Last night we remained
playing at chess on deck till bedtime, without thinking
of calling for coats, and my people live in their
shirt-sleeves, and - astonishment at the climate.
And now, good-bye. I cannot tell you how I am enjoying
myself, body and soul. Already I feel much stronger, and
before I return I trust to have laid in a stock of health
sufficient to last the family for several generations.
Remember me to - , and tell her she looks too lovely;
her face has become of a beautiful bright green - a
complexion which her golden crown sets off to the greatest
advantage. I wish she could have seen, as we sped across,
how passionately the waves of the Atlantic flung their
liquid arms about her neck, and how proudly she broke
through their embraces, leaving them far behind, moaning
and lamenting.
LETTER VI.
REYKJAVIK - LATIN CONVERSATION - I BECOME THE PROPRIETOR
OF TWENTY-SIX HORSES - EIDER DUCKS - BESSESTAD - SNORKO
STURLESON - THE OLD GREENLAND COLONY - FINLAND - A GENOESE
SKIPPER IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY - AN ICELANDIC DINNER -
SKOAL - AN AFTER-DINNER SPEACH IN LATIN - WINGED RABBITS -
DUCROW - START OF THE BAGGAGE-TRAIN.
Reykjavik, June 28, 1856.
Notwithstanding that its site, as I mentioned in my last
letter, was determined by auspices not less divine than
those of Rome or Athens, Reykjavik is not so fine a city
as either, though its public buildings may be thought to
be in better repair.
