the spring of last year (1808), a violent
shock of an earthquake was felt, which made
an aperture for another hot-spring, and caused
the whole of them to cease flowing for fifteen
days. The ground, at that time, appeared
to be lifted up some feet; a house was
thrown down; and all he cattle, which were
at pasture, ran home to the dwellings of their
masters, and shewed symptoms of the utmost
terror. Earthquakes in this quarter of the
country are not unfrequent. One happened
but a short time previous to the visit: of Sir
John Stanley, who conjectures, that this
probably enlarged the cavities, communicating
with the bottom of the pipe of the
New Geyser; for it is to be remarked, that
till then (June, 1789), that spring had not
played for a considerable length of time with
any degree of violence *. A party of horsever,
in the canton of Olves, situated at the distance of
an hundred toises from each other. On throwing in
the lead, for the purpose of sounding the depth of one
of these wells, they found the water immediately diminished
a foot and a half in depth, whilst at the same •
time it flowed over from the other well.
* See Edinburgh Transactions, v. iii. p. 150.
women'f', well dressed, and riding, some
astride and some on the saddles of the
eountry, who were passing the Geysers, and
directing their course towards Haukardal, reminded
me that service was about to be
performed at the church of that place this
morning, and therefore, as I saw no proba->
bility of a second eruption of the New Geyser
immediately taking place, I resolved to leave
f These ladies with their long riding coats and their
tall head-dresses had, at some distance from the spectator,
very much the appearance of alittle troop of horse-soldiers.
An Icelandic lady’s saddle is totally unlike an English
one, being furnished with a semi-circular elevated back,
like that which is attached to some of our old-fashioned
chairs; so that a lady sits as much at her ease as
the travellers in the passage of Quindiu, in the Cordillera
of the Andes, who are described by M. Humboldt,
as inhumanly riding in chairs strapped on the backs of
their fellow men. Sitting sideways, therefore, the Icelandic
women lean their backs against this support, and
place their feet upon a small board, which is affixed to
the saddle at a proper height by means of two straps.
The back of the saddle is often richly ornamented with
brass, carved or embossed into various figures: the
girths, also, are furnished with rich silver buckles and
with plates of the same metal, and the saddle-cloth frequently
affords a beautiful specimen of the abilities of
the owner at working in tambour.