THE ICELANDERS. 



Ill 



matchless natural wonders of the island has considerably increased. But trav- 

 elling in the island itself is still attended with considerable difficulties and no 

 trifling expense, to say nothing of the want of all comforts ; so that most of its 

 visitors are content with a trip to Thingvalla and the Geysir, which are but a 

 couple of days' journey from Reykjavik, and very few, like Mr. Holland, make 

 the entire circuit of the island, or, like Mr. Shepherd, plunge into the terra in- 

 cognita of its north-western peninsula. The only mode of travelling is on 

 horseback, as there are no roads, and therefore no carriages in Iceland. The 

 distances between the places are too great, the rivers are too furious, and the 

 bogs too extensive to allow of a walking tour being made. Even the tourist 

 with the most modest pretensions requires at least two riding horses for him- 

 self, two for his guide, and two packhorses ; and when a larger company travels, 

 it always forms a cavalcade of from twenty to thirty horses, tied head to tail, 

 the chief guide mounted on the first and leading the string, the other accelerat- 

 ing its motions by gesticulation, sundry oaths, and the timely application of 

 the whip. The way, or the path, lies either over beds of lava, so rugged that 

 the horses are allowed to pick their way, or over boggy ground, where it is 

 equally necessary to avoid those places into which the animals might sink up 

 to their belly, but which, when left to themselves, they ai-e remai'kably skillful 

 in detecting. With the solitary exception of a few planks thrown across the 

 Bruera, and a kind of swing bridge, or kldfr, contrived for passing the rapid 

 Jokulsa, there are no bridges over the rivers, so that the only way to get aci'oss 

 is to ride through them — a feat which, considering the usual velocity of their 

 current, is not seldom attended with considerable dangei*, as will be seen by the 

 following account of the crossing of the Skeidara by Mr. Holland. 



BKIDGE RIVEK, ICELAND. 



