viii CONTENTS 



Henry Seebohm gives me work — ^Visit to Western America 

 — Cramming at "James's" — Join the Seaforth Highlanders 

 — Colonel Cumberland — ^Visit to the Pamirs prohibited — 

 Oame Birds and Shooting Sketches a success — Leave the 

 Army and go to South Africa — ^Variety the spice of life — 

 The profits of scientific literature. 



CHAPTER III 



TRAVELS IN ICELAND, 1889 50 



The Dock Strike — Captain Brown — ^A curious voyage — 

 Reach Iceland — Voyage roimd the North coast — 

 Thorgrimmer Gudmansen — Emigrants — Fine scenery — 

 A foreign " sportsman " — Reeich Akuyreri — ^Bird life — 

 Iceland ponies — ^Their endiirance — Start for Myvatn — 

 Godafoss — The Whimbrel — The big trout of the Skalfandi 

 Laxa — A plague of flies — ^Wonderful fishing — The Harle- 

 quin Duck — Abundance of ducks — Reach Myvatn. 



CHAPTER IV 



TRAVELS IN ICELAND, 1889 70 



The Icelanders — A well-educated people — Early history — 

 Now deserting the island for America — Love of the 

 ancient sagas — Difficulties with the owners of the farm — 

 Tent life — Flies attack the ponies — An ornithologist's 

 paradise — Predatory habits of Skuas — Falcon and Sea- 

 Eagle — ^Wild Reindeer — ^Two fine bucks seen — Dettifoss 

 the magnificent — Children eating flies — Teimeness of the 

 Red-necked Phalarope — ^The ponies nm away — ^The dan- 

 gers of river-crossing — ^The Fiskivatn — Fine sport — Kill 

 a ten-pounder on the fly — Stalk two Wild Swans — The 

 caves of Kalmanstunga — Get amongst quicksands — A bad 

 crossing — Shoot two Black-Tailed Godwits — The Sorg and 

 its fish — ^A fine basket of char — Snowy Owl himting fish 

 by day — ^Travel in Iceland — Leave for the Faroes — ^The 

 Faroese and their mode of fife — Herr Muller — ^No roads — 

 The national dance — Return to Scotland. 



CHAPTER V 



ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN .... 104 



My father and his tastes — ^His love of music and bright 

 people — Gladstone — Ignorance of Natxire amongst poets — 

 Kipling an exception — Theodore Roosevelt — His early 

 life and ambitions — His wonderful memory — ^First meeting 

 with Roosevelt — As a naturaHst — Sometimes dogmatic — 

 His versatility — ^Efforts to raise a Volimteer Corps in the 

 Great War — President Wilson's inconsistency — An un- 

 lucky thirteen dinner — Psychic Force — Visit to a medium — 



