the bottle into one or other of his nostrils and sniffs up the tobacco +dust. The habit, which is a vicious one, is so universal that one is +constantly reminded of the old distich:— + + “Tobacco is an Indian weed, + It was the devil sowed the seed, + It drains the pocket, spoils the clothes, + And makes a dust-bin of the nose.” + +Paying our hostess a couple of kroner—twice as much as she asks—we start +about 9.0 p.m. for Efstaydalr, accompanied by the talkative youth, who +throws himself across our spare pony and constitutes himself our guide. +We ascend a very steep hill, from whose summit we can see the distant +ocean and Myrdalsjökull—we might have seen the Westmann’s Islands had +the sky been clearer—ride at a rapid pace along a path cut through +dwarf-birch scrub, and arrive in a short time at a spot whence our guide +points out Efstaydalr. He then takes his leave, but on pocketing the +kroner which he gets for his willing services insists upon shaking hands +with us, and does so very heartily. This we simply regard as an act of +friendliness on his part, for the Icelanders strike us as being a +kindly-disposed good-natured polite people, who almost invariably salute +strangers, and each other, by removing their hats and uttering a word +(sœlir) which sounds like “silur” and means “May you be blest or happy.” + +We learn subsequently, however, that it is customary for the recipient +of a gift to shake hands with the donor. The Icelanders also shake hands +all round after a meal, beginning with the host or head of the family. +Men salute one another by kissing, and I am told it is usual,—and no +doubt very much more satisfactory,—for them to salute women in the same +way. Even the most desolate regions have something to commend them. + +Everyone with whom we have conversed—especially among those whose +opinions are entitled to most weight—bears emphatic testimony to the +honesty of the Icelander; and to his willingness to oblige. One of our +friends on the Camoens told us that having lost the winch of his +fishing-rod it was brought to him by a man who rode twenty miles to +restore it. Our captain stated that on one occasion he entrusted a large +sum of money—amounting to £2,000—in silver to a man who undertook to +convey it across country to Messrs Slimon & Co.’s resident agent. The +money was packed in boxes and carried as usual on ponies, one of which +unfortunately broke down on the road. The man in charge left the boxes +containing the bullion in a mud-hole by the wayside, and went on with +the remainder, returning to fetch the other two a few days later, when +the money was found untouched. The captain also mentioned the case of a +passenger who had travelled with him—an officer in the British army—who, +having unfortunately started off into the interior without his watch, +borrowed one from a man whom he met on the road. The latter gave it up +without any hesitation on the understanding that it was to be left at a +house in Reykjavik which he was in the habit of visiting when in town. +Being thoroughly honest himself, the poor Icelander had perfect faith in +the honesty of the stranger, and fortunately was not deceived, for on +calling for his watch some time afterwards at the place appointed it was +returned to him with a handsome gratuity. + +At Efstaydalr—(Upper Dale)—we dismount and knock at the doors of the +long row of turf-covered buildings that form the homestead. There seems +to be no one at home, however, and we are wondering what we shall do +next when two men turn up who seem somewhat anxious to get rid of us. We +have a shrewd guess that their anxiety arises from the fact that our +poor ponies are taking advantage of the opportunity to nibble a few +blades of the rich grass which is growing upon the “tun.” This grass is +so precious in the farmer’s eyes that he guards it with jealous care, it +being reserved for his cattle, and not intended for ponies or sheep. It +grows naturally upon the few acres of hummock-covered land round the +farm, and it is manured only by the cattle that feed upon it. It is +never ploughed up nor otherwise prepared for seed, neither is it sown. I +may here remark that we have not yet seen a single plough, harrow or +other agricultural implement of any kind during the whole course of our +journey up to the present. + +Our next stage is the Bruera—(Bridge Water)—which after about an hour’s +riding we reach in company with two or three trains of pack-ponies, +which like ourselves are travelling late. Remembering the Præstur’s +advice not to cross the river without a guide, but to wait at Efstaydalr +for Gudmundsen, we deem it prudent to keep near the lad who is in charge +of the leading team, but on reaching the ford find that there is neither +difficulty nor danger. Though it is eleven o’clock at night, the sun is +still shining just below the horizon, and the light is as clear as that +of an English summer evening. + +Before us a stream, apparently fifty or sixty yards broad, rushes with +loud roaring from a defile on the left, and at the spot where we ford +it, leaps into a rift or chasm in mid-channel, and forms a sort of +miniature horse-shoe fall. From this chasm which we cross by a frail +bridge of wooden planks, the river takes another plunge to a lower level +where it again broadens out by a series of stages, till, after rushing +between two high natural gateways of rock, it once more rolls grandly +between its green banks on to the sea. On reaching the opposite side we +halt to give the ponies a rest, being still a long way from the Geysirs. + +Leaving the patient animals to crop the scanty herbage, wherever they +find it best and sweetest, we lie down under the shelter of a bank where +we are protected from the breeze by a belt of dwarf-birch scrub. Taking +out of my pocket a valued and favourite companion, a little birthday +book which has been round the world with me, and which contains extracts +from Longfellow’s poems, I while away the time till midnight by reading +selections to my friend by the soft light that fills the sky above. I +have just read the following appropriate extracts:— + + “The day is done; and slowly from the scene, + The stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts, + And puts them back into his golden quiver!” + + “THE GOLDEN LEGEND.” + + and + + “Silently one by one in the infinite meadows of heaven, + Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.” + + EVANGELINE. + +and we are discussing the beauty of the thoughts therein expressed, when +we hear the clatter of hoofs, and are presently joined by our errant +guide. After a few words of explanation we resume our journey, and for +more than two hours plod on again over the wild desolate country that +lies between us and the Geysirs, which we eventually reach about 2.15 +a.m. + +Riding over the silicious crust, and rivulets of boiling water, with +which we are so familiar from our experiences in the Wonderlands of New +Zealand and the United States, we pass the great Geysir. Two or three +tents have been pitched close to it, in which we guess that a couple of +our late shipmates—soldier and parson—are lying sound asleep. Being by +this time very tired and very stiff, and rather sleepy, we would +willingly lie down even under a tree, if there were one, but have to +push on for other three-quarters of an hour till we arrive at a +farmhouse about two miles beyond the hot springs, and on the other side +of the river. + +With a little difficulty we succeed in rousing an elderly lady who, in +petticoat and chemise, barefooted and bare-headed, and with a big black +smudge on a nose dirtier than the rest of her dirty face, and a sleepy +look in her half-closed eyes, but with perfect good nature, hands us the +key of the little church, that stands in the centre of the adjoining +grave-yard. We subsequently find that we should have been almost as well +off—(so far as comfort is concerned)—had she given us what is slangily +known as “the key of the street.” + +She next retires into the house and presently returns with three beds, +two horse rugs, and a couple of pillows—but neither pillow slips nor +sheets—and throwing these on the floor, leaves us to arrange them in the +spaces right and left of the altar, which we lose no time in doing. We +then lie down and stretch out our weary limbs with a sense of relief, +for we have been on the march for eleven hours and in the saddle for +nine and a half, during which time we have ridden nearly forty-five +miles. My companion wisely avails himself of the third bed, brought by +mistake, and placing it, German-fashion, on the top of him, and covering +his feet with several of the old gowns which are hanging on nails on the +church walls, is soon sound asleep. + +I am not equally careful, but merely putting a little wooden +footstool—(which I hunt up in one of the pews)—under my head to raise +the apology-for-a-pillow, and spreading the horse-rug over me, I close +my eyes and try hard to sleep, alas! without success. My legs project a +considerable distance beyond the bottom of the bed, which is barely long +enough to accommodate me as far as the knees. The rug, though probably +one of the best our hostess has to give us,—like Nanny’s sark in “Tam o’ +Shanter”—“in longitude is sairly scanty,” and the consequence is that, +unlike Nanny, I feel far from “vaunty.” The wind whistles and howls +round the little wooden building, finding its way in through a hundred +unseen cracks and crevices, and attacking me in front and rear. My feet +numbed by the long ride, and by the wetting they have received a score +of times in consequence of fording rivers without riding boots, are cold +as ice. These discomforts and a constant succession of shivering fits +prevent me from enjoying the rest I so much need. + +After four hours of troubled dozing, broken every five minutes by a +convulsive start, I rise about seven o’clock, and threading my way among +the green mounds that mark the last resting places of many who after +“Life’s fitful fever are sleeping well,” stroll down to the river and +there perform my ablutions. + +Having completed our toilette we procure hot milk and boiling water from +the house, unpack our provisions, and sit down in one of the narrow +straight-backed pews to breakfast under the very shadow of the pulpit. +The good lady has provided neither plates nor knives nor forks, and only +a single spoon, so we are compelled to make considerable use of our +fingers and begin to appreciate the old saying that “fingers were made +before forks.” Gudmundsen’s