284 
REIKEVIG. 
Hogs are, unfortunately, not to be met with, 
the country furnishing no food for their support. 
The dark nights which immediately preceded 
our departure from Iceland gave me an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the Aurora Borealis in a de¬ 
gree of perfection unknown to the inhabitants of 
milder climates, though, according to the report 
of the natives, it was even then very much in¬ 
ferior to what it appears in the still darker and 
longer evenings of winter. I do not at all recollect 
observing the light occupying any of the northern 
hemisphere, but various parts of the east, west, and 
south were frequently illuminated. Its color was of 
a paler yellow than what I had been accustomed 
to see either in England or the north of Scotland, 
and its figure most variable; sometimes extend¬ 
ing in one narrow line apparently half-way across 
the heavens; then rapidly expanding in width and 
contracting in length, altering in form and bril¬ 
liancy every moment. Sometimes, too, these 
meteors are confined to one single spot, while at 
other times they are seen in many different parts 
at once, but shifting their situations every instant. 
Upon this subject, Povelsen and Olafsen, whose 
opportunities of making remarks were so greatly 
superior to mine, at the same time that they con¬ 
firm my observation, how extremely variable the 
Aurora Borealis is in Iceland, in its form and 
