ecary, and the daughters of some merchants
resident here.

Our road lay through fields of lava, swamps, and very poor grassy
patches, in a great valley, swelling here and there into gentle
acclivities, and shut in on three sides by several rows of mountains,
towering upwards in the most diversified shapes. In the far distance
rose several jokuls or glaciers, seeming to look proudly down upon the
mountains, as though they asked, "Why would ye draw men's eyes upon you,
where we glisten in our silver sheen?" In the season of the year at
which I beheld them, the glaciers were still very beautiful; not only
their summits, but their entire surface, as far as visible, being covered
with snow. The fourth side of the valley through which we travelled was
washed by the ocean, which melted as it were into the horizon in
immeasurable distance. The coast was dotted with small bays, having the
appearance of so many lakes.

As the road was good, we could generally ride forward at a brisk pace.
Occasionally, however, we met with small tracts on which the Icelandic
horse could exercise its sagacity and address. My horse was careful and
free from vice; it carried me securely over masses of stone and chasms in
the rocks, but I cannot describe the suffering its trot caused me. It is
said that riding is most beneficial to those who suffer from
liver-complaints. This may be the case; but I should suppose that any
one who rode upon an Icelandic horse, with an Icelandic side-saddle,
every day for the space of four weeks, would find, at the expiration of
that time, her liver shaken to a pulp, and no part of it remaining.

All the rest of the party had good English saddles, mine alone was of
Icelandic origin. It consisted of a chair, with a board for the back.
The rider was obliged to sit crooked upon the horse, and it was
impossible to keep a firm seat. With much difficulty I trotted after the
others, for my horse would not be induced to break into a gallop.

At length, after a ride of an hour and a half, we reached a valley. In
the midst of a tolerably green meadow I descried what was, for Iceland, a
farm of considerable dimensions, and not far from this farm was a very
small lake. I did not dare to ask if this was the _great_ lake Vatne, or
if this was the delicious prospect I had been promised, for my question
would have been taken for irony. I could not refrain from wonder when
Herr von H--- began praising the landscape as ex