404 RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 



And hence the thick haze in which it is enveloped. Curi- 

 ously enough, however, this period, during which the wild 

 Scot had to contend with the still wilder wanderers of Scan- 

 dinavia in fierce combats that he was too little skilful to re- 

 cord, and which appears so obscure and remote to his de- 

 scendants, presents a phase comparatively near, and an out- 

 line proportionally sharp and well-defined, to the intelligent 

 peasantry of Iceland. Their Barbours and Blind Harries 

 came a few ages sooner than ours, and the fog, in consequence, 

 rose earlier; and so, while Scotch antiquaries of no mean 

 standing can say almost nothing about the expedition or death- 

 bed of Haco, even the humbler Icelanders, taught from their 

 Sagas in the long winter nights, can tell how, harassed by 

 anxiety and fatigue, the monarch sickened, and recovered, 

 and sickened again ; and how, dying in the bishop's palace, 

 his body was interred for a winter in the Cathedral, and then 

 borne in spring to the burying-place of his ancestors in Nor- 

 way. The only clear vista on the death of Haco which now 

 exists is that presented by an Icelandic chronicler; to which, 

 as it seems so little known even in Orkney that the burying- 

 place of the monarch is still occasionally sought for in the 

 Cathedral, I must introduce the reader. I quote from an ex- 

 tract containing the account of Haco's expedition against Scot- 

 land, which was " translated from the original Icelandic by 

 the Rev. James Johnstone, chaplain to his Britannic Ma- 

 jesty's Envoy Extraordinary at the court of Denmark," and 

 appeared in the "Edinburgh Magazine" for 1787. 



" King Haco," says the chronicler, " now in the seven and 

 fortieth year of his reign, had spent the summer in watch- 

 fulness and anxiety. Being often called to deliberate with 

 his captains, he had enjoyed little rest; and when he arrived 

 at Kirkwall, he was confined to his bed by his disorder. Hav- 

 ing lain for some nights, the illness abated, and he was on foot 

 for three days. On the first day he walked about in his apart- 



