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formed the accustomed bond of union; and thus all the luggage, horses were led forwards. Such is the force of habit, even in the brute creation, that, if these horses are not tied, they will still keep following each other, to the great annoyance of any person who may happen to be riding them, and may wish to go a little faster than the rest, or to leave the regular line.'Proceeding eastward to Kirkat, the party then took nearly northerly course, over dreary moors and morasses, to Heiderbag; where, having passed the night in their tents, and in damp clothes, they breakfasted next morning with the priest. The style of entertainment was not precisely that of our fashionable déjeunés, but is too characteristic of the state of Icelandic society to be passed over in silence:

Sunday, July 9.-Early this morning, the priest cane to invite us to breakfast at his house, which I readily agreed to, taking with me tea, coffee, and other provisions; a precaution absolutely necessary, for his house would afford nothing but milk, skiur, butter, and fish. I was even obliged to send back to my tent for a kettle te boil the coffee in. The only part of the house to which we were admitted was that in which the fish, tallow, wool, milk, &c. were kept, for this being the best part of an Icelandic building, is used for the reception of strangers. It had walls of alternate layers of turf and stone, without either cement to unite them, or plaister to conceal their nakedness, and the floor was the bare earth, One chair was all our host could furnish, and, indeed, there would not have been room for more, so completely was the place lumbered up with old chests, old clothes, &c. What little provision there was in the house was most willingly offered, and it was with difficulty I could prevent him from killing a lamb to entertain us better.'

The stated income of this hospitable clergyman is about twenty-four shillings sterling a quarter, not including some small perquisites for marriages and burials. He has likewise the parsonage rent-free, and a glebe which enables him to keep five cows and twenty-eight sheep: but it is only in hard seasons, when the hay has failed, that any of the live-stock are sacrificed for the use of the family.

As Mr. Hooker and his companions prosecuted their journey, on the 11th, the Lake of Thingevalle, fifteen miles long, and from five to twelve miles wide, formed a pleasing contrast to the bare and gloomy scenery which had heretofore encompassed their path. At the north-eastern extremity of this fine piece of water, the guide apprized them of their near approach to the pass of Almannegiaa, one of the greatest curiosities in Iceland:

We already found the ground broken into a number of great openings, of various length and width; some so deep, that the darkness prevented our seeing the bottom, which in others was concealed

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by ice and snow. On a sudden we came to the brink of a great precipice, down which we looked into Almannegiaa, a monstrous chasm, extending almost as far as we could see, in a direct line, nearly north and south through this our road lay. A smaller opening branches off in a south-west direction, and, a great number of large pieces of rock having fallen into it, the natives, without any assistance from art, make it serve as an entrance to the great chasm. Here, however, we were obliged to have all the luggage, even the saddles, taken off the horses, and carried on the shoulders of our people. The horses were then driven down between the great stones which composed the descent. A more rugged pass can hardly be conceived. As we descended by this rude but natural stair-case, the sides which were perpendicular became proportionably higher, till, winding round some huge fallen pieces of rock, we entered the great chasm."

In this strikingly romantic district, are situated the homely church and parsonage of Thingevalle. The body of the former is crowded with old wooden chests, which not only answer the purpose of benches, but also contain the clothes of many of the congregation; who, as no lock is placed on the door, have, at all times, free access to their wardrobes. On the east of the chasm, the author encountered some rare plants, as Carex atrata, Saxifraga rivularis, Veronica fruticulosa, Polypodium ar vonicum, and Hypnum Silesianum.

At Middalr, another striking proof occurred of the poverty of the clergy; the salary of the priest of that place being only twenty rix-dollars a-year, to which he added a little by acting as a black-smith! Both he and two or three of his family eagerly picked up the heads and entrails of the fish, which the cook of the party had thrown on the ground. — In extensive desert-tracts of this neighbourhood, the Lichen Islandicus is produced in the greatest abundance. It is cropped every third year. The strong bitter which it contains is extracted by steeping it, for some time, in clean cold water; after which it is dried in the sun, reduced to powder, and boiled up with milk, so as to be of the consistency of a jelly, when cold. In this state, it is reckoned a wholesome and nourishing food: but the Icelanders appeared to be ignorant of its alleged virtues in pulmonary complaints.

