RETURN FROM THE GEYSERS. 
of which he had no idea till he had drunk it, had 
such an effect upon him, that he did not seem to 
need a horse to carry him faster, and he con¬ 
tinued running for more than an hour without 
once stopping; except, indeed, when he was so 
unlucky as to strike his foot against a stone, and 
fall, in consequence of it, among the rocks. This 
circumstance frequently happened, and at every 
time he looked back and laughed, as if sensible 
of the cause of his stumbling; always telling us 
he was not hurt, and proceeding immediately 
with his accustomed speed. He several times 
forded rivers whose waters reached as high as his 
waist, and tried, by wading in different parts of 
the stream, to find the shallowest and least rocky 
places, where we might pass with the greatest 
ease. When we were crossing a morass, he went 
before us with a long pole and pointed out the 
unsound spots, which, however, without this pre¬ 
caution, the sagacity of Icelandic horses is almost 
sure of being able to discover; for, if they per¬ 
ceive, by a difference in the vegetation, a part 
which appears insecure to tread upon, they im¬ 
mediately put their noses to the ground, and, as 
if by the faculty of smell, seem to be sensible of 
the propriety or impropriety of proceeding. This 
instinct, indeed, is not peculiar to the horses of 
this country, for the shelties of Scotland appear 
