246 



ENTOMOLOGY OF ICELAND: NOTES UPON A VISIT 



IN 1889. 



By the Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D., F.L.S., &c. 

 (Continued from p. 225.) 



On July 23rd I visited the " Phlegrsei campi " after breakfast. 

 Here may be seen three or four solfataras at intervals of about 

 200 yards, and a rocky cauldron of ever-seething, slopping, 

 bubbling and boiling grey mud, resembling lead paint. There 

 are more solfataras on the other side of the hill. This mud 

 cauldron is said to be thirty feet deep ; and it is a characteristic 

 of all the hot and steaming pools in this formation, here and 

 elsewhere, to be of great depth, often ninety feet and upwards. 

 There are, likewise, rounded beds of sulphur, mud, and ferruginous 

 deposit, which will not bear the weight of anyone attempting to 

 traverse their heated crust. The rivulets from the hot pools 

 wend their way through deep banks down the valley, leaving 

 oxide of iron on the stones in the bed of the stream and on their 

 margin in their course. My friends started in advance of me about 

 noon to ride as quickly as might be on their return journey to 

 Reykjavik, guided by the farmer who had escorted us on the 

 preceding evening as far as Hafnafiord. I followed them a little 

 after 2 o'clock, but a perfect storm of wind and rain set in, and 

 continued all day, accompanied by hail on the top of the hills, 

 where wind ensued of such force as to cause us to swerve on our 

 ponies. We took the near but very steep road on the hill, with a 

 slope of loose lava, like a colossal ash-pit, of 100 feet or upwards 

 on our left and 50 feet on our right, and after a deep descent 

 passed by a volcanic lake on our left. This route brought us 

 back into the homeward road by a somewhat shorter cut. During 

 this expedition I gathered some leaves of an alpine plant, the 

 Rubus cham<Bmorus, or cloudberry, which I had not seen for many 

 a long 3'ear. Thoroughly wet through, chilled, and shivering we 

 reached Hafnafiord late in the evening; and, after remaining 

 some time there to rest and take refreshment, arrived at Reykjavik 

 after midnight. 



Early on the morning of July 29th we anchored off 

 Patreksljordur (lat. 65° 35', N., long". 23° 57', W.), on the west 

 coast of Iceland. This is a very neat little place, but consisting 

 only of a few scattered houses along the shore, and immediately 

 at the base of steep and lofty hills, whose slides of lava- shale 

 extend almost to the beach. After landing here I spent an hour 

 or so in collecting Coleoptera, of which I found several under 

 stones in a field adjoining the beach. 



On resuming our voyage the same morning, at 11 o'clock, we 

 pass table-shaped hills, of which the upper portion consists of 



