Xxviil BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
giving an account of himself and company. He looks as well as 
ever. 
Captain Cook desires his best compliments to you; he expressed 
himself in the most friendly manner towards you that could be ; he 
said, “ Nothing could have added to the satisfaction he has had in 
making this tour, but having had your company.” He has some 
birds in spr. v. [spirits of wine] for you, etc. etc. 
Thus baulked of their design, Banks and Solander set out 
on a scientific expedition to Iceland in a vessel specially 
chartered for them at a cost of £100 a month. They sailed 
on the 12th July 1772, and on the way Banks carried 
out an intention he had formed to visit Staffa, to which he 
was the first to draw the attention of scientific men, sending 
a complete description, with drawings and measurements, 
to Thomas Pennant, who inserted it in his Your to the 
Highlands of Scotland. They spent a month in Iceland, 
exploring Mount Hecla, the geysers, and other remarkable 
features of the island. Banks made copious observations, 
which Dr. Troil, one of the party, and afterwards Arch- 
bishop of Upsala, included in his interesting account of the 
island, without, however, according to Barrow, doing full 
justice to the exertions of Banks and his companions, whom 
he dismisses with a too vague and general eulogium. Banks 
also afterwards placed his MS. journal at the disposal of 
Sir William Hooker, whom he had advised to visit the 
island for scientific purposes, and who made copious use of 
it, with due acknowledgment, in his Tour in Iceland. 
Banks always continued to take a keen interest in the 
Icelanders, and his humanity “ was of signal service to these 
poor creatures ; for when, some years afterwards, they were 
in a state of famine, the benevolence and powerful interest 
of this kind-hearted man brought about the adoption of 
measures which absolutely saved the inhabitants from star- 
vation. We were at war with Denmark, and had captured 
the Danish ships, and no provisions could be received into 
Iceland. Clausen, a merchant, was sent to England to 
implore the granting of licences for ships to enter the island, 
and through the active intervention of Sir Joseph, who, as 
