116* THINGEVALLE.
the height of a man, held some old bibles,
some chests, and the coffin of the minister,
which he had made himself, and which, to
judge from his aged look, he probably soon
expected to occupy. The whole length, of
the church was not above thirty feet, and
about six or eight of this was parted off by a
kind of screen of .open work (against which
the pulpit was placed) for the purpose of containing
the altar, a rude sort of table, on
which were two brass candlesticks, and, over
it, two extremely small glass windows, the
only places that admitted light, except the
door-way. Two large bells hung on the
right-hand side of the church, at an equal
height with the beams. I observed that the
Icelanders pull off their hats, on entering
their place of worship. We left our friend
Egclosen to take his rest at Thingevalle; but,
preferring to sleep in the tent myself, after
being abundantly supplied with tro u t. and
milk, we returned to Almannegiaa, On
walking to the north of the chasm, I met
with a few scarce plants: among them were
Carex atrata, extremely fine, Saxífraga
rivularis, Veronica fruticulosa, Osmunda
lunaria, Polypodium arvonicum, and Hyp-
num silesianum. I much regretted not being
JOURNEY TO TH E GEYSERS.
able to spend more time here; but, as a
visit to the Geysers was the principal object
of my journey, I thought it best to accomplish
that first, and, if there were leisure, to
wait here a few days on my return: we
therefore proposed, should the weather be
suitable, to continue our route early in the
morning.
Wednesday, The morning proved fine, and
July 12. we had scarcely breakfasted, when
Egclosen and Thorlavsen (son to the priest
of Thingevalle) called us to proceed on our
journey. They both kindly offered to accompany
me some way, that they might
point out such objects as were most worth
our attention. We stopped at Thingevalle,
to take leave of the priest, and, having
refreshed ourselves with some rich cream
which he offered us, we then pursued our
course in a south-easterly direction, among
the innumerable cracks, rents, and hills of
rugged lava, which rendered travelling extremely
fatiguing for the horses, and by no
means free from danger; for a false step, or
a rolling stone, would infallibly have precipitated
both the animal and his rider to