254 
REYKHOLT. 
unite with the cold stream below: there, being 
carried along by the velocity of the current, they 
form a line of heated water, the extent of which 
may readily be distinguished by the little clouds 
of steam which are continually issuing from it 
and floating upon its surface. Neglecting other 
springs of less importance, which, as we jour¬ 
neyed on, were here and there sending up their 
columns of vapor on each side of us, we hastened 
forward to the Snorralang , Snorro Sturleson’s 
hath at Reykholt. This is one of the most in¬ 
teresting places in the country; not merely on 
account of its numerous hot .springs, and of the 
superior fertility of its soil over that of most other 
parts of the island, but also from its having been 
formerly the residence of the great historian of 
the North from whom the bath derives its 
appellation. It was here that, in the early part 
* There is a short account of this celebrated man in 
Mallet’s “ Introduction a I'Histoire de Dannemarc, fyc.” and, 
perhaps, I cannot do better than extract a portion of what is 
there said concerning him, in the words of his translator, 
from the second volume of the Northern . Antiquities , pages 
22 and 23. “ The famous Snorro Sturleson was born in the 
“ year 1179, of one of the most illustrious families in his 
“ country, where he twice held the dignity of first magis- 
e( trate, having been the supreme judge of Iceland in the 
“ years 1215 and 1222. He was also employed in many im~ 
<! portant negociations with the Kings of Norway, who in- 
“ cessantly strove to subdue that island, as being the refuge 
3 