jack-knife is found useful as a +sardine-opener, and a few scraps of newspaper do duty for plates. Our +menu includes cocoa,—sweetened with dirty sugar candy,—dry biscuits, +hard boiled eggs—brought from England, for eggs are scarce in +Iceland,—and sardines à l’huille. These delicacies are discussed with an +appetite sharpened by two days’ hard riding. + +Before we leave I take “a last fond look” at our ecclesiastical +domicile, which presents a curious spectacle. It is a small building +about thirty feet long, fifteen feet broad, and twelve feet high, +constructed of weatherboard, with three windows on each side, and a +little belfry over the door. On entering I almost touch with my head the +floor of a loft which extends half way into the church. This loft, +reached by a rickety stair, on the left of the entrance, contains some +old saddles, a little lot of wool, a spinning wheel, and several heaps +of lumber. At the further end of the church is a railed altar on which +stand two common brass candlesticks each containing a half-burnt tallow +candle. The space under the altar has been converted into a cupboard. +Right and left of this are our beds and bedding, and from the walls are +suspended not only ecclesiastical vestments but sundry other nameless +garments belonging both to men and women. On the left of the altar as we +face the door is the pulpit, once as gaudy as red and blue and yellow +paint could make it, though its glory has evidently long ago departed. +Fifteen pews, with perpendicular rail-backs and narrow knife-board seats +about seven or eight inches broad, occupy the remainder of the edifice, +and fill me with pity for the unfortunate Christians who are obliged to +receive spiritual consolation under such uncomfortable conditions. An +elaborate brass chandelier depends from the centre of the ceiling, and a +large pewter plate, used to receive the collection, hangs significantly +on the wall behind the pulpit. A curious notice-board, apparently +specifying high-days and holidays, is affixed to a beam in front of the +altar, and the ends of two or three of the pews are decorated with our +overcoats, a pair of stockings, and sundry other articles of attire +placed there last night to dry. + +Having packed up our traps, saddled our ponies, and paid all charges, we +commence our journey to Hengill by way of the Geysirs, which can be seen +steaming furiously at a short distance on the other side of the river. +On reaching the tents, previously referred to, we are welcomed by our +two compagnons de voyage who hospitably entertain us while we wait a few +hours in the hope of seeing “the Strokr” spout. The old farmer, who is +making a fortune by cutting turf to throw into it, tells us that we may +expect it to go off in about three-quarters of an hour. After waiting +more than twice that time in the vain, but momentary, expectation of +seeing it erupt, our friends order a second load of turf to be thrown +in, which is accordingly done. Then we retire into the tent for lunch, +keeping our eye anxiously fixed meanwhile upon the hole where the sulky +Strokr is bubbling furiously, and sending up great clouds of steam; but +alas! no column of boiling water. Having satisfied our appetites we +again moon round the edge of the crater for a couple of hours, but there +being no appearance of an outburst, my friend and the guide decide to +ride on, leaving me to follow in the course of an hour, as I am anxious +to get a photograph of the Strokr in action. I am compelled, however, to +follow my companions without being more successful than themselves. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE VI. + + 1 The Upper Fall of the Oxara, Thingvellir. + 2 The Lögberg.—3 View of plain at Thingvellir.—4 The Parsonage. + 5 The Church.—6 Execution Pool.—7 Train of pack-ponies. +] + +While we are refreshing ourselves in the tent, the parson, who is fond +of a joke, observes that he wishes the Strokr, like a reformed +betting-man, would “throw up the turf.” Pardoning the pun in +consideration of the cup of good tea which he has just brewed for us +with water boiled in one of Nature’s own kettles, we take advantage of +the delay to inspect the great Geysir, which is a large circular pool of +water seventy-two feet in diameter and four feet in depth, with a shaft +in the centre from four to nine inches in diameter, and according to +Professor Bunsen from sixty to seventy-four feet deep. The temperature, +according to the same authority, varies, but the maximum is 270 deg. +Fahrenheit, or 58 deg. above boiling point, and is given by other +scientific observers at from 168 deg. to 188 deg. Fahrenheit on the +surface. The water is green in colour and wonderfully clear. + +The basin of the Strokr is about eight feet in diameter at the mouth, +with a shaft in the centre forty-four feet deep and about ten inches in +diameter. The turf sinking into the shaft clogs it up at the narrowest +part, and thus excites the violent action which results in a fountain of +hot water. + +Burton mentions that in 1770 the great Geysir spouted eleven times, and +in 1814 only four times, per day of twenty-four hours. It is now +quiescent for much longer periods. The height it attains is variously +stated by different observers at from 60ft. to 360ft.; but the mean +height, according to the best authorities, is 80ft., which is exactly +equal to that of the “Great Fountain” at Versailles. + +To any one who has visited the Wonderlands of Rhotomahana in New +Zealand, and the Yellowstone Park in the United States of America, the +Geysirs of Iceland seem by comparison unimportant. One misses, for +instance, the Paints Pots or pools of boiling mud of various colours, +the curious formations, the roaring steam-vents, the Obsidian cliffs, +and more than all these, the wonderful Terraces, up which the traveller +may climb from ridge to ridge, till he reaches the top where the Geysir +is bubbling and steaming furiously in the centre of the crater, and +whence he is able to look down upon a succession of receding alabaster +shell-like basins, each carved by Nature’s hand with the most delicate +fret-work, and filled with water so exquisitely blue in colour that no +description can convey even a faint idea of its loveliness. For these +substitute an extensive wilderness dreary barren and treeless, and +bordered by distant hills. In the centre of this waste on the summit of +a silicious mound, imagine several holes in the ground of greater or +less size, filled with pure or dirty boiling water, which is sending up +clouds of steam, and you have a picture of the Geysirs of Iceland before +you. + +Not far from the Great Geysir there is a little mud hole, which our +reverend friend nicknames “The Grumbler.” He says, that it reminds him +of a man who on seeing the ocean for the first time remarked “Do yon be +always a-troublin’ itself like that?” I may mention here that “Geysir” +is the Icelandic for “Gusher.” Would it be very wrong to apply it, in +this sense, to some of the spouters who are now wooing the new +constituencies? + +On resuming my journey I put my pony on its mettle and overtake my +companion a mile or two from the Bruara, where we halt to rest the +ponies. Again pushing on we stop for tea about eight p.m. near a farm +house on the plain, a mile or two beyond Efstaydalr, and in the course +of the following hour, as we ride on our way to Laugerdal, have a series +of splendid views of Hekla from the top of the highest of its three +peaks down to the point where its slopes appear to touch the intervening +hill. There is no time when the scenery of Iceland is seen to such +advantage as during the summer nights when the light of the midnight sun +bathing the landscape in softened radiance, and deepening the tint of +the clear blue sky, causes the dark fire-scarred crags and snow-white +cones of the mountain ranges to stand out with marvellous clearness and +photographic minuteness, tingeing them at the same time with +ever-varying hues that change with its own intensity. + +As we ride along amid a silence that is unbroken, I am reminded of the +words in which it is said of Heaven that “there shall be no night +there,” and realise, perhaps more than ever I did before, the depth and +fulness of their meaning. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + + “The palaces of nature whose vast walls + Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps, + And throned eternity in icy halls + Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls + The avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow.” + + BYRON. + + +It is considerably after midnight before we reach Laugerdal, and after a +short halt on the plain we remount our ponies and set out for Zog, +taking a southerly direction, a little to the east of Lake +Thingvellavatn. We have been on the march with an interval of rest at +the Geysirs, from about eleven o’clock in the forenoon; but the ponies +step out bravely, and we do the distance from Laugerdal to the Zog in +better style than any previous portion of the journey, though in many +places the road is rough and stony, the country around being simply a +howling wilderness. + +About three a.m. we knock up the ferryman, who, after rubbing his sleepy +eyes, accompanies us with perfect good nature, for about a mile, to the +spot where his boat lies. I cannot help thinking that if he were either +an Englishman or a Scotsman he would neither look so pleasant, nor be so +good-tempered under the circumstances. To be roused out of bed at such +an untimely hour, to row a couple of wandering Englishmen and their +guide across the swift rushing stream, would try the patience of many a +man! The Icelander, however, makes no difficulty about it, but, on the +contrary, shews every disposition to oblige, and behaves generally with +the greatest courtesy and civility. + +On the right, on the way to the ferry, we have a splendid view of the +river Zog, which here rushes down a long, precipitous incline, in such +volume, and at such a rate of speed, that it is one oft-broken sheet of +foam from its first fall till it finds its level and broadens out +towards the waters of the lake. It is said to be the finest fishing +stream in Iceland, and is therefore a favourite resort of anglers. One +of our friends, who camped on its banks for a week, had excellent sport, +killing, with his own rod, as many as fifty pounds of trout and char +daily. + +On the left a smaller torrent, called the “Kalda”—(Cold Stream)—leaps +from rock to rock till, near the ferry, it