JOURNEY TO THE GEYSERS. Qj 
priest Egclosen from a hole, into which he had 
fallen among the rocks, and where he had torn 
the skin more than half >way down his leg. This 
misfortune, which lamed the poor animal con¬ 
siderably, and which, to a native of any other 
country, who, like this man, was worth only one 
horse in the world, would have been a cause of un¬ 
easiness, if not of complaint, had no such effect 
on Egclosen: he did not repine at what had hap¬ 
pened, but went cheerfully on his way, with his 
limping and bleeding horse, only observing on 
the accident, that “ it could not be helped, the 
place was so bad.” I know not whether it arises 
from a peculiar resignation to the will and provi¬ 
dence of God, produced by real piety, or whether 
it is ascribable to the effect of climate, and to the 
poverty and distress which attend upon the whole 
life of the Icelanders, that they seem to feel less 
for the calamities of themselves or of whatever 
surrounds them, than is the case with the natives 
of other countries. When I was lamenting the 
number of lives, which, Egclosen assured me, were 
lost among the holes that are here everywhere 
met with, he stopped me by saying, u it is God’s 
will that it should be so.” On arriving at the op¬ 
posite side of the chasm, we found ourselves in 
a somewhat better track, but, as our friends from 
Heiderbag and Thingevalle were not thoroughly 
acquainted with this country, it was advised that 
H 
