34 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



proceed. The frost, too, was lying upon the ground, and 

 the cold extremely severe. We were covered with ice 

 in such a manner that our clothes resembled buckram. 

 On reaching the summit of the first peak, we here and 

 there remarked places where the snow had been melted, 

 and a little heat was arising from them ; and it was by 

 one of these that we rested to observe the barometer, 

 which was 24.838. Thermometer 27. The water we 

 had with us was all frozen. Dr. Lind filled his wind 

 machine with warm water ; it rose to i.6, and then 

 froze into spiculae, so that we could not make observations 

 any longer. We thought we had arrived at the highest 

 peak ; but soon saw one above us, to which we hastened. 

 Dr. Solander remained with an Icelander in the inter- 

 mediate valley ; the rest of us continued our route to the 

 summit of the peak, which we found intensely cold ; 

 but on the highest point was a spot of three yards in 

 breadth, whence there proceeded so much heat and 

 steam that we could not bear to sit down upon it." 1 



The journey, homeward, was taken leisurely. The party 

 wandered some time among the Highlands and Islands 

 of Scotland, and paid many visits. It was not until 

 November 19 that Banks left Edinburgh for London, 

 accompanied by Dr. Solander and Dr. Lind. 



A party of " Esquimaux Indians " was in London in 

 1772-3. Banks, of course, went to meet them ; the 

 rather that he had missed seeing any when he was in 

 Labrador. The usual enthusiasm of Londoners for a 



1 MS. Journal, quoted in W. J. Hooker, II, 116. It is very much to 

 be regretted that Banks's Journal of this time is missing, or lost. When 

 von Troil published Resa till Island [Upsala, 1777. Transl. by j. R. 

 Forster as Letters on Iceland : London, 1780] it was found not to be an 

 itinerary, but a series of letters or essays, describing the country and 

 some of the incidents of travel, but with scarce a date or locality 

 mentioned. There is a noticeable lack of allusion to Mr. Banks. One 

 welcome memorial of this trip, in Miller's drawings of plants, together 

 with coloured developments of his sketches by Thomas Burgis (1776), is 

 preserved in the Natural History Museum. 



