from some fishing station on the coast, bringing
with them their supply of fish, and of
other articles necessary for their subsistence
or convenience. Such a party, loaded with
planks for building, we here heard at some
distance before us, urging their fatigued
beasts to quicken their pace; and their toil
was increased by their being obliged to pass
us in a place where the excessive inequality
of the surface would effectually have stopped
the progress of any but Icelandic horses.
Soon after this we approached a rocky mountain,
at the south-east end of Thingevalle-
vatn, and, shortly after came to the margin
of the lake itself, where, by keeping as near
the shore, as the nature of the country would
allow, we escaped the worst part of the
chasms, which we had some days before experienced
so much difficulty in crossing;
and we enjoyed, as the mist dispersed, about
two or three o’clock on the following
Wednesday, morning, a magnificent view of
July 19. Thingevalle-vatn, with its two
black islands; whilst we ourselves were
riding along the banks amidst a small copse
of diminutive birch, intermixed with alpine
willows, and varied with the bright blue of
the flowers of Geranium, sylvaticum, which
grbw here in considerable quantity. For a
few minutes we stopped to bait our horses
in this verdant spot, and then continuing
our way over a track of country that I have
already attempted to describe on my road
to the Geysers, at about five o’clock we came
to the house of the priest of Thingevalle.
Unwilling, however, to disturb the family
at so early an hour, we crossed the Oxeraa,
and once more entered my favorite spot
of Almahriegiaa ; here proposing, if the
weather Would allow of it, to spend two
or three days. No sooner was our little
encampment completed, than I clambered
over some loose pieces of rock, which, crossing
the chasm, formed a slight barrier;
and hence proceeded about a mile up the
southern part, where I found that, on the
west, the perpendicular face of the rock
increased in height as I went along, while
the opposite or eastern side was in many
places not a quarter so high. Indeed, in
every p^^f of this chasm that I examined,
the western side was the most lofty, and
was quite perpendicular, but the eastern