22 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VI. 



once welcomed us to their firesides, and made us feel that 

 we could give them no greater pleasure than by claiming 

 their hospitality. As, however, it is necessary, if we are to 

 reach Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen this summer, that our 

 stay in Iceland should not be prolonged above a certain date, 

 I determined at once to make preparations for our expedition 

 to the Geysirs and the interior of the country. Our plan 

 at present, after visiting the hot springs, is to return to 

 Reykjavik, and stretch right across the middle of the island 

 to the north coast — scarcely ever visited by strangers. 

 Thence we shall sail straight away to Jan Mayen. 



In pursuance of this arrangement, the first thing to do 

 was to buy some horses. Away, accordingly, we went in the 

 gig to the little pier leading up to the merchant's house who 

 had kindly promised Sigurdr to provide them. Everything 

 in the country that is not made of wood is made of lava. 

 The pier was constructed out of huge boulders of lava, the 

 shingle is lava, the sea-sand is pounded lava, the mud on the 

 roads is lava paste, the foundations of the houses are lava 

 blocks, and in dry weather you are blinded with lava 

 dust. Immediately upon landing I was presented to a fine, 

 burly gentleman, who, I was informed, could let me have a 

 steppe-ful of horses if I desired, and a few minutes afterwards 

 I picked myself up in the middle of a Latin oration on the 

 subject of the weather. Having suddenly lost my nomina- 

 tive case, I concluded abruptly with the figure syncope, and 

 a bow, to which my interlocutor politely replied " Ita." 

 Many of the inhabitants speak English, and one or two 

 French, but in default of either of these, your only chance 

 is Latin. At first I found great difficulty in brushing up 

 anything sufficiently conversational, more especially as it 

 was necessary to broaden out the vowels in the high Roman 

 fashion; but a little practice soon made me more fluent, and 

 I got at last to brandish my " Pergratum est," etc. in the 

 face of a new acquaintance, without any misgivings. On 

 this occasion I thought it more prudent to let Sigurdr make 

 the necessary arrangements for our journey, and in a few 