mingles its waters with those +of the larger stream. + +The name “Zog” means “the act of drawing a long breath,” and is applied +to the river to indicate the noise made by it in its steep descent. + +While we are unsaddling the ponies, and removing the bridles, to prepare +them for their long swim to the opposite shore, the ferryman rows across +to his nets, hauls them in, and returns with a few fine trout. I then +seat myself in the stern of the boat, the saddles and bridles are laid +at my feet, the boatman bends to his oars, and the little white pony, +which I hold by a halter that has been tied round its upper jaw and +nostrils, takes the water under compulsion, and strikes out bravely. His +six companions, which are perfectly free, plunge in after him without +hesitation, and with dilated eyes, and much snorting, keep well up with +their tethered leader. + +On reaching the further shore, which rises almost precipitously from the +stream, they at once make tracks for the hilltop in search of grass, and +I find full occupation for my time, while my companion and our guide are +being ferried across, in climbing after them in order to turn them back, +and keep them from wandering. It is after three o’clock in the morning; +we have been in the saddle at least ten hours, and still have to travel +a few miles to reach the house where we propose to sleep; and it would, +therefore, be a serious misfortune if any of the ponies were to succeed +in making their escape. Fortunately, the natural goodness of their +disposition prevents them from doing so, and in a short time, with the +assistance of the ferryman, we manage to collect and saddle them. + +It is the general custom for tourists, when travelling in the interior +of Iceland, to take with them, in addition to the guide, a man whose +sole duty is to keep the spare ponies in the track, and prevent them +from straying in search of grass, which they invariably do whenever they +have the slightest opportunity. Having neglected to provide ourselves +with this necessary rider, we are obliged to perform the duty ourselves, +and thus cover a good many extra miles over country that would astonish +an Irish fox-hunter, and tax the powers of a Montana cow-boy. + +By this time I am beginning to feel thoroughly at home in the saddle, +nor have my powers of endurance been unduly strained by the hard work of +the past three days. But I want sleep, and am glad, between four and +five a.m., to see on a little eminence ahead of us, on the other side of +an extensive meadow, the farm of Villingavatn, at which our guide has +arranged to stop. + +A few minutes after our arrival the farmer makes his appearance, and +bids us welcome, and presently we are ushered through the long, low, +narrow passage, common to Icelandic farm-houses, and past the doors of +several dingy, peat-smelling rooms, into the best sleeping-chamber, +where we lie down on beds which, we have every reason to believe, have +just been vacated by three or four girls and women—whom we see peeping +round the edge of one of the doorposts—one of whom, a buxom, +good-looking lassie, in a few minutes enters our room with a large basin +full of new milk, which we find very refreshing. + +It is considerably after ten o’clock before we awake, and the first +thing that catches my eyes on opening them is a portrait engraving of +Sira Halgrimur Petursson, who is staring down upon me with the severe +melancholy of a sacred poet, such being his claim to distinction. The +little room in which we are lodged contains the two beds which we +occupy. These are placed end to end along the right hand side of the +wall, and fill one-half of the floor space. The rest of the furniture +consists of a table, a chair, a common American clock, and a dilapidated +tarnished looking-glass. Light is admitted through one small window so +constructed as not to open, and there is consequently a decided want of +ventilation. + +The beds, as well as the coverlets commonly used in Iceland instead of +blankets, are filled with the down of the Eider duck, highly esteemed in +the country and largely exported. The annual supply in 1870, according +to Bunsen, was 7,909 lbs., worth about as many pounds sterling. An +inferior class of feathers, obtained from the “puffin,” is also +exported, the quantity sent out of the country in 1870 being 32,081lbs. +I am told that it takes about a pound and a half of feathers to make a +good bed. The eider duck is bred and carefully farmed for the sake of +its feathers only. It plucks its own breast of the finer down in order +to make its nest, which is appropriated by the farmer as soon as +finished. The bird then makes a second nest, which is also removed, and +even the third is sometimes taken, though generally left. By this time +the breast of the little creature has become quite bare, and like man it +may almost be called an “unfeathered biped.” + +As soon as we are dressed breakfast is placed upon the table in our +sleeping apartment, and includes hot milk, skyr (curd), hardurfiskur +(dried fish), kaka (cake), rugbrand (rye bread), skonrug (rusk), in +addition to tinned meats, white bread and cocoa from our own supplies. +The “skyr” resembles curded milk, in the condition in which it is put +into the press to be made into cheese, and is a very common article of +diet in Iceland. So is the dried fish, which is eaten uncooked, and is +considered exceedingly nutritious. The rye bread, commonly used, is very +black and rather sour, the cakes and rusks being much more palatable to +an English taste. + +While at breakfast, haunted by the eyes of Sira Halgrimur Petursson, +which seem to follow us everywhere, we question our guide about the +literature of Iceland, and obtain a smattering of information on the +subject. He furnishes us with the following names of the great +authors;—Snorri Sturlusson, author of her greatest historical tales, and +regarded as the Shakespeare of Iceland; Bejarni Thorarensen, her +greatest poet; Jonas Halgrimmson, John Thoroddsson, and Steingrimur +Thorsteinsson, also poets. He tells us that the greatest +historian—Thorkall—is still living, and that the greatest living poet is +Matthias Jochumsson. + +There is no theatre in Iceland; but she has had playwrights whose works +have been performed in Reykjavik upon stages erected for the occasion. + +Through our interpreter we cross-question our host about his farm, which +is a tolerably large one, and forms part of the church lands. He says +that he pays an annual rent of one hundred kroner—equal to £5 12s 6d of +our money—and that he grows a few potatoes and turnips, but that the +bulk of his land is under natural grass. + +The great summer work of the Iceland farmer is “haymaking,” which +occupies most of his time, and is a task of some difficulty on account +of the unevenness of the land caused by the frost mounds, which, as I +have said before, are never levelled by the plough, and therefore impede +the action of the scythe. Fifteen years ago there was not a pair of +shears in Iceland, and wool was not clipped, but pulled off the sheep’s +back at the time when it was shedding its coat naturally. + +Some persons have referred to this practice as a cruel one; but we are +assured that it is not so, as the wool comes away in the hand without +difficulty, and without causing any pain to the animal. Shearing is now +becoming general, indeed if the sheep are in good condition it is +necessary to clip, for we are told that the fact of the wool “sloughing” +is a sign of the poor condition of the animal on which it grows. + +Manure though not often used by the farmer, is sometimes during winter +placed upon the snow that as the latter melts the tillage may sink down +upon the land. + +Farms are of different sizes—and as my informant stated, must be +reckoned not by acres, but by square miles—a small one supporting two +cows and about sixty sheep, a large one ten cows, and from five hundred +to six hundred sheep. Where held as freeholds the prices vary from three +thousand to ten thousand kroner,—more or less,—according to extent and +quality of the land. + +I ask our guide who is the richest man in Iceland? He replies “The +Bishop,” though the income of his lordship—if I am correct in thus +styling him—is less than a tithe of that of the poorest of his Episcopal +brethren in England. A man is considered well off if he possesses 10,000 +kroner, that is between £500 and £600, and very rich if he has ten times +the amount. + +Shortly after noon we start on our way back to Reykjavik by way of +Hengill, and have not been long in the saddle before I begin to pity the +ponies, for the road which lies over the mountains is both precipitous +and rough. + +On reaching the summit of the first high hill we cross—which rises from +the grey lava-plain that extends a short distance inland from the shores +of Lake Thingvellavatn, which we have to skirt to reach it—we have a +magnificent view of the Lake, its mountains and islands, and also of the +snow ridges beyond. We are even able to distinguish Thingvellir in the +distance, including the upper fall of the Oxara, which, like a thread of +silver, divides the Almannagja in the centre, and deepens the shadows in +the clefts of the surrounding rocks which are clearly visible to the +naked eye. + +The spot on which we halt for a few minutes to look upon this panorama +is one of the dreariest and most desolate that could be imagined, the +mountain summit being literally covered with tremendous crags and +boulders, which rise like islands out of the sea of stones that +everywhere surrounds them. + +From this point we push on towards Hengill, whose snow-streaked sides +tower above us on the left. On a little slope, considerably higher than +the path along which we are travelling, are several hot sulphur-springs, +the steam from which can be seen issuing from the ground. Here the path +descends almost precipitously to a fine grass-covered plain, on which, +however, not a single animal can be seen grazing. + +Having given the ponies a short rest, we commence another ascent, and +shortly reach a scene of desolation wilder and more weird than anything +that has as yet come under our notice. Rocks, rent by some Titanic +convulsion, and split up into huge, blackened, sharp-peaked masses, hang +over our head on both sides of the track, and shut us out from the +brighter world beyond—from lake, plain, and glistening snows—by an +encircling wall of mountains so bare, barren, and fire-blasted, as to +remind us instinctively of that place which is “filled with