ON THE BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY OF ICELAND. 229 
endurable to cereals. A number of local names, beginning 
with Reynir the sorb apple (Sorbus edulis), proves that groves 
of the wild fruit tree, whose pomaceous berries, rich in malic 
acid, were munched by the outlaw, once flourished where 
there is now not a trace of them. Yet again, volcanic 
agencies in Iceland have undergone great alteration during 
the lapse of a century. ‘Two instances of this fact may 
suffice: (1) Hveravellir, spoken of by Olassen and Povelsen 
as the most wondrous sight in Iceland, with its roaring 
mountain of steam, is now reduced to a dozen caldrons of 
boiling water. (2) The geysir which Henderson saw in the 
crater of Krafla plays no longer, and its place is occupied by 
a still, green pool of cold water. 
To revert to the Coleoptera, the old Danish book also 
speaks of “Carabus (vulgaris) niger, capite et elytris nigris 
thorace rubro” (Linnei Carabus melanocephalus). I take 
this to be the same as my own “Calathus melanocephalus,” 
recorded from such widely distant localities as Reykjavik, 
Flatey Island, Patreksfjord, and Saudarkrok. I note that 
Staudinger mentions a Calathus nubigena, and in Paijkull’s 
Appendix, too, Carabus melanocephalus occurs. Also in 
the Danish book, Staphylinus pubescens major, Linnei 
maxillosus, is known in Staudinger’s list as Staphylinus 
maxillosus, and in that of Paijkull as well, in my own as 
Creophilus maxillosus, which I took at Akureyri as well as at 
Reykjavik. As no localities are given by the compiler of 
Paijkull’s list, I cannot tell how far Gliemann had travelled, 
or in what particular districts he captured insects, but am 
inclined to think that he did not, any more than Staudinger, 
survey the coast line as I have done. To explain the 
apparent contradiction that may suggest itself to some of the 
readers of the Entomologist, where a fjord on the N. coast is 
spoken of as being lower in point of latitude than one on 
the western shore, I may state that some on the N. coast and 
Akureyri (Ofjord in Danish) in particular, are far distant from 
the open sea, Akureyri being 30 miles away. ‘To such an 
extent do these fjords penetrate the land, and this distance 
of 30 miles in the case of Akureyri is in its turn succeeded 
by 30 miles more of valley, so that a branch of the sea may 
have run up far further at a remote period. The short space 
of time allowed at each fjord, and in many places the steep- 
ness, not to say perpendicularity, of the cliffs necessitated 
my collecting at only a few hundred yards’ distance from the 
shore. Only at Akureyri and Saudarkrok did I ascend a 
watercourse to the moor above. At Eskefjord, I possibly 
