uilt of
stone. It was originally intended for a prison; but as criminals are
rarely to be met with in Iceland, the building was many years ago
transformed into the residence of the royal officer. A second stone
building, discernible from Reikjavik, is situated at Langarnes, half a
mile from the town. It lies near the sea, in the midst of meadows, and
is the residence of the bishop.

The church is capable of holding only at the most from 100 to 150
persons; it is built of stone, with a wooden roof. In the chambers of
this roof the library, consisting of several thousand volumes, is
deposited. The church contains a treasure which many a larger and
costlier edifice might envy,--a baptismal font by Thorwaldsen, whose
parents were of Icelandic extraction. The great sculptor himself was
born in Denmark, and probably wished, by this present, to do honour to
the birth-place of his ancestors.

To some of the houses in Reikjavik pieces of garden are attached. These
gardens are small plots of ground where, with great trouble and expense,
salad, spinach, parsley, potatoes, and a few varieties of edible roots,
are cultivated. The beds are separated from each other by strips of turf
a foot broad, seldom boasting even a few field-flowers.

The inhabitants of Iceland are generally of middle stature, and strongly
built, with light hair, frequently inclining to red, and blue eyes. The
men are for the most part ugly; the women are better favoured, and among
the girls I noticed some very sweet faces. To attain the age of seventy
or eighty years is here considered an extraordinary circumstance. {29}
The peasants have many children, and yet few; many are born, but few
survive the first year. The mothers do not nurse them, and rear them on
very bad food. Those who get over the first year look healthy enough;
but they have strangely red cheeks, almost as though they had an
eruption. Whether this appearance is to be ascribed to the sharp air, to
which the delicate skin is not yet accustomed, or to the food, I know
not.

In some places on the coast, when the violent storms prevent the poor
fishermen for whole weeks from launching their boats, they live almost
entirely on dried fishes' heads. {30} The fishes themselves have been
salted down and sold, partly to pay the fishermen's taxes, and partly to
liquidate debts for the necessaries of the past season, among which
brandy and snuff unfortunately play far too prominent a part.