ICELAND 75 



might shoot the ducks, but must pay him ten 

 kroners apiece for them. This was outrageous, and 

 I refused to pay such a sum. He went away in a 

 huff, but returned in half an hour saying that the 

 tariff of ducks at Myvatn was seven kroners apiece. 

 Seeing that I had received permission to shoot 

 from the old lady, I suggested that two kroners 

 was a good price for a wild duck, and that, unless 

 he consented to this tariff, I should go out and shoot 

 his mother's ducks at this price and leave his alone. 

 Again he departed, saying something angrily, of 

 which we took no notice, and again the diplomatic 

 Thorgrimmer brought him back just as I was 

 leaving camp with my gun. The market price of 

 wildfowl at Myvatn was now reduced to four 

 kroners a bird, but that was still a bit too high; 

 so, to save further argument, I told the old lady 

 that I was now going to shoot some of her one- 

 kroner ducks, at which she laughed immoderately 

 at her pettish boy. 



In the evening, as I was skinning a cock Pintail 

 and had three other duck lying close by, the finan- 

 cier came and had the impudence to ask for forty 

 kroners; but I refused to do any business with 

 him, either in this way or as to the dairy produce 

 that we had from his farm. After that our trans- 

 actions were conducted with the old lady. The real 

 trouble, we presently found out, was that in 

 Myvatn and elsewhere we were bent on establishing 

 a precedent — the precedent of living in our own 

 tents, contrary to the advice of Thorgrimmer, who 

 had again and again endeavoured to dissuade us. 

 All previous travellers in this part of Iceland had 

 made use of the farmhouses that dot the country, 



