SURTURBRAND. 
195 
by the challenge of an intruder, the sleepy monster 
seemed suddenly to bestir itself, and then pouring out 
volumes of sulphureous breath, set out with many an 
angry snort in pursuit of the rash troubler of its 
solitude. At least, such I am sure might have been the 
notion of the poor peasant inhabitants of two or three 
cottages I saw scattered here and there along the loch, 
as—startled from their sleep, they listened to the 
stertorous breathing of the long snake-like ships, and 
watched them glide past with magic motion along the 
glassy surface of the water. Of course the novelty and 
excitement of all we had been witnessing had put sleep 
and bedtime quite out of our thoughts : but it was 
already six o’clock in the morning; it would requiie 
a considerable time to get out of the fiord, and in a 
few hours after we should be within the Arctic circle, 
so that if we were to have any sleep at all—now was 
the time. Acting on these considerations, we all three 
turned in; and for the next half-dozen hours I lay 
dreaming of a great funeral among barren mountains, 
where white bears in peers’ robes were the pall-bearers, 
and a sea-dragon chief-mourner. When we came on 
deck again, the northern extremity of Iceland lay 
o 2 
