ANDERSON : THE VOLCANOES OF ICELAND. 
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holding probably 400 people, and the parliament-house, a building 
of very moderate dimensions, yet accommodating a free library on 
the ground-floor, the Parliament Chamber on the first floor, and the 
National Museum in the attics. The Latin school, and one or two 
Elementary schools complete the sum of the public buildings, except 
the gaol, which has twelve cells, generally empty. 
In the more remote parts, such as the Skaptadair, many articles 
of bone and stone are still in use, which, in more accessible districts, 
have been replaced by metal or earthenware. The inhabitants still 
use a wheelbarrow with a stone wheel, a steelyard with a stone 
weight, a hammer with a stone head, and a net with bone sinkers. 
At the same farm a quern, or stone hand mill, was in use, also horn 
stirrups, and harness fastenings of bone instead of metal buckles, to 
say nothing of bone pins and rude bone dice. At a neighbouring 
farm was a basin formed of the cap joint of a basalt pillar. Truly 
we still have a survival of the Stone Age. Less remote than this is 
the meeting place of the County Council of the district, consisting of 
a spacious cave in the lava. It would be difficult to find anything 
more appropriate to such a primitive land. 
The roads, such as they are, are merely bridle tracks. Where 
they traverse stony moors and lava streams, they are mended by 
taking off the largest stones, leaving the smaller to be trodden down ; 
where they cross bogs they are occasionally carried on artificial 
embankments. Bridges are almost unknown. In the few cases 
where new roads have been made, they have evidently been laid out 
by unskilled persons, and the work has often been begun in the 
middle ; then, before the road has been finished, the plan has been 
changed, and the whole abandoned. I saw several large pieces of 
road out in the wilds leading nowhere, and which will never be used. 
It is only fair to say, however, that near Reykjavik there is about 
twenty miles of new road beautifully engineered by men who have 
recently returned from learning road-making in Norway. Even in 
these roads, however, there are gaps left unmade at intervals. This, 
I was told (let us hope falsely), is to prevent people spoiling them by 
using wheeled carriages or carts on them. 
The numerous hot springs constitute one of the chief wonders 