the +blackness of darkness for ever.” + +Through a ravine, called “Dyravegur” or “Door Way” we make our way out +of this gloomy scene to a slope, whence, away beyond an extensive plain, +we can once more see the blue waters of the distant ocean. On reaching +the plain we halt for our evening meal, over which, however, we do not +linger as we have still several hours’ journey before us, and cannot +hope to reach Reykjavik much before midnight. Plodding steadily on, +across bog and meadow, along winding rain-channels, and over miles of +frost hummocks, we find ourselves about ten p.m., much to our +satisfaction, once more upon a high road, on which from time to time we +have opportunities of again seeing a few of our fellow creatures, as we +are frequently passed by men and women driving long trains of ponies. + +At Heimaey, with her kind permission, I photographed an elderly lady who +was riding astride of her pony in man-fashion, and I took it for +granted—no doubt correctly—that she was not the only woman in the +country who occasionally did so. The general custom, however, is for +women to use a side-saddle, which differs from our own in having a +circular support for the back, like that of the armchairs familiar to +frequenters of bar parlours. + +When walking, it seems to be the invariable custom of women to muffle up +their heads in shawls, thus almost entirely concealing their features, +and when on horseback they generally wear in addition a many-coloured +scarf which crosses their chest like the double shoulder-belts worn by +our soldiers in “good King George’s golden days.” + +Shortly before midnight we arrive in the outskirts of Reykjavik, and +being almost as tired as our wearied ponies, are glad when the familiar +outline of the Observatory rises upon the horizon like an old friend to +welcome us back. At midnight, “that hour o’ nicht’s black arch the +keystane,” we ride past the windows of the Island Hotel, from which we +receive the smiling salutations of our worthy captain, several of our +shipmates and other friends, whom I presently join in the mazy dance. + +We learn that a great ceremony has taken place during the afternoon, the +Camoens having been publicly presented with a portrait of Sugersson, the +Liberator of Iceland, as he is called, and that a ball was extemporised +after the speeches were over. + +Having supped and had a chat with our friends I turn into bed, thankful +once more to have an opportunity of enjoying a good night’s rest in a +comfortable bed, but at the same time highly satisfied with the +experiences of the past four days, and by no means indisposed to rough +it again, even under less favourable conditions, should another +opportunity present itself. + +The following itinerary is given for the benefit of any who may make the +trip:—From Reykjavik to Thingvellir, the distance is about thirty-five +miles; from Thingvellir to the Geysirs, forty-three miles; from the +Geysirs to the Zog, at least forty-five miles; from the Zog to +Reykjavik, forty miles. I am satisfied that these figures are by no +means over stated, and to them must be added the extra miles covered in +driving the ponies back to the path when they strayed, as they did +scores of times during the journey, in search of a mouthful of grass. + +On the first day we were in the saddle from 10.30 a.m. till 8.30 p.m., +with a rest of about an hour; on the second day from 4 p.m., till 3 +a.m., with two rests of about three-quarters of an hour each; on the +third day from 11 a.m. till 5 a.m on the following morning, with a halt +at the Geysirs of about four hours, and a rest at three subsequent +stages of the journey, one of half-an-hour, and the other two of +three-quarters of an hour each, the stages referred to being the Bruara, +Efstaydalr, and Laugerdal; and on the fourth day from 12.30 p.m. until +midnight, with two stoppages of about three-quarters of an hour each. We +have therefore been actually in the saddle altogether in the course of +the four days for upwards of forty hours out of eighty-five, and have +had about fifteen hours’ broken sleep during that period. + +At noon on the morning after our return from the interior we sail from +Reykjavik for Akureyri, but before we leave the Island Hotel are +introduced to Mr Jonsson, a leading merchant. He is a nephew of +Sugersson, the Liberator of Iceland, a man who holds a high place in the +hearts of his grateful countrymen as the patriot to whose untiring +efforts and powerful eloquence the granting of Home Rule in 1874 is +universally attributed. + +Mr Jonsson is himself a well-known political speaker, and is the leader +of the young Iceland party. He informs me that the Danes do not +associate with the Icelanders, regarding themselves as a superior race, +and consequently holding themselves aloof from intercourse with those of +their fellow-subjects who are natives of the country in which they have +made their homes. He says that so strong is this feeling that even on +board ship Danes and Icelanders, although travelling together, and free +subjects of the same Power, do not fraternise as other people do. On +this point, however, there is a difference of opinion among Icelanders, +some of whom speak much more kindly of their Danish compatriots. + +Mr Jonsson tells me that he has a small farm outside Reykjavik—bought +for one thousand kroner (£56 5s),—which supports two cows that would +cost him two hundred kroner (£11 5s.) per annum for grass if he had to +buy fodder. These figures prove that good grass land will pay a splendid +interest as an investment, and confirm me in the belief which I have +formed that by sowing grass, as has been done in New Zealand, and by the +extensive use of the plough, the stock-raising capacity of the country +can be enormously increased in spite of climatic disadvantages. + +Mr Jonsson also states that the best ponies, and the best farms are +undoubtedly in the northern portion of the island, and mentions that +some more enlightened men are actually beginning to drain their land. +This fact, and the sight of one solitary iron plough, which was lying +idle on a farm near the Geysirs, are the only indications of +agricultural progress we have as yet seen or heard of. + +Shortly after weighing anchor as we are steaming across the Faxa Fiord, +we sight Snaefellsjökull, (4713 ft.) one of the highest mountains in +Iceland. We keep it in view for several hours both on approaching and +after leaving it, and the sky being perfectly clear and blue have a +splendid opportunity of seeing it to perfection. The little cones at its +apex shine out with peculiar brightness in the afternoon sun, +contrasting even in this respect with the white snow-covered slopes +below, which extend well down towards the black surf-beaten rocks at +their base. + +The coast line on each side is wild, rugged, and hilly, and utterly +destitute of vegetation of any kind. Along the water’s edge are numerous +fine specimens of basaltic columns, some of which, in the Bay of +Stapi—so a fellow passenger informs me,—have been graphically described +by Jules Verne in one of his interesting romances. + +In this neighbourhood we observe several French fishing-smacks and sight +a French war vessel, which we expect to signal us respecting letters. +She does not do so, however, but steams away north. + +Our captain says that there are sometimes as many as ten thousand +Frenchmen engaged in fishing in these waters, which they do by means of +long lines, to which baited hooks are attached. The French Government, +with the view of making the fishing industry a nursery for the navy, +grants a bounty of from thirty to forty shillings per month to every man +who pursues this occupation afloat. In addition, the fisherman receives +a proportion of the value of the “take.” + +The fish are salted as they are caught, the centre of the boat being +used to work in, while the chambers fore and aft are utilised to store +the fish after they are salted, a mode of preparation which in the case +of herrings accounts for the superiority of the Dutch brands over our +own. + +The vessels employed in this important industry are ordinary two-masted +schooners, and carry a crew of from twenty to thirty men. There is a +duty on dried fish imported into France, in foreign bottoms, and the +Icelander exports chiefly to Spain, the Mediterranean, and South +America. + +This afternoon in the course of conversation we discussed the war in the +Soudan. Speaking of Suakim, from which he recently returned—the +“Camoens” having been engaged by the Government as “No. 82” in the +Medical Transport Service—our captain said that the heat was so +excessive that the water in which his ship there lay at anchor shewed a +temperate of 90 degrees when tested by the thermometer. How different +the atmospheric conditions that now surround us! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE VII. + + 1 The Bruera and Bridge. + 2 Washing clothes in the “laugs,” or hot springs. + 3 Tourists’ tents at the Geysirs.—4 The Great Geysir. + 5 The Strokr in the sulks.