VII. ] THE ALTHING. , 57 



except when Wilson's sob-like snores shook to their founda- 

 tion the canvas Avails that sheltered him. 



When I awoke — I do not know at what hour, for from this 

 time we kept no account of day or night — the white sunlight 

 was streaming into the tent, and the whole landscape was 

 gleaming and glowing in the beauty of one of the hottest 

 summer-days I ever remember. We breakfasted in our 

 shirt-sleeves, and I was forced to wrap my head in a white 

 handkerchief for fear of the sun. As we were all a little stiff 

 after our ride, I could not resist the temptation of spending 

 the day where we were, and examining more leisurely the 

 wonderful features of the neighbourhood. Independently 

 of its natural curiosities, Thingvalla was most interesting 

 to me on account of the historical associations connected 

 with it. Here, long ago, at a period when feudal despotism 

 was the only government known throughout Europe, free 

 parliaments used to sit in peace, and regulate the affairs of 

 the young Republic ; and to this hour the precincts of its 

 Commons House of Parliament are as distinct and unchanged 

 as on the day when the high-hearted fathers of the emigration 

 first consecrated them to the service of a free nation. By a 

 freak of nature, as the subsiding plain cracked and shivered 

 into twenty thousand fissures, an irregular oval area, of about 

 two hundred feet by fifty, was left almost entirely surrounded 

 by a crevice so deep and broad as to be utterly impassable; — 

 at one extremity alone a scanty causeway connected it with 

 the adjoining level, and allowed of access to its interior. 

 It is true, just at one point the encircling chasm grows so 

 narrow as to be within the possibility of a jump ; and an 

 ancient worthy, named Flosi, pursued by his enemies, did 

 actually take it at a fly ; but as leaping an inch short would 

 have entailed certain drowning in the bright green waters 

 that sleep forty feet below, you can conceive there was never 

 much danger of this entrance becoming a thoroughfare. I 

 confess that for one moment, while contemplating the scene 

 of Flosi's exploit, I felt, — like a true Briton, — an idiotic desire 

 to be able to say that I had done the same ; — that I sur- 



