REYKHOLT. 
259 
is another place that was erected in former times 
for persons afflicted with various diseases, but 
now serves merely for drying the clothes of a 
neighboring peasant. It is a small turf build¬ 
ing erected over a subterraneous boiling stream, 
which is covered with so thin a stratum of stone 
that the dry heat arising from it is very consider¬ 
able, and soon throws into a most profuse per¬ 
spiration any person who will be at the trouble 
of creeping into this confined room, as I did, 
upon their hands and knees, through a narrow 
and low passage, about five or six yards long. 
. The closeness of the place, the heat, and the 
smell of the clothes, soon induced me to retreat, 
and having now seen what was most worthy of 
attention in the valley of smoke we turned 
Travels , where it is said the natives of Finland have small 
houses built on purpose for the bath, and that they remain 
in the vapors for half an hour or an hour in the same cham¬ 
ber,, heated to the 70th or 75th degree of Celsius. 
* One would suppose that the quantity of steam must be 
greater than it really is for it to produce an effect which is 
mentioned in the Voyage en Islande. “ La fumee et les va- 
(S peurs continuelles qui s’elevent dans fair, occasionnent 
beaucoup de pluies dans le pays: il en tombe me me fre- 
tc quemment dans les plus beaux temps de soleil, mais elles 
“ ne durent guhres, parcequ’elles ne viennent que ri’un 
“ nuage qui s’est 61eve avec precipitation j il se peut nean- 
fc moins que la chflte d’une pareille vapeur de nuages, ne 
“ provienne que de la teghrete de Fair.” Tom. i. p. 237. 
