LAVA AND MOSSES 35 



but others are peaked and jagged in the most fantastic 

 way you can imagine ; anyhow, each stream seemed as 

 we came to it to be worse to pass than the last. The 

 road sometimes goes over the stuff, at others winding in 

 and out, up and down, in fissures and faults of it, where 

 generally is collected a foot or two of soft dry sand, 

 which does not render it a less " hard road to travel." A 

 good deal of the lava is grown over with mosses, of which 

 there seems to be a great number of species ; one of the 

 commonest I never saw before, it is very soft and long, 

 dark green, but with a thick white down which gives it 

 the appearance of wool, and this covering so much of 

 the ground and rocks, when contrasted with the dark 

 lava on which it grows, makes the whole scene look more 

 like a good photograph with its lights and shadows well 

 brought out than anything else ; certainly a photograph 

 would be the only thing to give an idea of the look of 

 one of these places. Occasionally a little heather or 

 cranberry, and even birch (six inches high, not more) 

 grows amongst this desolation, and there may be heard 

 and seen the Redwing, singing " tut- tut-tut- tut " just as 

 he does in Lapland, but here being nearly the only song 

 bird it does not sound so monotonous. One sees, too, a 

 good many Snow Buntings, and they have a pretty song. 

 In fact, these with Raven, White Wagtail, Wheatear and 

 Titlark are the only passerine birds in Iceland. Ravens 

 are tamer even than the ones at home and far more 

 impudent. 



Further on on our march we came to a waterless dis- 

 trict, which did not improve the going of the horses (good 

 water is scarce all over the country, even here it is much 

 too salt to drink for pleasure ; perhaps it is why the 

 Icelanders prefer stronger liquors), but we finally arrived 

 at Keblavik, where we passed the night at a very respect- 

 able place, and stopped there the next day, the Doctor 

 having to visit some of his leprous patients, and we not 

 being in any hurry waited for him. At dinner we had 

 Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers, as we found after- 

 wards by asking to see their heads. 



