THINGVALLA. 
87 
1. Are the two chasms called respectively Almanna 
Gja, 1 or Main Gja, and Hrafna Gja, or Raven’s Gja. 
In the act of disruption the sinking mass fell in, as 
it were, upon itself, so that one side of the Gja slopes 
a good deal hack as it ascends; the other side is per¬ 
fectly perpendicular, and at the spot I saw it upwards 
of one hundred feet high. In the lapse of years the 
bottom of the Almanna Gja has become gradually 
filled up to an even surface, covered with the most 
beautiful turf, except where a river, leaping from the 
higher plateau over the precipice, has chosen it for a 
bed. You must not suppose, however, that the dis¬ 
ruption and land-slip of Thingvalla took place quite in 
the spick and span manner the section might lead you 
to imagine; in some places the rock has split asunder 
very unevenly, and the Hrafna Gja is altogether a very 
untidy rent, the sides having fallen in in many places, 
and almost filled up the ravine with ruins. On the 
other hand, in the Almanna Gja, you can easily 
distinguish on the one face marks and formations 
1 Almanna maybe translated main; it means literally all men’s; 
when applied to a road, it would mean the road along which all the 
world travel. 
