250 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



in future I shall omit no opportunity to cultivate. I con- 

 dole with you for the losses you have sustained, but 

 much more seriously with your friends, who must lose 

 the participation you had prepared for them in scenes 

 of natural wonder and delight. . . . 



" Some one must go next year to Iceland. ... I 

 had once a proposal for a cargo of Scotsmen with Sir 

 George Mackenzie, of Coul, at the head ; but I advised 

 them to wait for another season. 



" Recommend me to my friend Dawson Turner when 

 you see him. ..." 



Sir George Stewart Mackenzie, F.R.S., paid a visit to 

 Iceland in the following year. His mission was minera- 

 logical, but he contrived to gather a few plants to replace 

 Hooker's losses. He published a capital account of his 

 voyage, painstaking in every way ; one of those books 

 which can never get out of date. Sir George called upon 

 Olaf Stephensen, at his retirement in the isle Vidoe, near 

 Reikiavik. He describes his visit, and hospitable recep- 

 tion, and the costumes and the ways of the household, 

 with much vivacity and picturesqueness. Writing to 

 Banks (May 20, 1810) he says of Olaf that he is in very 

 good health for a man of his age. " He speaks of you 

 with rapture and remembers you with affection. He is 

 a delightful old man, and has been uncommonly polite 

 to me." Magnus Stephensen was not less zealous than his 

 father in welcoming the visitor. " We found every one 

 emulous in offering his services ; and I shall ever re- 

 member with gratitude the kind attention and hospitality 

 I experienced during my stay in Iceland, both from the 

 natives and from the Danes." 



Sir George Mackenzie did not relax his interest in 

 Iceland. We find him, in 1815, writing to Banks con- 

 cerning Rask's efforts to keep alive the study of the 

 ancient language ; and about, which in his eyes was of 