—6 The Strokr in action. +] + +The general opinion on board which I gather from both officers and crew, +is that the campaign would probably have lasted longer had the climate +been even tolerable; but the discomforts and miseries of camp life on +the shores of the Red Sea were so many and so unendurable, that neither +soldiers, sailors, nor civilians were sorry when the wretched business +collapsed, and released our army of occupation. + +All on board speak of the Australian contingent with unstinted praise. +The men who composed it are represented as having been fine specimens of +British bone and muscle; courageous, and soldierly; thoroughly amenable +to discipline; and animated by a spirit of the staunchest loyalty and +patriotism. This is only what any one who has visited our Australian +colonies would have expected to hear, for nowhere in the whole world is +the old flag held dearer than among our fellow-subjects at the +Antipodes. + +The navvies—who were employed by Messrs. Lucas and Aird in laying down +the railway—were a wild lot, and caused a good deal of trouble and +annoyance to the authorities. On Lord Wolseley’s arrival they were +mustered and drawn up in line, that he might address them, which he did +in strong terms, animadverting severely upon the disgrace they had +brought upon their country and themselves by their misconduct. In the +middle of his harangue he was completely “flabbergasted” by a +broad-shouldered Yorkshire navvy who broke the ranks, stepped to the +front, and with the remark, “Look ’ere we aint no bloomin’ soldiers,” +turned on his heel and walked off amid the sympathetic applause of his +fellow-labourers. The Commander-in-Chief had not another word to say and +rode off in disgust. + +The same evening the stores having been removed from a shed in the +outskirts of Suakim, the navvies were ordered to occupy it, which they +did. One of them—evidently a witty fellow—succeeded in getting +possession of a telegram-form, and wrote out the following message which +he managed to deliver at head-quarters—“Navvies ordered to the front; +Guards retreating.” It is needless to say, that although it created a +good deal of amusement in high circles this despatch travelled no +further. + +When passing Snaefell I am reminded by a remark of one of our +fellow-passengers that the name first given to Iceland was “Snaeland,” +or Snowland, a very much more appropriate designation than its present +one, for as yet, save of course on the distant glaciers, we have seen no +ice either on land or sea. + +“There she blows” is becoming quite a common cry amongst us, for we are +now in waters in which whales “do congregate,” and have therefore +frequent opportunities of seeing them spout as they rise to the surface +for air. The discovery of mineral oils has no doubt seriously affected +the prosperity of the whale fisheries everywhere, not only in Scotland, +but in the Southern Seas. There is still a small fleet of whalers, +however, belonging to the port of Dundee, which annually braves the +dangers of the Arctic Circle in search of blubber. It seems to me, +therefore, that the Icelander who has the advantage of being so much +nearer the fishing ground, ought to have turned his attention to this, +as one among other industries, which he might follow with profit to +himself and advantage to his country, for as Dr. Hjaltalin says, “the +sea round the coast might be an inexhaustible mine of wealth, if the +fisheries were not carried on in the most primitive fashion.” + +We are not more than 250 miles from the ice-bound shores of Greenland, +another colony of Denmark now used as a penal settlement. In the course +of conversation this afternoon, the fact was mentioned that it was +accidentally discovered about the year 1000 by an adventurous Icelander, +called Eirikr the Red, who settled there, and in order to attract +settlers called it “Green” Land in contradistinction to the “Snow” Land +or “Ice” Land, from which he had migrated. + +It is asserted, on what is considered undoubted evidence, that not only +did Icelanders in these early days succeed in getting as far north in +the Arctic regions as the most adventurous explorers of modern times, +but that, during “the first decade of the eleventh century they also +discovered the mainland of America and made several unsuccessful +attempts to settle on the east coast, south of Newfoundland.” It is also +believed that it was from Iceland that Columbus originally obtained the +information which induced him to sail to the West in search of the New +World. + +The origin of the name Iceland is thus related by Dr Hjaltalin—“Between +the years 860 and 870 the island was visited by two Norwegians, called +Naddoddr and Garthar, who were driven to it by stress of weather, and +thus discovered it accidentally.” It was subsequently also visited by +Floki, a Norwegian, “who sailed with the object of discovering a new +land, the existence of which was rumoured among the Scandinavians.” +Floki prepared for the voyage by entertaining his friends at a great +feast, and by consecrating three ravens to Odin. These ravens were to be +his compass and pilots. “He went first to the Shetland, and then to the +Faroe Islands. When he had sailed a considerable distance he liberated +one of the ravens, which flew back in the direction of the Faroes, from +which he concluded that these were still the nearest land. After some +time he sent forth the second raven, which returned to the ship. The +third raven which was set free, flew towards Iceland, and was followed +by Floki, who sailed round the south coast into a bay in the north-west, +where he found abundant fishing, both in sea and rivers. He had brought +some cattle and sheep with him; but these perished during the winter for +want of food, which he had neglected to provide for them in the summer. +One day, in winter, having ascended a mountain near his temporary +dwelling, he discovered in the north a firth filled with Polar ice. This +firth he called ‘Isa Fjorthr,’ or ‘Ice Firth,’ and the land ‘Is Land,’ +or ‘Ice Land.’ On his return to Norway he gave a poor account of the +country; but was contradicted by one of his companions, who said ‘it was +a land flowing with butter.’ + +It is generally believed that the island in the ninth century had more +attractions for the settler than it has in the nineteenth.” Dr Hjaltalin +says, however, that “there was a stronger reason than choice which made +the colonists go to Iceland. It was necessity.” They were compelled to +leave Norway in search of liberty, that priceless blessing for which all +men who have real manhood in them have ever been willing to dare, and to +sacrifice, so much. + +The national flag of Iceland to-day represents a raven on a blue ground, +and has been selected in reference to the historical circumstance +abovementioned. + +Fortunately, we have none of the hardships to endure which were +experienced by Floki and his companions. Our good ship is both +well-manned and well-found, and as she steadily ploughs her way through +the dark waters round her, we find ourselves admiring her excellent +sea-going qualities. + +Even when she rolls—as all ships do when they encounter storm or +swell—she does so gracefully and easily, and having had an arm broken +last year in mid-ocean in consequence of the vicious lurching of a crack +Atlantic liner, I think I am qualified by painful experience to express +an opinion on the subject. + +Fortunately, too, we are able to rely upon more certain guidance than +that of the ravens of the ancient Norwegian voyagers, and should we +escape being hindered by the fogs which so often surround vessels in +these latitudes, and render navigation both difficult and dangerous, we +hope to round the North Cape early to-morrow morning, and to reach +Akureyri late to-morrow night. + + -------------------------------------------------- + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + + “In such a world, and so stormy, and where none + Finds happiness unblighted, or if found, + Without some thistly sorrow at its side, + It seems the part of wisdom, and no sin + Against the law of love, to measure lots + With less distinguished than ourselves, that thus + We may with patience bear our mod’rate ills, + And sympathise with others suffering more.” + + COWPER. + + +Since leaving Reykjavik at noon yesterday, we have passed into, and out +of the Western Hemisphere, and have almost touched the Arctic Circle. + +We spend our second Sunday in High Latitudes at sea, and shortly after +midnight drop anchor off the port of Akureyri, the principal town on the +north coast of Iceland. It contains a population numbered only by +hundreds, and is pleasantly situated on the right hand side of a +land-locked bay, which forms the southern extremity of—and is entered +through—a narrow channel from the Eya Fiord. The encircling mountains, +even at this advanced season of the year, are streaked with snow, which +not only covers their summits, but in many places creeps down the slopes +till it touches the weed-strewn beach. There is plenty of deep water in +the magnificent harbour before us, in which, to all appearance, the +combined navies of the world might lie at anchor at one time. + +At an early hour on Monday morning (July 20) the Camoens is boarded by +Dr Jon. A. Hjaltalin, the Physician General of Iceland, to whose +extensive knowledge of the history and condition of his country our +captain has made frequent reference during the voyage, and to whom he +presently introduces us. In the course of conversation Dr Hjaltalin +kindly enlightens me on a few points about which I have been in doubt. + +Nothing could be brighter or more enjoyable than the weather with which +we are favoured; but I am informed by Dr Hjaltalin that this is the +first fine day the people of Akureyri have had for ten days, the sun not +having been seen during that period in consequence of constant rain and +fog, and the thermometer having shown no less than six degrees of frost +at night. One of our shipmates tested the temperature of the water in +the fiord at half-past ten o’clock last night and found it to be +forty-three degrees, that of the atmosphere at the same hour being +indicated as forty-nine degrees. + +But from published returns I learn that though the winter is much keener +in the north, the summer is proportionately milder. In winter the fiord +is filled with ice, and a photograph taken by a local photographer +represents it under such circumstances, and gives one an excellent idea +of the severity of the Arctic winter. + +The Icelanders generally wear knitted worsted gloves, with two thumbs +but no fingers, the object of which must be economy, for gloves so made, +being reversible, can be worn on either hand, and thus exchanged when +they become shabby. + +Dr Hjaltalin confirms the statement I have heard that women are not +expected to marry in Iceland until they are able to educate their own +children, and tells me that the people generally—though by no means +remarkable for scholarship—are able, one and all, to pass a creditable +examination in the elements of education. + +I have heard that in Iceland the wife does not sit down to table along +with her husband, family, or guests; but either serves them, or sits in +an adjoining room where she can see and be seen during the progress of +the meal. This I learn to be correct! It does not arise, however, as I +naturally supposed, from any assumption of superiority on the part of +the man, or from any intention on his part to indicate the inferiority +of the woman, for such is not the case, the sexes occupying that +position of equality which invariably distinguishes highly civilised +from comparatively uncivilised communities. The fact is that the food, +being served in portions—a custom which has originated no doubt on +account of its scarcity and the consequent necessity for care in its +distribution—the wife, who is entrusted with the household management, +naturally takes upon herself the duty of supplying the wants