ferved vvkhin a few days; and it is not
iincommon to fee whole farms overturned
by them, and large mountains
burfl afunder, as will be remarked
hereafter in the letter which treats o f
the conflagrations in Iceland.
In fo mountainous a country, where
there is no agriciiltiire, and no commerce,
except that carried on by bartering
of the various commodities on
the arrival of the Danifli fliips, no
good roads can be expeGed : they
therefore make ufe o f neither carts nor
fledges ; and there are many places in
which it is both difficult and dangerous
even to ride on horfeback, that
have caufed the names o f Ofrstur, HaE
favegur, Hofdahrecka, Illak lif Sec, to
be given to fome roads. Their length
is not reckoned by the number'^of
niilcs, but that o f tJringmanna-lcid, that
is, as far as a man, who is travelling to
a place where juftice is adminiftercd,
can go in one day, which is about
three and a half Swedifli, or four Icelandic
miles *. Formerly houfes were
About twenty or twenty-one EngUih miles.
built
built in fome particular places for the
life o f travellers, that were called Fhi-
odhrautar-Jkaala\ but now the churches
are every-where made ufe of for this
purpofe.
When the Icelanders travel to fea-
ports to exchange their fiili, Sec, they
have twenty, thirty, and fometimes a
greater number o f horfes with them,
which carry a load o f 300 or 400
pounds weight each: but they have always
fome fpare horfes along with
them to relieve thofe that are fatigued ;
this cavalcade is called Leji, and the
man who guides them is called Lefta-
madur ; he rides on before, accompanied
with a dog, that, by uttering a
certain word, drives the ftrayed or
ftraggling horfes into the right road.
They never carry any food for their
horfes, as pafture is plenty every
where.
The number of the inhabitants is by
no means adequate to the extent of
the country. It has been mucli larger
in former times ; but befides what is
called the Higerdeath, and other contagious
difeafes, among which the
plague
Î1'' ! ii: ■ ■
In
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tnh i il
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