ENTOMOLOGY OF ICELAND. 275 



Vopnafjord (lat. 65° 42' N., long. 14° 50' W.). August 6th. 

 We passed Langanes, the N.E. point of Iceland, shortly before 

 breakfast this morning. The east coast here consists of a low- 

 rocky cliff, almost as uniform as a wall for a considerable distance 

 in point of elevation, and trends rapidly to the southward after 

 passing the aforesaid headland, so that we are now steaming 

 along at a distance from the shore. The adjacent hills in the 

 rear are grassy slopes, far lower on the northern than on the 

 southern side, where the heights are terminated by rocky crags, 

 on which cloud-wreaths are resting, and some patches of snow 

 still remain. 



Seydisfjord (lat. 68° 17' N., long. 13° 58' W.). August 7th. 

 Seydisfjord is a marvel of natural beauty. I went ashore shortly 

 after 6 a.m. An amphitheatre of hills (and this is a highly 

 appropriate term, for there are successive rocky terraces between 

 the grassy slopes), surrounds the calm blue waters of the fjord, 

 which closely resembles a placid azure lake in the bosom of the 

 mountains. On the adjacent sunlit slopes both cattle and ponies 

 are grazing. The whole place reminds me of what I have 

 experienced in Switzerland, plus the disagreeable adjunct to 

 every Icelandic fjord, — the bones and insides of fish steam every- 

 where, — not that this is so great and noticeable a disfigurement 

 here as in several of the fjords that we have previously visited. 

 Several slender waterfalls leap down the ravine, as though their 

 threads of silver were all eager to reach the sunny verdant grass 

 and glancing water below, and to escape from their native cradles, 

 the long extinct craters on the summit of the hills, with their 

 sides lined with patches and beds of snow. These colossal 

 basins of ebony, with rims of white which the sun only touches 

 sufficiently to make their gloom and desolation evident, seem to 

 frown on the fair pastoral scene beneath, and to say, " Make the 

 most of your three months' summer, before the mountains are 

 once more concealed beneath a snowy mantle, and the fjord enclosed 

 and shut up with chains of ice beneath the winter's gloom." 

 Calliphora settled on two heads of catfish rotting in the sun ; Sar- 

 cophaga mortvoriim and Carabi, three Phryganias, one Geometra, 

 two Calliphora caught ; Crambi also noticed. Flowers : Erio- 

 phorus campanula, Parnassia palustris, two species of gentian. 



Eskefjord (lat. 65° 5' N., long. 14° 1' W.). August 7th. 

 The coast scenery near the mouth of Seydisfjord, and also when 

 we reach the open sea once more, crag and cliff and watercourse 

 and crater, with deep indentations and winding valleys, continue 

 very bold and fine. I obtained here Sarcophaga mortuorum and 

 Calliphora, two of Geometra, two of Coleoptera, Bombus terrestris, 

 white variety of gentian, yellow-flowering Andromeda, on the 

 neighbouring slopes close by the waterfall. 



(To be coucluded.) 