of her +family and friends to prevent waste. When she does not herself wait at +table she sits in an adjoining apartment, for the ostensible purpose of +superintending her servants, whom—like many mistresses elsewhere,—with +or without reason, she has a habit of distrusting. An Englishman who had +dined with a man of good social position in Iceland told me that he had +been greatly struck with the absence of his hostess from the table, +especially as he observed her seated, handsomely dressed, in the next +room. It is high time that such a custom were abolished, for it is +certainly out of sympathy with those of other European communities where +woman, in the family and social circles, is treated with becoming +respect. + +Referring to the state of agriculture in Iceland, a subject on which I +am beginning to be somewhat interested, Dr. Hjaltalin states that the +Icelander of early days cultivated a good deal more land than his +descendants do; that he himself is one of those who believe that the +climatic and other difficulties which stand in the way of cultivation, +though very great, are not altogether insuperable; and that there are no +doubt large tracts of land, hitherto untouched by the plough, which +might, if the people possessed more energy and more enterprise, be made +to yield crops of some sort. + +He tells me that imported seed has been sown in Iceland experimentally, +but that after repeated trials it has proved a failure. He admits, +however, that there is force in my suggestion that there must be some +kinds of fruits and cereals—not indigenous—which with the exercise of +skill and care might be coaxed to become acclimatised. + +I learn with pleasure that in various parts of the country schools of +agriculture have been established which are conducted by teachers who +have been educated in Norway. Believing, as I do, in the absolute +necessity for technical education in every trade and calling to which it +can be applied, I note this fact with surprise and satisfaction, +especially when I remember that in England, where the farming interest +is so great, no attempt has hitherto been made to teach the science of +agriculture to those engaged in that occupation which the Chinese—with +the shrewdness and common sense which characterise so many of their ways +and habits—rank as the highest that a man can follow; placing the farmer +first in order of social precedence, and the soldier last; the one being +regarded as a national benefactor, the other as a necessary evil. + +In many of our colonies, where both Governments and people are alive to +the folly of neglecting this branch of national education, Schools of +Agriculture have been established, notably in Canada, at Guelph, Ont., +where there is an admirable and world-famed institution. It must, +therefore, be regarded as a sign of ignorance and apathy on the part of +British tenant-farmers and landed proprietors alike, that though the +material interests of both might be largely advanced thereby, they have +as yet taken no steps either to supply the want of such teaching as is +now being given to the poor peasants of Iceland, or even to agitate for +its provision by the State. I am quite aware that there are several +institutions in Great Britain where agricultural science is taught to a +superior class of students, but I believe nothing has been done in the +direction I have indicated. Dr. Hjaltalin himself presides over a large +institute, or college, at Modruvellir, in which the students receive +thorough training in scientific and other branches of higher education. + +On asking for a reason for the general and evident neglect of +agriculture by the people, he tells me that during the continuance of +the oppressive monopoly, to which I have already referred at length, the +Icelander worked for a drudge’s wages in preference to cultivating his +land, because the monopolists wanted fish and oil and not agricultural +produce. The poor peasant being literally “between the Devil and the +deep sea,”—between Monopoly and Starvation—had no alternative but to +apply himself to those industries which would afford him the means of +eking out his miserable existence, and thus allowed land to lie untilled +which ought to have yielded sufficient food to have rendered him more +independent. + +There were, however, in early days, as now, isolated families and +communities, who lived in the interior, a long way from the sea, and it +is a striking fact, and one worth mentioning in these days of coming +land reforms, that these peasant proprietors, to use Dr. Hjaltalin’s own +words, “were the best off, no doubt, because necessity, which is a hard +taskmaster, compelled them to depend upon the produce of the land +instead of that of the sea.” + +I remark to Dr. Hjaltalin that I am inclined to believe the country is +capable of raising stock to a greater extent than is done at present, +and he agrees with me. He says that the grass in Iceland is better in +quality than that of Scotland, and can be cut, in favourable districts, +three times during a season, though the latter cannot be said to last +more than five months. Land is considered good which produces one ton of +grass per annum per Danish acre of nine hundred square fathoms. The +ponies, which exist in a state of semi-starvation during winter, can be +kept on grass alone, without oats or any other kind of food. Cows in +Iceland give more milk, in proportion to what they eat, than those of +any other country, the average yield of each cow per annum being about +two thousand quarts. Dr. Hjaltalin has one milker which gave more than +three thousand quarts last year. Each cow eats about twenty-five pounds +of grass per diem. A sheep can be kept indoors during winter on three +hundred pounds of hay. + +Being aware that Iceland exports a considerable quantity of wool which +is used in the West Riding I put a few questions to Dr Hjaltalin on the +subject, especially with the view of ascertaining how it is that wool +consumed in Yorkshire is shipped to Copenhagen, and not to Leith. He +tells me that it arises from the fact that there is still a little +difficulty in persuading farmers to sell their wool for money, they +having been accustomed for many years to set it aside to be exchanged +with the Danish merchants for the necessaries of life. + +They are now fast becoming wider awake, however, and it is probable that +before long the trade in wool, and in everything else, will be +conducted, not upon the “tick and truck system,” but upon the basis of +currency. When that time arrives, Iceland wool will no doubt find its +way direct to the English market, but the result of the present mode of +doing business is that there is what Dr Hjaltalin calls “an inflation” +price both for goods imported and exported. Just now washed wool fetches +about sixty öre (8d) in exchange for goods; and nothing more clearly +indicates the viciousness of the truck system and its restraining +influence on trade, than the fact that the Danish exporter not only pays +freight to Copenhagen, and thence again on reshipment to Leith, but +actually sells the wool to the English consumer, at considerably less +than the price which he professes to pay to the grower. + +During the afternoon Mr Kristjan Jonasarsson, of Narfastodum, Reykjadal, +near Akureyri, comes on board and asks for the gentleman from the West +Riding of Yorkshire. I at once acknowledge my identity, and on going +upstairs have a pleasant chat with Mr Jonasarsson, who has been sent to +me by Dr Hjaltalin. I find that it is under the consideration of the +farmers of Akureyri to send him to England to make enquiries as to the +best modes of wool-washing, &c., and to compare notes generally with the +Yorkshire consumers with a view of subsequently bringing about a direct +trade in wool between Iceland and England, and this is his apology for +waiting upon me. + +He tells me that thirteen years ago—in 1872—Iceland wool was selling for +137 öre (about 18½d) per Danish pound—(one hundred and one and a half +Danish pounds are equal to one hundred and twelve English pounds)—and +scarcely seems able to realise the enormous decline in values since +then, and the depreciation of bright wools in consequence of change of +fashion. + +Under present conditions of purchase there is only one price for wool, +whether good or bad, and the farmer has therefore no inducement to +bestow extra care upon his flocks with a view of improving the quality +of the fleece, in order to increase his profits. + +In his recent admirable work on “The Structure of the Wool Fibre,” Dr F. +H. Bowman, than whom there is probably no greater authority in England, +says that he is of opinion “that our perfection in spinning is in excess +of our perfection in preparing the fibres for spinning, and”—(the remark +is worth noting)—“decidedly in advance of the present state of +perfection of the raw material we have to use.” “Nothing,” he adds, +“will more improve our manufacture than improvement in the growth of the +wool itself, which will reduce the irregularities in the component +fibres, and thus render them better fitted for making a comparatively +good yarn.” + +In the face of these statements it seems imperatively necessary that the +Icelander, if he wishes to develope the wool trade and to increase his +exports, should bestir himself to bring about an exchange of commodities +on business principles, direct with the English consumer, and without +the intervention of a foreign and far-away middleman. The proposal to +send an agent to England to make enquiries is a proof that the people +are beginning to be alive to the fact that they have lived in a Sleepy +Hollow long enough; and is one which, if carried out, will no doubt +eventually lead to advantageous results. + +Dr. Bowman mentions that the Iceland sheep—of which there are two +breeds—have this peculiarity that they have seldom fewer than four, and +sometimes as many as eight, horns. “When the horns are not more than +five they are placed in one row, and all spring from the frontal bone, +as in the case of the native sheep of Cyprus, but when there are more +than five they are placed in rows one behind the other.” This curious +freak of nature is, I am assured, exceptional, most of the Iceland sheep +having not more than two horns. + +Mr Jonasarsson tells me that a year-old sheep will yield an average of +from one and a half pounds to two pounds, and those from two years old +and upwards of about three pounds, of washed wool per annum. The total +export of wool is estimated