very stout and lusty, but excessively filthy.' The jacket which the women wear, is worn so tight about the breast, as entirely to repress the waving line of beauty in that part of the form.

The town of Reikevig consists of about sixty or seventy houses standing in two rows, of nearly equal length, and placed at right angles. They are all built of wood, and, at a distance, resemble a number of granaries. The houses of the merchants have a few glass windows and one or two wooden chimnies.' The residence of the bishops differs from that of the merchants only in being larger and having more glass windows. Our author took up his lodging in a neat cottage, which belonged to the female ac coucheur of the place.

But few of our garden vegetables are cultivated in this northern region, and of these few, none seem to exhibit any vigour or luxuriance of growth. The season, however, in which Mr. Hooker was in Iceland, was extremely cold and wet; and he tells us, that even in the month of August, he was in many gardens where the cabbages, which ought then to have been in their best state, might have been entirely covered with half a crown piece; but he supposes, that in a more favourable period some of our more hardy esculent plants would repay the labour of cultivation.

Those persons who live in the interior of the country, resort to the coast in the fishing season, when they carry home, in exchange for their tallow and skins, the dried heads of the cod fish, and such of the fish themselves as are injured by the rain, and not fit for exportation. These form the principal article of their food, and are eaten raw, with the addition of butter, which, after the whey has been expressed, is packed down in chests and kept for several years. Their drink is either water, or sour milk or whey, and sometimes, but rarely, new milk from their cows or ewes.'

All efforts to promote the growth of trees in the neighbourhood of Reikevig, have universally failed, nor has the attempt to cultivate corn been accompanied with more

success,

Our author paid a visit to Bishop Videlinus, a native of Iceland, whom he found a man of learning and possessed of a good library. When the clergy come to Reikevig, they take up their abode with the bishop, whose salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year is hardly sufficient for his

maintenance and the hospitality which is rendered necessary by his situation.

Mr. Hooker found the more elevated parts of the country about Reikevig, composed of broken pieces of rock, generally bare, but with some occasional patches of vege tation. When he approached within about a mile of the hot boiling spring, which is situated at the distance of two miles and a half to the eastward of Reikevig, he perceived a remarkable difference in the verdure of the grass. This hot spring is situated in the middle of a cold stream.

On dipping in the water my little pocket thermometer, which was graduated to no more than 120° of Fahrenheit's scale, but was the only one I had with me at the time, the quicksilver instantly rose to the top of the tube. I found lying dead in the hot water a number of eels, not more than four or five inches long: these had doubtless been conveyed down by the rapidity of the current to the heated part of the water, which, as it affects the whole width of the stream, must be an effectual barrier to the migration of fish and other aquatic animals.'

Our author with Mr. Phelps and Mr. Jorgensen, embarked in an Icelandic sailing boat on a visit to the old Stiftsamptman, or governor of Iceland, who had been permitted to retire. His residence was on the pleasant little Island of Vidoe, which is scarcely more than two miles in circumference. The Stiftsamptman was a venerable personage of seventy-eight years of age, but with his faculties unimpaired. Our author carried a letter of introduction to him from Sir Joseph Banks, with a present of books and prints. The ex-governor was delighted with this mark of attention in Sir Joseph, whom he designated by the name of Baron Banks, and related some particulars of his visit to Iceland thirty-seven years before.

The Island of Vidoe is one of the most fertile spots belonging to Iceland. It produces

* some of the best sheep, besides excellent cows, horses, peat, and good water. We were shown with great pleasure the im mense number of eider ducks which breed on Vidöe, and which were now sitting on eggs or young ones, exhibiting a most interesting scene. The Stiftsamptman made us go and coax some of the old birds, who did not on that account disturb themselves. Almost every little hollow place, between the rocks, is occupied with the nests of these birds, which are so numerous, that we were obliged to walk with the greatest caution, to avoid tramp ling upon them: but, besides this, the Stiftsamptman has a number of holes cut in the smooth and sloping side of a hill, in two rows, and, in every one of these, also, there is a nest. No Nor

folk housewife is half so solicitous after her poultry, as the Stiftsamptman after his eider ducks, which, by their down and eggs, afford him a considerable revenue; since the former sells for three rix dollars (twelve shillings) a pound. Cats and dogs are, at this season of the year, all banished from the island, so that nothing may disturb these birds. One year a fox got over upon the ice, and caused great alarm; he was, however, though with difficulty, taken, by bringing another fox to the island, and fastening it by a string near the haunt of the former, by which means he was allured within shot of the hunter.'

The manner in which the Stiftsamptman entertained his English guests, is a curious specimen of that hospitality which consists in perfectly stuffing the individual, without regarding the extent of the appetite or the limited dimensions of the stomach, and which has not been long banished even in all parts of this country by the genius of a more refined mode of living, which is sometimes the subject of declamatory reproof, but which deserves more praise than blame.

