36 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
No tree or bush relieves the dreariness of the land¬ 
scape, and the mountains are too distant to serve as a 
background to the buildings; but before the door of 
each merchant’s house facing the sea, there flies a gay 
little pennon; and as you walk along the silent streets, 
whose dust no carriage-wheel has ever desecrated, the 
rows of flower-pots that peep out of the windows, 
between curtains of white muslin, at once convince you 
that notwithstanding their unpretending appearance, 
within each dwelling reign the elegance and comfort of 
a woman-tended home. 
Thanks to Sigurdr’s popularity among his country¬ 
men, by the second day after our arrival we found 
ourselves no longer in a strange land. With a frank 
energetic cordiality that quite took one by surprise, 
the gentlemen of the place at once welcomed us 
to their firesides, and made us feel that we could 
give them no greater pleasure than by claiming their 
hospitality. As, however, it is necessary, if we are to 
reach Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen this summer, that 
our stay in Iceland should not be prolonged above 
a certain date, I determined at once to make prepara¬ 
tions for our expedition to the Geysirs and the interior 
