49 



earth watching those sturdy, fleet little horses scamper over the 



course. 



Akreyri 



As the clouds lifted in the late afternoon of the 12th we found 

 we were close to the north coast, which here shows plainly its 

 volcanic origin as the mountains were craters or half craters of 

 considerable height and regularity, every basin and flank touched 

 with patches of snow ; and it was surprising how level the layers 

 of rock or lava deposits were, seldom tipped or broken though 

 worn by weather into cathedral columns, or when painted by the 



Fig. 2. Bell Sound, Spitzbergen ; in foreground Saxi/raga, oppoAtifolia, Dryas 

 octopetala and Cassiope tetragona. 



rosy rays of a low evening sun, turned into veritable Valhallas, 

 fit abodes for northern heroes. We wound far up a beautiful 

 fiord to a whaling station and saw four dead monsters, and met 

 another being towed in by a little tug hardly bigger than the 

 whale. The settlement of Akreyri, which is called the second 

 largest town of Iceland, is situated at the end of a long fiord and 

 surrounded by high hills, which here have retreated a short dis- 



