INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
Mr. Wright, an amiable young man who accom¬ 
panied Sir John Stanley in his voyage to that 
country. This offer was succeeded by the present 
of a considerable collection of Icelandic minerals, 
and a scarce and curious work, entitled Ihjm- 
begla , sive Rudimentum Computi Ecclesiastici 
Veterum Islandorum. 
No apology, I trust, is necessary for pre¬ 
facing my journal with a slight and very cursory 
sketch of Icelandic history, or with the details 
that follow, explanatory of the various offices as 
well civil as ecclesiastical. An introduction com¬ 
prising these and hints on a few other most re¬ 
markable objects in the island appeared to me to 
be necessary, not only for the proper understanding 
of much of my narrative, but to prevent this vo¬ 
lume from being to such a degree incomplete as 
would have rendered it almost useless. 
Iceland, one of the most considerable of the 
European islands, is situated in the northern part 
of the Atlantic ocean, between the 63rd and 68th 
degrees of north latitude, and the 10th and 12th 
degrees of longitude west of Greenwich, and is 
estimated to extend about two hundred and sixty 
British miles in length from the western cape 
to the most eastern, and about two hundred in 
breadth from north to south. 
