32 VISIT TO ICELAND 



his language, and Wolley is studying his task, which is a 

 Saga and seems to be written intentionally for beginners, 

 as it opens, " There was a man and his name was Grim." 

 The pronunciation is the most difficult thing I ever heard, 

 it beats Finnish into fits, and the spelling seems to be no 

 guide to it. I want to know a few words as up the 

 country there will be no one who can speak Danish. We 

 have a disagreeable wet day, but altogether the weather 

 is better than I expected it would be, though we have 

 had a Greenland gale with snow, hard frosts several 

 nights, and ice to bear a stone. A good-sized lake, close 

 to the house and the town, has been twice frozen since 

 we have been here. Round its shores I have seen Red- 

 shanks, Ringed Plover and White Wagtail. Wheatears 

 are seen among the buildings of the town, and close by 

 among the small enclosures of stone walls are Snow Bunt- 

 ings and Golden Plover. Ptarmigan are not found near ; 

 there is supposed to be a man now gone in search of some 

 for us, but I cannot help thinking he is staying at home. 

 Every Icelandic (as distinguished from Danish) house 

 has attached to it a building for drying fish, and hanging 

 at the door of each is generally to be seen a bundle of 

 roughly prepared skins of Gulls, mostly Kittiwakes ; but 

 I found in one lot a young and old Iceland or Glaucous 

 Gull, I could not make out which, as I had no means 

 of ascertaining the size. I have done nothing yet about 

 getting ponies, in fact there is not much use in doing so 

 until one wants to go somewhere, as there would only be 

 the trouble of having to look after them in the town, and 

 fodder is not only dear but hardly to be got. Henderson, 

 one of the Scotchmen I before mentioned, has bought 

 about 18, however, which he takes back with him ; they 

 are all in the most miserable condition, but with hair so 

 long they look like bears. 



Kirkjuvogr, near Cape Reykjanes, 

 S.W. of Iceland, 



May 28, 1858. 



Here we are at one of the nearest places to the 

 Great Auk Islands, and here we have been for a week. 