at upwards of one million pounds weight. In +1871, according to official statistics, there were about 370,000 sheep +of all kinds in Iceland; but my informant puts the present total down on +a rough estimate at 500,000. There is no doubt whatever in my own mind, +and I am confirmed in the belief by Mr Jonasarsson, that with an +increasing demand, and better facilities for disposing of the supply on +cash terms, the quantity of wool might be considerably increased, and +its quality greatly improved. The skins, which are exported to Denmark, +also fetch nominally fictitious prices. + +At Akureyri the local agent of Messrs. R. & D. Slimon, has arranged for +a shipment of ponies, and there being deep water close in-shore the +Camoens is presently berthed alongside a little pier, and at once +commences to discharge cargo. + +A number of us, prior to this, manage to land in a boat which we find +tied to the gangway. The owner, as he rushes frantically to the bulwarks +in an excited state of mind, seems to fear that we are going to run away +with it, for being perilously overladen, we actually refuse to permit +him to enter his own boat, a piece of impudence which we subsequently +explain, and for which we apologise. + +On reaching the shore we find ourselves in the midst of a crowd of men +and ponies, congregated in the vicinity of several small wooden stores +or sheds, which form the trading station. A little further on, a large +weather-board many-windowed building, which seems to be the principal +place of business on the coast, is flaunting the Danish flag in honour +of our arrival, and in the adjoining fields, and along the shore, we see +hundreds of ponies, and numerous groups of men, women, and children. + +Passing through these we make our way to Akureyri along a road which +skirts the beach, stopping for a few minutes to inspect a shark oil +manufactory where nothing is to be seen, however, but a number of large +iron cauldrons in which a thick dirty-looking brown liquid is bubbling +lazily. This is an important industry in Iceland, the oil being exported +to Denmark, and largely used in the manufacture of soap. + +The following extract, which I have condensed from an English newspaper, +is rather interesting: “The shark caught is known as the ‘Squabus +Borealis.’ The liver only is used, the flesh, however, being sometimes +preserved for food. The fish vary in size up to from eighteen to twenty +feet in length, and from four to five feet in diameter at the thickest +part. The yield of oil runs from five to fifty gallons per fish. The +schooners employed in the trade are from thirty to fifty tons burden, +and are manned by from eight to ten men. The usual fishing season is +from January or February until August. In winter the sharks are found in +shallow water, twenty miles from land, at a depth of fifty fathoms or +thereabouts. In summer they make for deeper water and go further out to +sea, being found about one hundred miles from the coast, and at a depth +of about two hundred fathoms. The hooks used are from twelve to eighteen +inches long and are baited with horseflesh or seal blubber, the quantity +required for each hook weighing about eight pounds. To the end of the +line—which measures one and a half inches in diameter—two yards of chain +are attached and the bait is drawn up to a height of about two fathoms +from the bottom. On being brought to the surface the shark is attacked +with harpoons and lances and when dead is cut open to remove the liver. +The crew get about 55s per month and a bonus of 6d per barrel each. The +captain receives two kroner (2s 3d) on each of the first hundred barrels +of the season’s catch, and three kroner (3s 4½d) on the remainder.” + +We spend an hour or two at Akureyri, and having previously heard that +there are actually three trees in Iceland, and that these are to be seen +at Akureyri, one of the main objects of our visit is to see them. I am +glad to be able to report that I counted no fewer than five mountain +ash, or rowan trees, which are a source of great pride to the +inhabitants. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: + + PLATE VIII. + + 1 Landing place at Akureyri. + 2 One of the five trees at Akureyri.—3 Principal store. + 4 Fishing in the Glera.—5 Waterfall of the Glera. + 6 Shipping ponies. +] + +It is said that an Icelander who, for the first time in his life, looks +upon “a spreading chestnut tree,” or “a brave old oak,” regards it with +even more interest and curiosity than he does a locomotive. + +We lunch at the new weatherboard hotel on the hill side, and there meet +two English gentlemen—sportsmen and naturalists—who are packing up in +order to join us on the return voyage to Granton. + +Hearing that there is a “Foss” or waterfall a mile or two distant which +is worth seeing, a few of us make our way thither, and after an easy +climb obtain a good view of the tumbling stream, the Glera—(clear +stream)—which leaps from a plateau into a rocky chasm or rift, whence, +on emerging, it makes its way, by half a dozen channels, across the +pebbly beach to the fiord. + +The sky is gradually becoming clouded, and as rain is threatening we +make our way back to the ship, where we find the crew busily engaged in +shipping ponies, at which they exhibit considerable expertness, the +result of frequent practice. The little animals, having been driven on +to an enclosed pier, or pen, are passed on, one by one, to a sloping +platform that touches the sides of the vessel. A broad girth having been +placed under the belly of the foremost, a signal is given to the man at +the winch, and in a few seconds the poor little frightened animal may be +seen swinging high in the air over the open hatch, into which it is +speedily lowered. On reaching the lower deck it is placed with several +companions in one or other of a series of stalls built for the purpose. +I timed the men and found that it took an average of just one minute to +transfer each pony from pier to hold. + +Messrs Slimon and Co. have greatly developed this important trade, and +on one voyage the Camoens conveyed to Scotland no fewer than 975 ponies. +Experience has resulted in considerable improvements in the mode of +transporting them. Formerly, in rough weather, it was not uncommon to +lose a large number, accidents being frequent and deaths numerous. Now, +however, the deck is covered with sand and gravel to a depth of from six +to eight inches, and the patient animals are thus provided with a safe +foothold which enables them to keep their legs even in the stormiest +weather. + +Everybody credits “Jack” with the possession of a kind heart, and I have +often noticed on shipboard how fond the crew are of some dumb creature +which has made its “home on the rolling deep.” Personally I am strongly +of opinion that a dog ought to be the first and constant companion of a +child from its cradle. + + “Dogs are honest creatures, + Ne’er fawn on any that they love not; + And I’m a friend to dogs,— + They ne’er betray their masters.” + +I feel assured that were children accustomed from infancy to regard some +dumb brute with affectionate kindness, there would be much more +likelihood of their turning out humane and tender-hearted men and women, +for there is no greater truth than that expressed in these beautiful and +well-known lines of Coleridge:— + + “He prayeth best who loveth most + All things both great and small, + For the good God who loveth them + Hath made and loved us all.” + +These thoughts suggest themselves to my mind because I observe that the +sailors, one and all, are exceedingly kind in their treatment of the +little trembling creatures, and that everybody on board who speaks of +them does so in terms which are almost affectionate. Every precaution is +taken to ensure that during the voyage they shall be carefully and +regularly supplied with water and excellent hay, and the hatches are +well ventilated. Indeed I should imagine that if a pony could speak it +would express its regret at being obliged to leave the Camoens, +especially if it knew that its probable destination in England or +Scotland was the bottom of a coal pit. + +The market value of the ponies varies of course, according to quality, +prices for ordinary animals when we were at Akureyri being about fifty +shillings per head; but we saw several which were valued at as much as +£20 each. + +I have heard it stated that at one time they were actually killed for +bait by the shark fishers, and I almost wonder that in a country where +cereals are imported and food is so scarce hippophagy is not prevalent +under the circumstances. + +It is to the fact that in heathen times horseflesh was eaten at the +sacrificial feasts, that its disuse in Christian countries is mainly +attributable, Christians rejecting it because of its former use in the +idolatrous worship of their heathen brethren, I suppose on the same +principle as those, of whom we read in the New Testament, who refused +meat which had been offered to idols. + +But every holiday comes to an end. + + “The world must turn upon its axis + And all mankind turn with it heads or tails, + And live or die, make love, and pay our taxes, + And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails.” + +Between 9.0 p.m. and 10 p.m., the last of the ponies having been safely +slung aboard, we weigh anchor, “shift our sails,” and steam up the fiord +homeward bound. + +As we glide along, the tops and higher slopes of the mountains on each +side of us seem to be playing at hide and seek with the rolling clouds +of mist that enshroud them from base to summit, and the result is a +scenic effect whose weird picturesqueness is altogether different from +anything we have previously observed. + +The midnight sun is resting just below the horizon, preparatory to +starting on another round of beneficence, and the sky is streaked with +the hues and colours of early morning, which, along with the clouds and +dark mountain slopes, are reflected upon the shimmering surface of a sea +that resembles a sheet of glass. + +The French man-of-war,—which left the harbour an hour or two before +us,—and a few sailing vessels are seen like black specks in the distance +ahead; but there is no sound to break the stillness of the night air +except that throbbing of the engine amidships, and the rippling of the +ocean at our bows. + +About 8 a.m., on reaching deck after a sound sleep, we find ourselves +steaming past a dark hilly rockbound coast, under a clouded sky, and +learn that we are several miles within the Arctic Circle, which