Altogether I Found The Travelling In This Country Attended With Far
More Hardship Than In The East.
For my part, I found the dreadful
storms of wind, the piercing air, the frequent rain, and the cold,
much less endurable than the Oriental heat, which never gave me
either cracked lips or caused scales to appear on my face.
In
Iceland my lips began to bleed on the fifth day; and afterwards the
skin came off my face in scales, as if I had had the scrofula.
Another source of great discomfort is to be found in the long
riding-habit. It is requisite to be very warmly clad; and the heavy
skirts, often dripping with rain, coil themselves round the feet of
the wearer in such a manner, as to render her exceedingly awkward
either in mounting or dismounting. The worst hardship of all,
however, is the being obliged to halt to rest the horses in a meadow
during the rain. The long skirts suck up the water from the damp
grass, and the wearer has often literally not a dry stitch in all
her garments.
Heat and cold appear in this country to affect strangers in a
remarkable degree. The cold seemed to me more piercing, and the
heat more oppressive in Iceland, than when the thermometer stood at
the same points in my native land.
In summer the roads are marvellously good, so that one can generally
ride at a pretty quick pace. They are, however, impracticable for
vehicles, partly because they are too narrow, and partly also on
account of some very bad places which must occasionally be
encountered.
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