1846] JOURNAL— ICELAND. 133 



side of the bay near the fishery, and obtained many plants. I then 

 returned to the town, nearly all the way by the sea shore. 



July 1. After spending all the morning in arranging my plants, 



I started at 3 p.m. to walk to the Lava near Hafnar-Fiord ; it is 

 nearly seven miles along an uninteresting but rather good road ; 

 returning the same way. The Lava is wonderfully rugged and 

 cavernous. Found Woodsia. It rained hard all night and until 

 about 9 a.m., then was cloudy all day. All the former days of our 

 stay here were very fine, and mostly clear. 



July 2. Spent most of the morning in the examination of a 

 collection of Icelandic birds, most of which were purchased, on the 

 joint account of Astley and Tom Gisborne, of Mr. Mliller, an 

 apothecary. Also saw an Iceland falcon alive, and a black fox. 

 In the afternoon I went to examine the district to the west of the 

 town. Found some sea shore plants, and a few shells. At about 

 a mile west of the town there is a fresh pond, in which I found 

 Hippuris, Eanunculus aquatilis, and a small yellow-flowered Eanun- 

 culus with three-parted leaves, which I do not know. Late in the 

 evening we went to take tea with M. Hoppe, the Stiftamtmann, and 

 met some of the French and Danish officers. Small cakes, rye-bread 

 with cheese, and enormous radishes. At Mr. Miiller's, there were 

 in pots in the house, a poor run pink carnation, a scarlet Chinese 

 rose, mignionette, and a small fuschia. The people were planting 

 out turnips in their little plots of garden ground, and potatoes were 

 coming up in some places. I saw no other vegetables growing 

 except mustard and cress, unless Archangelica is to be called one. 

 The Urtica wens has now spread into most parts of the town, from 

 the one garden mentioned by Hooker, A large Dock is very frequent 

 in and about the town. 



July 3. Sailed at 9.30 for Hvals-Fiord, with a fair wind. At 

 about half-way up we turned into a small harbour, called "Maria 

 Havn," where we anchored, and I went towards the lofty mountains 

 at the head of the bay, but in passing a broad morass, I found so 

 many Carices, etc., that it was too late to think of fording the river 

 and ascending the mountains, upon which there is snow in large 

 patches and fields. The little bay is surrounded by lofty hills, and 

 is a most beautiful place. But few fish were obtained ; but at 



II p.m. Astley and Tom Gisborne set off in a boat to shoot Eider- 

 ducks, of which there were thousands upon thousands ; they 

 remained out till near 1 a.m. on the 4th, and brought back eleven 

 ducks. It is now as light as day during the whole night. Sailed 

 again this morning for the head of the Fiord, with very light winds. 

 At the head of Maria Havn there is a series of rapids almost 

 amounting to a waterfall. At about 1 p.m. we came to an anchor at 

 Austur-Hvammsvik, near the head of the Fiord. Almost immediately 

 we landed, and I proceeded to examine a very precipitous mountain 

 of trap-rock, called Eeynivalla-hals, upon which I found very many 