The arranging of a dinner-table is attended in Iceland with little trouble, and would afford no scope for the display of the elegant abilities of an experienced English housekeeper. On the cloth was nothing but a plate, a knife and fork, a wine glass, and a bottle of claret, for each guest, except that in the middle stood a large and handsome glass-castor of sugar, with a mag nificent silver top. The natives are not in the habit of drinking malt liquor or water, nor is it customary to eat salt with their meals. The dishes are brought in singly: our first was a large turenne of soup, which is a favourite addition to the dinners of the richer people, and is made of sago, claret, and raisins, boiled so as to become almost a mucilage. We were helped to two soup-plates full of this, which we ate without knowing if any thing more was to come. No sooner, however, was the soup removed, than two large salmon, boiled and cut in slices, were brought on, and, with them, melted butter, looking like oil, mixed with vinegar and pepper: this, likewise, was very good, and, when we had with some difficulty cleared our plates, we hoped we had finished our dinners. Not so, for there was then introduced a turenne full of the eggs of the Cree, or great tern, boiled hard, of which a dozen were put upon each of our plates; and, for sauce, we had a large basin of cream, mixed with sugar, in which were four spoons, so that we all ate out of the same bowl, placed in the middle of the table. We petitioned hard to. be excused from eating the whole of the eggs upon our plates, but we petitioned in vain. “You are my guests," said he, "and this is the first time you have done me the honour of a visit, therefore you must do as I would have you; in future,

A

when you come to see me, you may do as you like." In his own excuse, he pleaded his age for not following our example, to which we could make no reply. We devoured with difficulty our eggs and cream; but had no sooner dismissed our plates, than half a sheep, well roasted, came on, with a mess of sorrel (Rumex acetosa), called by the Danes scurvy grass, boiled, meshed, and sweetened with sugar. It was to no purpose we assured our host that we had already eaten more than would do us good: he filled our plates with the mutton and sauce, and made us get through it as well as we could; although any one of the dishes, of which we had before partaken, was sufficient for the dinner of a moderate man. However, even this was not all; for a large dish of Waffels, as they are here called, that is to say, a sort of pancake, made of wheat-flour, flat, and roasted in a mould, which forms a number of squares on the top, succeeded the mutton. They were not more than half an inch thick, and about the size of an octavo book. The Stiftsamptman said he would be satisfied if each of us would eat two of them, and, with these moderate terms we were forced to comply. For bread, Norway biscuit and loaves made of rye, were served up; for our drink, we had nothing but claret, of which we were all compelled to empty the bottle that stood by us, and this, too, out of tumblers, rather than wine glasses. It is not the custom in this country to sit after dinner over the wine, but we had, instead of it, to drink just as much coffee as the Stiftsamptman thought proper to give us. The coffee was certainly extremely good, and, we trusted it would terminate the feast. But all was not yet over; for a huge bowl of rum punch was brought in, and handed round in large glasses pretty freely, and to every glass a toast was given. If at any time we flagged in drinking, "Baron Banks" was always the signal for emptying our glasses, in order that we might have them filled with bumpers, to drink to his health; a task that no Englishman ought to hesitate about complying with most gladly, though assuredly, if any exception might be made to such a rule, it would be in an instance like the present. We were threatened with still another bowl, after we should have drained this; and accordingly another actually came, which we were with difficulty allowed to refuse to empty entirely; nor could this be done, but by ordering our people to get the boat ready for our departure, when, having concluded this extraordinary feast by three cups of tea each, we took our

* In Kamtschatka, according to Kracheninnikow, when a feast is given to a person for the purpose of gaining his friendship, the master of the house eats nothing during the repast; Il a la liberté de sortir de la Jourte quand il le veut; mais le Convié ne le peut qu' après qu'il s'est avoué vaincu.'

On afterwards relating the anecdote of the Stiftsamptman's dinner to Count Tramp, he assured me that he had partaken of a similar one bim

leave, and reached Reikevig about ten o'clock; but did not for some time recover the effects of this most involuntary intemper ance.*

A few days after his plentiful regale at the Stiftsamptman's, our author

"set out to visit the great bed of Hraun (pronounced Hruin), or lava, about six miles to the south of Reikevig. The surface of this immense mass of lava bears a resemblance to that of an agitated sea. It is about twenty-five miles in length from the eraters, from which it issued, and varying from two and three to ten miles in width.'

From the information which our author had from a person who was present at the famous eruption of SkaptarJokul,' he learned, that the expanded stream of lava, when in the act of cooling, cracks and breaks into innumerable pieces, of various shapes and sizes, some of which are said to be from twenty to thirty feet high.

Mr. Hooker tells us, that he rode one morning to the hot spring, where he found a tent pitched,

and as many Icelandic women and girls as it could possibly hold, sheltering themselves in it from the weather. They had come with their linen, which was brought on horses from the town, to the hot spring, where all the clothes of the people, for many miles round, are washed. Some of them had a few little miserable potatoes, not so large as a full-sized walnut, which they were cooking in the spring for their dinner, and which they offered me. I had carried with me some eider-ducks' eggs, for the purpose of trying how long it would take to boil them hard, and I found they required ten minutes, whilst lying in a part of the water where the thermometer rose to 200°,

On the 8th of July, our author, being furnished with horses, tents, and a guide, set out on an expedition to the Geysers. Till he reached the lake of Thingevalle, the intermediate country consisted either of a moor or morass in which the horses sometimes sunk up to their bellies. At Heiderbag, the priest invited our author to breakfast. The mansion or parsonage house, consisted of walls constructed of alternate layers of turf and stone, without cement or plaster, and the floor was the bare earth. One

self, when he first went over to the island, at which time soup was served upon the table made from the boiling down of a whole bullock.

Indeed, we were somewhat in the same predicament as the guest of the Kamtschatdale, of whom Kracheninnikow further relates, 'Il vomit pendant son repas jusqu'à dix fois; aussi après un festin de cette nature, loin de pouvoir manger pendant deux ou trois jours, il ne sauroit même regarder aucun aliment, sans que le coeur ne lui souleve,'