useful in foreign countries by gentlemen of
the British Islands who go abroad to rough it. This was roughing it
with a vengeance! It would surely be rough work for me, an uncivilized
Californian, to travel in Iceland or any other country under such a
dreadful complication of conveniences.

When all these things were unpacked and scattered over the beds and
floors of the hotel, nothing could excel the enthusiasm of the whole
party--including myself, for I really had seen nothing in the course
of my travels half so amusing. As an old stager in the camping
business, I was repeatedly appealed to for advice and assistance,
which of course I gave with the natural politeness belonging to all
Californians, suggesting many additions. Warming-pans for the sheets,
pads of eider-down to wear on the saddles, and bathing-tubs to sit in
after a hard ride, would, I thought, be an improvement; but as such
things were difficult to be had in Reykjavik, the hope of obtaining
them was abandoned after some consideration. "In fact," said they, "we
are merely roughing it, and, by Jove, a fellow must put up with some
inconveniences in a country like this!"

[Illustration: ENGLISH PARTY AT REYKJAVIK.]

To carry all these burdens, which, when tied up in packs, occupied an
extra room, required exactly eighteen horses, inclusive of the riders,
and to bargain for eighteen horses was no small job. The last I saw of
the Englishmen they were standing in the street surrounded by a
large portion of the population of Reykjavik, who had every possible
variety of horses to sell--horses shaggy and horses shaved, horses
small and horses smaller, into the mouths of which the sagacious
travelers were intently peering in search of teeth--occasionally
punching the poor creatures on the ribs, probing their backs, pulling
them up by the legs, or tickling them under the tail to ascertain if
they kicked.

At the appointed hour, 6 A.M., Zoega was ready at the door of the
hotel with his shaggy cavalcade, which surely was the most
extraordinary spectacle I had ever witnessed. The horned horses of
Africa would have been commonplace objects in comparison with these
remarkable animals destined to carry me to the Geysers of Iceland.
Each one of them looked at me through a stack of mane containing hair
enough to have stuffed half a dozen chairs; and as for their tails,
they hung about the poor creatures like huge bunches of wool. Some of
them were piebald and had whit