96 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



distance, and I at once saw that it was an old 

 Snowy Owl. Owls are not generally supposed to 

 catch fish as a part of their diet, and it was cer- 

 tainly most unusual to see this great snow-white 

 bird beating up and down the river in broad sun- 

 light. The flight of this owl resembled that of 

 the short-eared species which we may often see 

 hawking by day in our islands, and he kept moving 

 backwards and forwards for five or six minutes, 

 until he spied a char near the surface and descended 

 upon it with high-uplifted wings. Unlike the 

 great clumsy Sea-Eagle, he captured his prey with- 

 out a splash or fuss. He simply fell to the water, 

 and, hardly wetting his toes, picked the fish neatly 

 out of its natural element and sailed away to the 

 mountains to enjoy his dinner. 



After a day spent at Thingvella and its charming 

 lakes we finally set out for Reykavick, which we 

 reached after a most delightful ride totalling five 

 hundred miles. Iceland had not presented the 

 obstacles we had been led to anticipate would be 

 encountered in its wilder parts; indeed, beyond 

 the difficulty of crossing glacier rivers, there is no 

 reason why ladies should not accompany their 

 husbands and brothers as they do in Norway. 

 Iceland is now one of the few European countries 

 where the traveller can wander at will with his 

 tent, and live with a small additional cost on the 

 produce of his gun and rod amongst charming and 

 good-natured people. The trail of the serpent 

 made by the tourist's dollar has not yet contamin- 

 ated the peasantry as it has done in Norway, and 

 there is yet room for a few sportsmen in their 

 northern wilds. 



