82 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



L&*' 



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m^— — ^— m 



A Little Oasis in a Lava Field. 



in contact with each other, three with wooden fronts, and one with 

 glass windows, the rest with doors entering dim vault-like chambers 

 between immensely thick walls of stone, interleaved with turf. Be- 

 hind the central wooden house, with the windows, was a high rick-like 

 roof composed of turf and green with grass surmounted by a small 

 square chimney, and this roof covered a crypt-like kitchen. This ex- 

 traordinary troglodytal abode was entered over a stone pavement which, 

 rising slightly, conducted the sightless visitor to the penetralia of 

 gloom and cooking. Inside of this semi-subterranean passage, forming 

 its walls, was a formidable structure of stone and turf. Turf and 

 stone houses for sheep and cows and horses were scattered about. The 

 walls of tbese buildings are five or six feet thick, and, once sealed in 

 them, it seems likely that the heat of the imprisoned animals would 

 maintain a very comfortable temperature, even in the dreadfully severe 

 winters. 



One peculiar feature of these farm colonies is the enclosure, like a 

 wall, which marks them. In the farm I visited, this wall at one point 

 was twelve feet thick. Within it the farm houses, a kitchen garden. 



