the Icelandic language, as, except in a very-
few instances, I could only obtain information
from the natives through the medium
of two interpreters ; my question being put
in English to Jacob, who translated it into
Danish to my Reikevig guide, and he, again,
in Icelandic, made it intelligible to the person
I wished to address. The answer, also,
was necessarily returned by the same circuitous
way. It was half past six in the
evening, before Jacob and myself set out,
when we travelled as fast as the roads, which
are better in the immediate vicinity of the
capital than almost' any where else, would
permit us; stopping only to admire, and to
gather specimens of, the elegant Saxifraga
Hircuius, which adorned, in the greatest
profusion, the numerous springs of water
that we met with near our road. It was
in this journey, for the first time in my life,
the Margaret and Anne, had remained at Reikevig, and
married and settled there, had gone out one day to sea
on a shooting excursion with Mr. Savigniac, when the
boat was unfortunately overturned, and the two1 sailors
perished. The body of poor Jacob was thrown on shore
the next morning, but that o f his companion had not
been found.
that I saw its beautiful yellow blossoms, and
I thought I could never gather enough of
the plant. In about three hours we overtook
our luggage horses and guide: despising,
however, a conductor in a tract of country,
over which we had twice travelled before,
we hastened forward on our way, but had
scarcely lost sight of our company than we
saw reason to regret our precipitancy; for
we found ourselves so encompassed by bogs,
that we were at a loss how to proceed. In
urging my own horse through a swamp, he
floundered and threw me, and I had great
difficulty in extricating him from his unpleasant
situation. Jacob, by a more circuitous
route, reached me in safety, and we
continued our journey till about ten o’clock,
when we arrived at the foot of Skoul-a-fiel,
and fixed upon a little verdant plain by the
banks of a wide and extremely rapid torrent
for the situation of our tents, which did not
come up’ to us before twelve o’clock. At
«bout half a mile from us was a peasant’s
house, called, if I recollect right, Skykeaster,
to which I dispatched Jacob, according to
my usual custom, for some fuel to boil our