Mr. Hooker's account of the Geysers will amply reward the trouble of perusal, and deservedly forms a prominent passage in his journal: but it is by much too long for our insertion. We shall only notice, in passing, that, during the space of an hour and a half, the New Geyser projected an uninterrupted column of water, to the elevation of one hundred and fifty feet, and in a body of seventeen feet in its widest diameter. Hard stones, of a large size, cast into the pipe, were instantly darted up to the top of the spout, or even higher, and dashed in pieces. Among these

hot

hot springs, were observed Riccia glauca, Jungermannia angu losa, and some rare species of Conferva. - The spring of Reykum is represented as much inferior to those of the principal Geysers; its water rising from an aperture not more than two feet in diameter, and being thrown up to the height of six or seven feet, in frequently repeated jets, and with a loud and rumbling noise, occasioned by the great quantity of air which is discharged at the same time with the water.

At Skalholt, the author met with a woman who was afflicted with elephantiasis:

• Her face was so corroded by the disease, that it presented the most disgusting spectacle I ever saw in my life, and her legs and hands were swollen to an enormous size, these latter being, also, covered with a thick and almost white skin, lying in great wrinkles; yet she still complained of no particular pain, and seemed to walk with tolerable ease. This terrible complaint is well known to be he reditary, but it nevertheless frequently happens, that the children of those affected are, før many generations, quite free from it; an instance of which presented itself in the son of this very woman, who was constantly with her, and yet shewed not the least symptom of the malady; but, on the contrary, was one of the most healthy and beautiful children which this country had offered to my view. Nei ther, indeed, does it appear to me to be infectious, any more than another cutaneous disorder common in the island. It is said to have existed in Iceland ever since the first colonization of the country, and is supposed by many to have been brought over at that time from Norway, where, according to some accounts, it may be traced to a period of high antiquity.'

A combination of untoward circumstances constrained Mr. Hooker to renounce his intended visit to Hecla, and to measure back his steps to Reikevig, lingering, by the way, in his favourite valley of Almannegiaa. On the 25th of July, he witnessed the annual and merry festival of salmon-fishing in the Lax-Elbe; in which river, before three o'clock in the afterneon, two thousand two hundred salmon were caught. Mr. Phelps purchased the whole of this capture from the proprietor of the place, caused two-thirds to be cured for exportation, and gave the remaining third to those who had assisted in the fishery.

The sulphur-springs of Kreisevig appear to have been well deserving of notice, as they issue from various openings, and through layers of various coloured boies. One of these springs, of considerable dimensions, on the side of a hill, forms a spectacle at once singular and magnificent, and it is described in these pages in the most impressive style. Notwithstanding the nearness of the sulphur-district to the sea, Mr. Phelps was convinced, to his regret, that the ruggedness of the intervening

country,

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country, and the scantiness of population, precluded the idea of exporting sulphur from Iceland. Even the natives, it should seem, do not avail themselves of the profusion of this mineral product of their soil. Although in the vicinity of a remedy so noted for the cure of a certain disagreeable cutaneous complaint, we observed, by the swellings on the hands of our Kreisevig guide, and by his incessant scratching, that he had not, any more than some other people whom we saw living near the sulphur-springs, made such use of it as would be done. in other countries; but, on the contrary, it rather appeared that the disorder was here more than usually prevalent.'

