A TRIP ABOUND ICELAND 



83 



The Kalfstinder Mountains. 



hay ricks and outlying folds are embraced, and curiously the floor of 

 the enclosure around the houses is raised with turf, so that the whole 

 resembles a low diminutive fortification. It seems probable that this 

 is clone to give stability to the " living unit," and enable it to with- 

 stand the mountain streams which surge around it in the spring 

 freshets, when the mountain snows melt and to them is added the 

 burden of deluging rains. 



When we left this ideally placed homestead, in full view of the 

 remote jokulls, of Heckla, of the Lagarvatn and its boiling caldrons, 

 we followed the trend of the mountains, descending also to the plain 

 below, crossing streams and zig-zagging over misleading trails. Gradu- 

 ally an intervening range on the horizon shut off Heckla, all but its 

 steely cap, and over a soggy morass — the footing in such places is 

 perilous from buried quicksands — we passed around a low mountain 

 and found ourselves on the inclined plain of the Geyser basin, the 

 steaming water holes emitting white plumes of condensed vapor over 

 its verdureless tract. Long before we reached this expectant point 

 where the object of our long journey revealed itself, we crossed one of 



