A Visit to Lonely Iceland 



739 



The Town of Seydisfjord, at the Head of the Fjord of the Same Name 



ACRES OF BURNING SULPHUR BEDS 



The north of Iceland is not nearly so 

 often visited by tourists as the southern 

 portion, and yet, to me, it was far more 

 interesting than the more traveled south. 

 Two days to the east of Akureyri lies an 

 immense tract of devasted territory, to 

 which has been given the singularly ap- 

 propriate name "The fire focus of the 

 north." The activity of this region is 

 now undoubtedly past, but the mind 

 could not picture a scene of greater deso- 

 lation and waste, while acres of burning 

 sulphur beds, with small geysers and 

 boihng mud cauldrons, still exist in evi- 

 dence of the dying fires beneath. Here 

 we employed three days in visiting the 

 extinct volcanoes and other points of 

 interest in the neighborhood, proceeding 

 north to Husavik, on the coast, and thence 

 eastward again to the Jokulsa, a large 

 river fed from the Vatna Jokull in the 

 south. 



The Jokulsa, in its course to the Arctic 

 Ocean, has cut a deep and picturesque 

 canyon, through which pours a volume of 

 water in amount second only to that of 

 the Thjorsa. Near the banks of this 

 stream in the north is situated the fa- 

 mous V-shaped valley of Asbyrgi, sup- 

 posed to have been caused by the sub- 

 sidence of the roofs of two subterranean 

 lava channels at and near their confluence. 



Before going northward to Rifstangi, 

 the most northerly point of Iceland, just 

 over the Arctic Circle, we visited the 

 Dettifoss, a tremendous cataract of the 

 Jokulsa, and a group of craters and 

 masses of igneous rock, to which has 

 been given the unpronounceable appella- 

 tion of the Hljothaklettar. 



It was on our way to Rifstangi that 

 chance took us to the church-farm of 

 Prestholar. Here we met the minister of 

 the district, Mr Halldor Bjarnarson, 

 whom I have mentioned before, and his 



