106 
MIDDALR. 
mon people in Iceland, I had heard much pre¬ 
viously to my coming to Middalr. I was even 
assured by the priest Egclosen, that instances 
were not wanting of people of his profession hav¬ 
ing been reduced in bad winters to such a state, 
for want of the necessaries of life, that they have 
been obliged to beg a scanty subsistence from 
house to house; till, through cold and weakness 
and hunger, they have perished miserably among 
the mountains. Their salaries are, usually, ex¬ 
ceedingly small: that of the priest of Middalr 
was only twenty rix-dollars a-year, of which he 
received four from the king. It is true he added 
some little to his income by exercising the trade 
of blacksmith, but the miserable maintenance 
which these two professions supplied him with 
may be easily conceived, when I mention, that 
I observed both him and two or three persons of 
his family eagerly picking up from the ground 
the heads and entrails of the fish, which Jacob, 
in preparing for cooking, had thrown away. 
After dinner, the priest brought down to my 
tent a present of a large quantity of the Lichen 
islandlcm (Fiallagros IsL). It is, perhaps, in no 
country found in such plenty, as in this from 
which it takes its name. The extensive desert 
tracts of Skaptar-fel Syssel produce this plant 
in the greatest abundance, and numerous parties 
from great distances migrate thither, with their 
horses, tents, and provisions, in the summer 
