CXXX1X 
danger to those who visit them alone, as I did. After walking for 
some hours over such ground as I have endeavoured to describe, 
my map and compass had brought me within sight of a broad high 
column of steam rising over some low hills. About me was coarse 
grass on a reddish clay, and I was about to take a step forward, when, 
hearing a bubbling noise, I looked down, and where my next footfall 
should have been was a small circular hole in which the sulphur was 
boiling, rising from time to time to the surface level. Making for the 
hillside I sson looked down ufon a mud basin about twenty feet 
acruss, covered with a steam cloud, and from which came a con- 
fused noise of boiling and splashing. When the steam lifted at times I 
could see the boiling mud rising some six or eight feet into the air. 
From the lava rock close underlying the white clay and sulphur deposit 
came small sulphur jets over a considerable area about the central pool. 
The greatest care is necessary in choosing ground, for in many places 
a man’s weight would break through the thin layer of clay or sulphur 
crust. An attempt is being made by a Scotch company to work 
this large surface deposit of sulphur, but the cost of transit has 
hitherto hindered the success of the adventure. 
It will seem strange that even the hardy Norwegian Viking of the 
ninth century should have sought a home in such a land, but it is 
certain that in his day the climate was much milder than now. Their 
Sagas, covering the first four centuries of colonisation, mention both 
trees and graincrops. At the present day the mean temperature is in 
the south 47°, in the north 33°, but during the summer, though the 
latitude of the north is 3° higher, the temperature is about equal. 
This is said to be owing to a branch of the gulf-stream'washing Iceland, 
with which the rain clouds cross, brought by the prevailing southerly 
winds. These rain clouds, as they pass over Iceland, meet a falling 
temperature, and discharge their moisture before they reach the 
north, so leaving it the larger share of summer sunshine, and enabling 
its inhabitants to raise the earliest and heaviest hay crops. 
I have left myself no time to speak of the remarkable people who for 
one thousand years have kept up a hard constant struggle with 
difficulties such as no other race has had to encounter. They have 
dore more. Separated from other men, unhelped by the appliances of 
mcdern civilisation, they have in intellectual development kept abreast 
of, and in some respects surpassed, the most civilised European nations, 
Their national hymn, set to the same tune as ours, is characteristic of 
the people, and shows to how great an extent love of country is 
independent of any beauty or advantage in th2 country itself. Thus 
the first verse runs, and with it I conclude this discursive paper :— 
Most ancient Iceland, 
Best loved fatherland, 
Fair mountain queen ! 
Whilst the sea girdles land ; 
While men ask maiden’s hand; 
Sungleams on hillsides stand ; 
Thou art our Queen. 
2. The Split Mosses, Bog Mosses, and Earth Mosses of Tasmania, by Mr. 
R. A. Bastow. The paper was a continuation of a series of Papers on 
Tasmanian Mosses that Mr. Bastow is engaged on. 
3. Descriptions of some Fossil Leaves from Mount Bischoff, by Mr. R. M. 
Johnston, F.L.S. The two new fossil leaf impressions described by 
Mr. Johnston belong to the genera Tawites and Eucalyptus. The 
former was discovered by Mr. Thureau at Mount Bischoff associated 
with clays and in drift deposits underlying the basalt sheet formerly 
~ referred to in connection with the Tertiary Leaf Beds at this place. 
The species has been named TZawites Thwreaut in honor of its 
