66 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VII. 



marching order, with the materials for dinner. The weather 

 still remained unclouded, and each mile we advanced dis- 

 closed some new wonder in the unearthly landscape. A 

 three hours' ride brought us to the Rabna Gja, the eastern 

 boundary of Thingvalla, and, winding up its rugged face, 

 we took our last look over the lovely plain beneath us, and 

 then manfully set forward across the same kind of arid lava 

 plateau . as that which we had already traversed before 

 arriving at the Almanna Gja. But instead of the boundless 

 immensity which had then so much disheartened us, the 

 present prospect was terminated by a range of quaint parti- 

 coloured hills, which rose before us in such fantastic shapes 

 that I could not take my eyes off them. I do not know 

 whether it was the strong coffee or the invigorating air that 

 stimulated my imagination ; but I certainly felt convinced 

 I was coming to some mystical spot — out of space, out of 

 time — where I should suddenly light upon a green-scaled 

 griffin, or golden-haired princess, or other bonne fortune of 

 the olden days. Certainly a more appropriate scene for such 

 an encounter could not be conceived, than that which dis- 

 played itself, when we wheeled at last round the flank of 

 the scorched ridge we had been approaching. A perfectly 

 smooth grassy plain, about a league square, and shaped like 

 a horse-shoe, opened before us, encompassed by bare cinder- 

 like hills, that rose round — red, black, and yellow — in a 

 hundred uncouth peaks of ash and slag. Not a vestige of 

 vegetation relieved the aridity of their vitrified sides, while 

 the verdant carpet at their feet only made the fire-moulded 

 circle seem more weird and impassable. Had I had a 

 trumpet and a lance, I should have blown a blast of defiance 

 on the one, and having shaken the other toward the four 

 corners of the world, would have calmly waited to see what 

 next might betide. Three arrows shot bravely forward would 

 have probably resulted in the discovery of a trap-door with 

 an iron ring; but having neither trumpet, lance, nor arrow, 

 we simply alighted and lunched : yet even then I could not 

 help thinking how lucky it was that, not eating dates, we 



