114 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
ment small-pox destroyed more than 16,000 persons; 
nearly 10,000 more perished by a famine consequent 
on a succession of inclement seasons; while from 
time to time the southern coasts were considerably 
depopulated by the incursions of English and even 
Algerine pirates. 
The rest of our day’s journey lay through a country 
less interesting than the district we had traversed before 
luncheon. For the most part we kept on along the 
foot of the hills, stopping now and then for a drink 
of milk at the occasional farms perched upon their slopes. 
Sometimes turning up a green and even bushy glen, 
(there are no trees in Iceland, the nearest approach to 
anything of the kind being a low dwarf birch, hardly 
worthy of being called a shrub,) we would cut across 
the shoulder of some projecting spur, and obtain 
a wider prospect of the level land upon our right; 
or else keeping more down in the flat, we had to 
flounder for half an hour up to the horses’ shoulders in 
an Irish bog. After about five hours of this work we 
reached the banks of a broad and rather singular river, 
called the Bruara. Half-way across it was perfectly 
fordable; but exactly in the middle was a deep cleft, 
