VII.] THE GEYSIRS. 75 



that by the time we were on the spot, although the tent 

 was not eighty yards distant, all was over. As after every 

 effort of the fountain the water in the basin mysteriously 

 ebbs back into the funnel, this performance, though unsatis- 

 factory in itself, gave us an opportunity of approaching the 

 mouth of the pipe, and looking down into its scalded gullet. 

 In an hour afterwards, the basin was brimful as ever. 



Tethered down by our curiosity to a particular spot for 

 an indefinite period, we had to while away the hours as best 

 we could. We played chess, collected specimens, photo- 

 graphed the encampment, the guides, the ponies, and one or 

 two astonished natives. Every now and then we went out 

 shooting over the neighbouring flats, and once I ventured 

 on a longer expedition among the mountains to our left. 

 The views I got were beautiful, — ridge rising beyond ridge 

 in eternal silence, like gigantic ocean waves, whose tumult 

 has been suddenly frozen into stone ; — but the dread of the 

 Geysir going oft' during my absence made me almost too 

 fidgety to enjoy them. The weather luckily remained beau- 

 tiful, with the exception of one little spell of rain, which 

 came to make us all the more grateful for the sunshine, — 

 and we fed like princes. Independently of the game, duck, 

 plover, ptarmigan, and bittern, with which our own guns 

 supplied us, a young lamb was always in the larder, — not to 

 mention reindeer tongues, skier, — a kind of sour curds, 

 excellent when well made, — milk, cheese whose taste and 

 nature baffles description, biscuit and bread, sent us as a 

 free gift by the lady of a neighbouring farm. In fact, so 

 noble is Icelandic hospitality, that I really believe there was 

 nothing within fifty miles round we might not have obtained 

 for the asking, had we desired it. As for Fitz, he became 

 quite the enfant gate of a neighbouring family. 



Having unluckily caught cold, instead of sleeping in the 

 tent, he determined to seek shelter under a solid roof-tree, 

 and, conducted by our guide Olaf, set off on his pony at 

 bed-time in search of a habitation. The next morning he 

 reappeared' so unusually radiant that I could not help in- 



