RIVERS-HOT SPRINGS.

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valley, including much that is beyond the Laugardalr, is one of the most extensive and fertile farming districts in Iceland. It extends nearly one hundred miles south to the Atlantic ocean, and is bounded on the east and south-east by Mount Hekla and the Tindfjalla and Eyjafjalla Jokulls. This tract of country is watered by Iceland's largest rivers; the Hvitá or White river, the Brúará, the Túngufljot, the Laxá, and the Thjorsá.

We stopped near the first farm-house, and had the saddles taken off, that the ponies might recruit a little on the fine meadow grass, while we went through that very necessary daily ceremony of dining. The farmer sent me out some excellent milk in a Staffordshire bowl, and soon after he and his wife and daughter came out to see me hide it under my jacket. Madame Pfeiffer, in her snarling, ill-tempered journal, complains greatly of the idle curiosity of the people in crowding about and looking at her. From what I heard of her, she was so haughty that the simple and hospitable Icelanders could not approach her near enough to show her any attentions. I exhausted my little stock of Icelandic in talking with the farmer, praised his farm, his cows, the milk, his country, his wife and daughter, calling the latter handsome "fallegh stulkey"-what a lie!—and giving him a piece of silver, which he seemed to like better than all the "fair words"-"butter without parsnips"—and, jumping into our saddles, away we went.

We passed near the small lake, the Laugarvatn, and saw the steam rising from the hot springs near it, but being out of our way we did not visit them. Several hot springs have their source in the bottom of the lake, and only reveal their existence by the steam that rises from the surface of the water. We got into a fine road in a large meadow or bottom land, and I was having a fine gallop across the plain, when the guide called to me to turn aside. I was greatly provoked on his taking me a mile out of the way to show me a cave in the hillside, which he seemed to think was a great curiosity. This wonderful cavern

was about twenty feet deep! I "blowed him up" well for a stupid fellow, and told him he need not show a cave like that to an American, for we had caves that extended under ground farther than from there to the Geysers-some ten miles aheadand cared very little for such a fox burrow as that. He said he showed it to English gentlemen, and they thought it very grand! Well, I told him, he might show it to English gentlemen, but he better not to Yankees, if he consulted his reputation as a guide. Ascending a hill, we saw to our right another lake, the Apavatn. We crossed the Brúará or Bridge river, the only river in Iceland -with one exception, the Jokulsà, in the east country-that has a bridge over it. This bridge does not span the river by any means, but it merely crosses a chasm or deep place in the middle of the stream. Our horses waded over the rocky bottom and shallow water forty or fifty yards, when we came to a deep chasm, perhaps ten yards across, and over this a slight wooden structure, about six feet wide, was thrown. In this chasm the water is a most furious torrent, roaring some fifty feet below the bridge. Our horses were somewhat frightened, and required considerable urging to get them to cross the frail bridge. The chasm commences but a little way up the river from the bridge, and there the greatest share of the water in the river pours into it, forming a furious and singular cataract. I stopped my horse a few moments on the bridge, and looked at the angry torrent as it rushed beneath me. The water, except where broken into foam, has a deep green appearance. On the road from Thingvalla to the Geysers, nearly all the way we had mountains on our left, and fine fertile meadows on the right, towards the south. A great deal of the way, a ridge of lava extends along the foot of the mountain, and sometimes, for a long distance, I noticed a strip of fine meadow land between the foot of the mountain and this ridge of lava, the meadow as well as the strip of lava being several hundred yards wide. How this came to be so I could not tell, unless it happened that, after the last eruption of lava,

large quantities of ashes were thrown out of the mountain, covering the lava for some distance from its base, and thus forming a coat of soil where now the green meadow is seen. As I have mentioned before, nearly every foot of land in Iceland shows proofs of volcanic origin, and, without doubt, the entire island was formed by volcanic action. At whatever period that took place, if mortal man could have seen it, there would have been a picture of the power of the Almighty most awful to behold. What a scene! A tract of land forty thousand square miles in extent, rising amidst fire and smoke and earthquakes, from the bottom of the ocean. The action of the volcanoes at the present day giving proofs of subterranean fire, and the constant spouting of numerous geysers and hot springs of water and boiling mud, exhibit scenes of sublimity and grandeur unequalled on the face of the globe.

Crossing a high ridge of lava and winding around the Bjarnarfell mountain, we came in sight of the Geysers, with the clouds of steam rising up, at the base of a hill about three miles from us. We crossed some small streams that came from the Geysers, and observed that the waters were covered with a gilded kind of metallic lustre, such as we often see in stagnant pools. This arose, undoubtedly, from some metallic property in the water itself. Shakspeare, whose eye never missed an appearance of nature, usual or unusual, observed this. In Antony and Cleopatra, a man had been off on some expedition, and had no doubt seen the elephant" somewhere on his route, for on his return one of his comrades said to him,

"thou didst drink the gilded puddle That beasts would cough at."

These waters are very good for immersion, if one wants an outward application in the shape of a hot bath; but I think for drinking I would imbibe the "gilded puddle" in Warwickshire rather than suck the slimy waters that flow from the Geysers. Eager to see these wonders of nature, I spurred my pony up to

the margin of the basin of the Great Geyser, and, though in a quiescent state, I shall never forget its appearance while memory holds her seat in my brain. The guide soon led the way to the farmhouse and church of Haukadalr, nearly a mile to the east, where we were to pass the night. A drizzling rain had been falling; I was wet, and greatly fatigued by the unusual exercise of riding on horseback, and glad to get some rest, and defer my examination of the place and its curiosities until the next day. The farmhouse, with its furniture, was better than the average in Iceland, and offered passable accommodations for a weary traveller. After a cup of tea, taken from stores in my own knapsack, I went to my room, crawled under the bed, and soon fell asleep.

THE GREAT GEYSER.

69

CHAPTER VIII.

"It makes my blood boil like the springs of Hekla."

BYRON.

MONDAY, July 26th, 1852, I spent at the Geysers. They rise out of the ground near the base of a hill some three hundred feet in height. Most of the hot springs I have seen in Iceland are at the base of hills. The Geysers are on ground that is nearly level, sloping a little from the hill, and cover fifty acres or more. The springs are over one hundred in number, and of every size and form, some very large, others small, scarcely discharging any water at all. The Great Geyser-"the Geyser" par excellence attracts by far the most attention, as from its great size, the quantity of water it discharges, and the magnitude and splendour of its eruptions, it stands unequalled in the world. It is on a little eminence that it has made for itself, a hollow rock or petrified mass that has been formed by a siliceous deposit from the water. On approaching the place, you readily see where the Great Geyser is, by its large quantity of steam. I walked up the margin of it, and there it was, perfectly quiescent, like a sleeping infant. It is shaped exactly like a tea-saucer, in appearance circular, though it is a little elliptical. By measurement, the larger diameter is fifty-six feet, and the smaller diameter forty-six feet. When I arrived I found this saucer or basin full of hot water, as clear as crystal. The temperature, by Fahrenheit's thermometer, was 209o above zero, only three degrees below the boiling point. The basin itself is four feet deep, and in the centre there is a round hole or "pipe," as it is called, running down into the earth like a well. At the top where it opens into