is the +name given to “that portion of the earth’s surface that lies north of 66 +degrees and 24 minutes north latitude, where during summer the days are +continuous.” + +Though we are many hundreds of miles from the Pole, or even from the +regions of perpetual ice, we gaze upon the dark expanse of ocean around +us with an interest which arises chiefly from the pathetic tragedies +with which its mysteries are associated. + +At the breakfast table conversation turns upon the subject of Arctic +discoveries, and one of the two naturalists who joined us yesterday—a +parson in mufti and a thoroughly good fellow—remarks, after mention has +been made of the hardships endured by Arctic explorers, that he once +heard of a ship-wrecked mariner who had been reduced to the necessity of +eating his boots, which were full of holes, and who on being asked how +he liked them, replied that “on the whole the holes tasted better than +the boots!” + +The same gentleman mentions that when in Akureyri he paid a morning call +to arrange the amount of the fine to be inflicted upon him by the +Sheriff for having, in violation of the law, shot birds out of season. +The Sheriff very courteously invited him to his house to settle the +matter, where having compounded the offence, much to his satisfaction, +by payment of a fine of three kroner (3s 4½d), our companion spent a +pleasant hour in friendly conversation with his hospitable judge. + +I ought to remark here that the birds were shot purely in the interest +of science, our informant being a well-known collector and a member of +several scientific societies. Until recently the tourist was at liberty +to shoot birds or animals whenever and wherever he found them; but this +has been wisely altered, and although the law is no doubt constantly +evaded, it is well that steps have been taken to prevent indiscriminate +slaughter. + +The gentleman above referred to informed me that there are four species +of indigenous birds in Iceland, viz.:—The Iceland Falcon, the Iceland +Golden-eyed Duck, the Rock Ptarmigan, and the Harlequin Duck. There used +to be another species called the Great Auk, which is now extinct. It was +found principally on the islands south of Reykjavik, and is supposed to +have been destroyed during a volcanic eruption. I have been told that a +French naturalist who visited Iceland some time ago offered a reward of +£500 for a living specimen, but has hitherto been unable to obtain one. + +During the afternoon we round Langenes, the north-east extremity of +Iceland, and steam south, keeping the coast constantly in view. On the +third day out from Akureyri we pass the Faroe Islands during the night, +but on the following morning are enveloped in a fog from an early hour, +and have to stop the engines several times to take soundings in order to +ascertain from the character of the bottom what is our probable +position. + +We find that we are in sixty-three fathoms of water, and over a bank of +shells and gravel, and on going down with the captain to his room he is +able to point out our approximate latitude and longitude by comparing +the evidence thus obtained with the soundings indicated on the Admiralty +Chart. No one who has not had experience of the difficulties of +navigation can form any idea of the inestimable boon which has been +conferred upon mankind by the patient researches of those naval officers +who have, from time to time, surveyed the oceans of the world, and +recorded their observations for the guidance of their brother sailors. + +Early on the morning of Friday (July 24th) we arrive off Thurso, where +we land in a fishing boat in order—after a visit to the Orkney and +Shetland Islands—to make our way home by way of Wick, Strathpeffer, +Inverness, and the Caledonian Canal to Oban, Glasgow, and the West +Riding of Yorkshire. + +We bid good-bye regretfully to captain and crew, as well as to our +fellow-passengers, most of whom turn out in dishabille to shake hands +and wave farewell. The last sound borne to our ears on the morning +breeze, as the vessel, which we are just beginning to regard as a home, +steams on her way to Leith, is the refrain of the “Stoodent Sawng,” +contributed by our American friend at Reykjavik, but neither the +singers, nor the pleasant days spent in their company, will readily fade +from my recollection, for “I think of them now when afar.” + +It is an invaluable educational experience no doubt for a man to see the +world, to gaze with admiration upon its beauties, and with wonder upon +its mysteries and marvels; but there are no memories of travels—at least +such is my own experience—so grateful and so abiding as those which +centre round the kind hearts that one finds everywhere. If the man who +denounces humanity, as I have heard men do, and complains of having +received incivility, neglect, and discourtesy, from strangers in strange +lands, will but be honest with himself he will probably find the true +explanation of the treatment he has met with, in his own churlishness, +or unwillingness to be friendly. + +For my own part I have often had to thank strangers for having, at great +personal inconvenience, made my path smooth, and for having greatly +contributed to my comfort and enjoyment, and there is not a country, in +any part of the world that I have visited, in which I have not received +some unexpected attention, or had reason to be grateful for some +disinterested kindness. + +From those Icelanders with whom I came into personal contact I received +only courtesy and civility, and I shall ever look back upon my trip to +the Arctic Circle, and my wanderings in the great Wonderland of Europe, +as amongst the most enjoyable of all my experiences as a traveller. + +Though apparently almost overwhelmed by natural disadvantages, and +hindered by his own lethargy and want of enterprise the Icelander has +many excellent qualities, and has earned the good opinion of those who +know him best; and I cannot help hoping and believing that a bright +future lies before him which will to some extent compensate for the +miseries and calamities of the past. Let me add in conclusion that no +Briton, fagged with hard work, whether physical or mental, who seeks +restoration to health and energy in the invigorating atmosphere of +Iceland, or who spends a holiday amongst its geysirs and volcanoes, or +in the pursuit of sport on the banks of its trout and salmon streams, +will ever have reason to regret having been brought into social +intercourse with the poor, but kindly and well-disposed people he will +find there in town or country. Though + + “They their stormy mansion tread, + And force the churlish soil for bread,” + +they have a true love for their native land, and having now achieved +political liberty, and secured the inestimable right of self-government, +I for one do not doubt that actuated by that patriotism which +Chateaubriand calls “L’instinct le plus noble du genre humain,” they +will yet redeem their island-home from its present barrenness and +crushing poverty, and in spite of snow and winter “make the wilderness +to smile and blossom like the rose,” even in Ultima Thule. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TOURISTS & SPORTSMEN + + ABOUT TO + + VISIT ICELAND + + MAY OBTAIN INFORMATION + + AS TO THE SAILINGS OF + +[Illustration: Picture of the S.S. Camoens at dock in Leith] + + THE S.S. “CAMOENS,” + + BY APPLYING TO + + Messrs. R. & D. SLIMON, + + Leith and Iceland Steam Shipping Co., + + LEITH + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Transcriber’s Notes + + ▪ Note: Various archaic spellings have been retained. Printer’s errors + and apparent misspellings have been changed and are noted below + ▪ Note: Hyphenation has been standardized in cases noted below, where + there is a predominant form in the text + ▪ Note: The author’s spelling of Icelandic is quite variable. No + attempt has been made to standardize spelling except to maintain + internal consistency in usage within this book. + ▪ Pg. Front matter: Missing or worn away period added: ‘F.R.G S.’ to + ‘F.R.G.S.’ + ▪ Pg. viii: Corrected typo: ‘Heimaeyklett and Istaklett’ to + ‘Ystaklett’—Ystaklett elsewhere + ▪ Pg. ix: œ/æ mixup resolved: ‘prœsturs’ to ‘præsturs’—æ elsewhere + ▪ Pg. ix: œ/æ mixup resolved: ‘church endowments—the Prœstur’ to + ‘Præstur’—æ elsewhere + ▪ Pg. xi: Removed period: ‘... drawn by Mr. Alexander’ to ‘Mr’—Without + period elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 7: Removed extra open quote: ‘“As we pace along “Upon’ to ‘“As we + pace along Upon’ + ▪ Pg. 8: Hyphenation regularised: ‘Orœfa-jökull’ to + ‘Orœfajökull’—Elsewhere without hyphen + ▪ Pg. 14: Corrected typo: ‘summmer’ to ‘summer’ + ▪ Pg. 17: Added comma: ‘The latter which would make very comfortable + slippers’ to ‘The latter, which’ + ▪ Pg. 18: Corrected typo: ‘Dr Ion A. Hjaltalin’ to ‘Jon’—Jon elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 37: œ/æ mixup resolved: ‘peaks of Oræfa’ to ‘Orœfa’—œ elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 38: Accents regularized: ‘Gljár söl á’ hlith.’ to ‘Gljár sól á + hlíth’ + ▪ Pg. 51: Corrected typo: ‘ommitted’ to ‘omitted’ + ▪ Pg. 61: Corrected typo: ‘Titantic’ to ‘Titanic’ + ▪ Pg. 69: Spelling variants harmonized: ‘Shaptaryökull’ to + ‘Shaptarjökull’—j elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 70: Corrected typo: ‘occurences’ to ‘occurrences’ + ▪ Pg. 70: Corrected typo: ‘Shakspeare’ to ‘Shakespeare’—Shakespeare + elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 73: Corrected typo: ‘distitch’ to ‘distich’ + ▪ Pg. 81: Missing period added: ‘... in diameter’ to ‘... in diameter.’ + ▪ Pg. 88: Comma moved: ‘skonrug, (rusk)’ to ‘skonrug (rusk),’—Changed + in accordance with other items in list + ▪ Pg. 90: Corrected typo: ‘divides the Alanannagja’ to ‘Almannagja’ + ▪ Pg. 94: Corrected typo: ‘Estaydalr, and Laugerdal’ to ‘Efstaydalr’ + ▪ Pg. 97: Added comma: ‘While we are refreshing ourselves the youth’ to + ‘refreshing ourselves, the youth’ + ▪ Pg. 104: Added diacritic: ‘... sardines a l’huille’ to ‘à l’huille’ + ▪ Pg. 110: Removed period: ‘Mr. Jonasarsson tells me’ to ‘Mr’—Without + period elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 110: Removed period: ‘... in the belief by Mr. Jonasarsson’ to + ‘Mr’—Without period elsewhere + ▪ Pg. 112: Changed double quote to single: ‘the “Squabus Borealis.’ ’ + to ‘the ‘Squabus Borealis.’ ’ + ▪ Pg. 121: Corrected typo: ‘... the patriot to those untiring efforts’ + to ‘to whose’ + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79060 *** |