On his way to Borgafiord, Mr. Hooker accomplished the painful ascent of Skoul-a-fiel, the extreme peak of which scarcely affords room for standing. The scanty vegetation of the spots that are free from snow, in this elevated region, was chiefly composed of Salix herbaçça, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Polytrichum sexangulare, and Lichen geographicus. Farther down the mountain, a rich botanical harvest, including some new grasses, a Veronica, a Gnaphalium, and five or six mosses, rewarded the author's search.

At Inderholme, the seat of the Tatsroed, or Chief Justice of the island, Mr. H. was entertained with lettered and elegant hospitality but here, too, in spite of his remonstrances, he was served at table by the lady of the highest rank in the island, and her handsome daughter. The Tatsroed himself had received a classical and liberal education, and had translated into Icelandic poetry Pope's Essay on Man and his Universal Prayer.

Two of the works which have come from the pen of the Tats roed deserve particular mention: the titles, indeed, have altogether escaped my memory, but, if I am not mistaken, one of them was written in the Danish, the other in the Icelandic language, and both treated of the most remarkable occurrences that had taken place in the latter history of the country, among which it was peculiarly gra tifying to an Englishman to see how earnestly and how completely con amore the author bears testimony to the noble and generous conduct of Sir Joseph Banks; impressing, in the strongest terms, upon the minds of his countrymen a sense of the obligations they owe to him for the unexampled assistance which he afforded to such Icelanders, as had, in the beginning of the present war, been made prisoners in Danish vessels; striving with the utmost zeal to procure their release, and supplying, with unbounded liberality, their pecuniary wants, I must, however, do the Icelanders the justice to say, that there is no need of the assistance of the press to excite a stronger feeling of gratitude on their part, for the benefits that have been conferred upon them by this exalted character; for the eager enquiries that were in every place made after his welfare by the aged, who still remember his person, and by the young, who know him

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from the anecdotes told by their fathers and their grandfathers, were a convincing proof of the esteem and veneration they entertain for him: so that, not unfrequently, while wandering over the wastes of Iceland, my heart has glowed, and I have felt a pride, that I should have been ashamed to dissemble, at being able to call such a man my patron and my friend.'

Among the numerous hot springs at Reykholt, the Snorralang, or bath of Snorro Sturleson, is particularized both on account of the comparatively fertile soil in which it is situated, and from its having been the residence of the historian of the north; who, in the early part of the thirteenth century, devoted his time to rural and literary occupations, but fell a victim to a midnight assassin, just as he had entered on the sixty-second year of his age.

The regular portion of Mr. Hooker's Journal terminates with his return to Reikevig, where he waited in almost daily expectation of his departure for England: but he subjoins some general and truly valuable observations on the botany and zoology of the island. The amount of its vegetable and animal species is far from extensive. Of the former, however, several which in other countries are found only at very considerable elevations are here observed growing in the plains and valleys, and near the shores of the sea; and, in the class Cryptogamia, many striking novelties will amply repay the trouble of investigation. The heavy and tempestuous sea, to which the shores are exposed, prevents the attachment of the more delicate Fuci to the rocks: but the tougher and more common sorts, of which kelp might be made, as in Scotland, every where abound. The list of Icelandic insects is probably very meagre, and Mohr recounts only thirty-three species of fish; though it is to be presumed that many more might be noted by any professed ichthyologist who enjoyed opportunities of research. The diversity of water-birds is very considerable; and the Falcon of this island is still in the highest request for hawking. The quadrupeds are limited to a few of the domestic kinds, among which a peculiar breed of the canine race holds a conspicuous rank:

Had I been (says Mr.H.) the only person to witness the following circumstance concerning the dogs in Iceland, I should scarcely have ventured to relate the anecdote; but my scruples are removed, as, so far from this having been the case, I was not even the first who saw it; for Mr. Browning, an officer of the Talbot, whose ill health confined him to a room on shore, called my attention to it, by more than once remarking to me that he had, from his window, in the morning of several successive days, observed at a certain hour a number of dogs assemble near his house, as if by a previously concerted arrangement, and, after performing a sort of sham fight for some time,

disperse

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