10 



ICELAND. 



when I rode along the same coast and saw it steeped in 

 the brightest sunshine, and when these same weird-like 

 hills stood out clear and purple against a sky as trans- 

 parent as any Italian one. 



Nowhere is the traveller . more dependent on weather 

 than in Iceland. Having to live in wooden churches 

 or tents without fire, the existence of sunshine or rain 

 makes all possible difference to his comfort. The 

 climate generally deals in extremes, and if not over- 

 whelmed with ruthless rain, you are baked in sun- 

 shine. 



We had one day's experience of the true orthodox rain 

 of the country, and I should never care again to be ex- 

 posed to it. Cold sleety rain and wind, which pierced 

 even to one's very marrow, was not the best discipline 

 for a preserved meat dinner innocent of fire, and a 

 bivouac under dripping canvass. But when the sun poured 

 forth in splendour over the splintered rocks and wonder- 

 fully coloured hills, lighting up the icy summits of the 

 Jokulls with a golden haze, and pencilling the clouds with 

 the most delicate tints of beauty, and filling the green 

 valleys with light and colour, and the air with that elas- 

 ticity and joy known to every traveller in Switzerland, 

 then the rain and the wind were forgotten in the all- 

 pervading pleasure of existence. 



It is to its volcanos that Iceland owes its chief and 

 mos* characteristic feature. In no part of the world is 

 Buch dire destruction or such terrible evidence of thii 

 fearful agency seen. 



