ICELAND. 



CHAPTER I, 



THE ISLAND. 



I HA YE certainly, In ail niy wanderings, never sailed 

 over a more desolate and stormy sea than that 

 which lies between Great Britain and Iceland. In the 

 voyages both out and home we were constantly beset 

 by violent gales. Only once were we cheered by the 

 sight of a ship, and she was scudding with close-reefed 

 sails before a pitiless storm. Day after day there was 

 the same sweltering of the waters, the same threatening 

 sky and warning barometer. 



The evening we left Liverpool everything promised 

 well. The sun set in great beauty over the Isle of Man. 

 The distant horizon was dimly hedged in by the purple 

 coast of Ireland, and on th? calm sea a largf fleet of 

 herring-boats with drooping sails shot their nets in the 



