ICELAND 59 



German, and my sister won his heart by conversing 

 with him in his own language, so we soon got some- 

 thing to eat. Before this, however, all the great 

 people in the place had called on us, and Mary held 

 a sort of levee in her bedroom, which kept over- 

 flowing into our wretched little band-boxes. The 

 pastor, Mr. Jacomsen, was a charming man, and 

 after breakfast took us to see what he called the 

 most remarkable sight in Akureyri, which turned 

 out to be simply a mountain-ash tree about as large 

 as a gooseberry bush ! We had many talks with 

 this gentleman, who was a very clever man, and 

 had translated Shakespeare into Icelandic, as well 

 as producing many poems in his own tongue. He 

 had also been a great traveller, and we were amused 

 to find that in London the " hill of Highgate and 

 the Alhambra Theatre " seemed to have left the 

 most lasting impression on his mind. 



After some difficulty with a harmless lunatic 

 who called himself a guide and wanted to accompany 

 us, Geoff and I hired two ponies and went for a 

 ride up the beautiful valley that stretches away to 

 the south. The scenery here was the best that we 

 saw in Iceland, to some extent recalling the charms 

 of Switzerland. Bird life was scarce, but we saw 

 two Ravens, and beautiful little Snow Buntings 

 sunning themselves on the rocks. Near the village 

 were the usual White Wagtails and Red-necked 

 Phalaropes. During the next two days we made 

 short expeditions along the Eyja Fjord, and saw 

 only flocks of Eiders and two pairs of Great Northern 

 Divers. We found the Iceland ponies all we had 

 heard of them, when once we had acquired the 

 Icelanders' mode of riding and a few of his choicest 



