The latter is undoubtedly the more
important purpose of application, and a hut has been erected, in
order to shield the poor people from wind and rain while they are at
work. Formerly this hut was furnished with a good door and with
glazed windows, and the key was kept at an appointed place in the
town, whence any one might fetch it. But the servants and peasant
girls were soon too lazy to go for the key; they burst open the
lock, and smashed the windows, so that now the hut has a very
ruinous appearance, and affords but little protection against the
weather. How much alike mankind are every where, and how seldom
they do right, except when it gives them no trouble, and then,
unfortunately, there is not much merit to be ascribed to them, as
their doing right is merely the result of a lucky chance! Many
people also bring fish and potatoes, which they have only to lay in
the hot water, and in a short time both are completely cooked.
This spring is but little used for the purpose of bathing; at most
perhaps by a few children and peasants. Its medicinal virtues, if
it possesses any, are completely unknown.
THE SULPHUR-SPRINGS AND SULPHUR-MOUNTAINS OF KRISUVIK.
The 4th of June was fixed for my departure. I had only to pack up
some bread and cheese, sugar and coffee, then the horses were
saddled, and at seven o'clock the journey was happily commenced. I
was alone with my guide, who, like the rest of his class, could not
be considered as a very favourable specimen of humanity. He was
very lazy, exceedingly self-interested, and singularly loath to
devote any part of his attention either to me or to the horses,
preferring to concentrate it upon brandy, an article which can
unfortunately be procured throughout the whole country.
I had already seen the district between Reikjavik and Havenfiord at
my first arrival in Iceland. At the present advanced season of the
year it wore a less gloomy aspect: strawberry-plants and violets, -
the former, however, without blossoms, and the latter inodorous, -
were springing up between the blocks of lava, together with
beautiful ferns eight or ten inches high. In spite of the trifling
distance, I noticed, as a rule, that vegetation was here more
luxuriant than at Reikjavik; for at the latter place I had found no
strawberry-plants, and the violets were not yet in blossom. This
difference in the vegetation is, I think, to be ascribed to the high
walls of lava existing in great abundance round Havenfiord; they
protect the tender plants and ferns from the piercing winds. I
noticed that both the grass and the plants before mentioned throve
capitally in the little hollows formed by masses of lava.
A couple of miles beyond Havenfiord I saw the first birch-trees,
which, however, did not exceed two or three feet in height, also
some bilberry-plants. A number of little butterflies, all of one
colour, and, as it seemed to me, of the same species, fluttered
among the shrubs and plants.
The manifold forms and varied outline of the lava-fields present a
remarkable and really a marvellous appearance. Short as this
journey is - for ten hours are amply sufficient for the trip to
Krisuvik, - it presents innumerable features for contemplation. I
could only gaze and wonder. I forgot every thing around me, felt
neither cold nor storm, and let my horse pick his way as slowly as
he chose, so that I had once almost become separated from my guide.
One of the most considerable of the streams of lava lay in a
spacious broad valley. The lava-stream itself, about two miles
long, and of a considerable breadth, traversing the whole of the
plain, seemed to have been called into existence by magic, as there
was no mountain to be seen in the neighbourhood from which it could
have emerged. It appeared to be the covering of an immense crater,
formed, not of separate stones and blocks, but of a single and
slightly porous mass of rock ten or twelve feet thick, broken here
and there by clefts about a foot in breadth.
Another, and a still larger valley, many miles in circumference, was
filled with masses of lava shaped like waves, reminding the beholder
of a petrified sea. From the midst rose a high black mountain,
contrasting beautifully with the surrounding masses of light-grey
lava. At first I supposed the lava must have streamed forth from
this mountain, but soon found that the latter was perfectly smooth
on all sides, and terminated in a sharp peak. The remaining
mountains which shut in the valley were also perfectly closed, and I
looked in vain for any trace of a crater.
We now reached a small lake, and soon afterwards arrived at a larger
one, called Kleinfarvatne. Both were hemmed in by mountains, which
frequently rose abruptly from the waters, leaving no room for the
passage of the horses. We were obliged sometimes to climb the
mountains by fearfully dizzy paths; at others to scramble downwards,
almost clinging to the face of the rock. At some points we were
even compelled to dismount from our horses, and scramble forward on
our hands and knees. In a word, these dangerous points, which
extended over a space of about seven miles, were certainly quite as
bad as any I had encountered in Syria; if any thing, they were even
more formidable.
I was, however, assured that I should have no more such places to
encounter during all my further journeys in Iceland, and this
information quite reconciled me to the roads in this country. For
the rest, the path was generally tolerably safe even during this
tour, which continually led me across fields of lava.
