proceed to that place, and was accompanied by a young man, whose conversation proved in the highest degree interesting and agreeable. He had never been at any school, yet he had read the whole of the Greek Testament, several books of the Iliad, and a number of the Latin classics. We had also a robust female in our train, to assist us in case any of the horses should sink in the snow. The heidi was short, but exceedingly steep, and being almost entirely covered with snow, in which were large and deep rents, we had considerable difficulty in crossing it.

On our arrival at the first house in the parish of Sand, we were informed that there was no worship at the church; and as I found the clergyman's house much out of my way, I pursued my course to the southern shore of the Dyrafiord. It gave me pleasure, however, to be informed that the minister, though blind with age, is not destitute of spiritual sight, but a lover of divine truth, and a serious and exem-plary character.

Crossing the east end of Sandfell, a small insulated mountain, abounding with zeolite, chalcedony, and jasper, I arrived about noon, at the mercantile establishment of Thingeyri, which is very agreeably situated on the east side of a low point of land that juts out into the bay, and defends the harbour against the western surge. The bay is so narrow at this place that a person may call across it; yet it runs up to such a distance among the mountains, that it would require a whole day to ride round it. The houses belonging to the factory are in good condition; and a fine green park immediately behind them, adds greatly to the beauty of the place, and is finely contrasted with the gloom of the adjacent mountains. I was here invited to take up my lodgings with Mr Steenbach, a native of Norway, and factor for Mr Henkel of Copenhagen, from whom I met with every possible attention, and in whose house I found a large collection of choice books, the greater part of which were on subjects of natural history.

The following morning I crossed the Dyrafiord, and landing at the farm of Gimlafell, I obtained a guide to conduct

me over the mountains to the next bay. The heidi or mountain road was the easiest of any I had passed in Iceland, and introduced me in the course of three hours into the extensive and beautiful plains of Onundarfiord, consisting in some places of a fine alluvial soil, but abounding chiefly in marshes, which produce an uncommon quantity of hay. The mountains on either side of the bay present one of the most romantic and irregular scenes imaginable. They are every now and then transversed by deep vallies, which give the most of them an insulated and pyramidal form; and their strata, forty or fifty in number, are piled one above another in the most perfect order. Similar geologic appearances pervade the whole of the north-western peninsula, though not in the same grand and interesting style as in the neighbourhood of this bay. The name of Vestfiordar, or the Western Friths, is very appropriately given to this part of the island, for it consists entirely of bays, separated from - each other by ridges of bold projecting mountains, and re-sembles nothing more exactly than the shape of the human hand. *

After passing some dangerous morasses, I arrived at the parsonage of Hollt, reckoned one of the best livings in the west of Iceland, where I met with the most polite and cordial reception from Sira Thorvaldr Bödvarson, and was immediately introduced into his study, which I found well stocked with books in different departments of science. On the table lay the Vicar of Wakefield, together with a Danish and English Lexicon; a proof that my host was pursuing the study of the English language. He is a learned man, and a good poet, but excels in sacred poetry; many beautiful specimens of which are in the hands of his countrymen. He has translated a number of Gellert's poems, and several

* In conversation one day with a Dutch Captain, who had long frequented the western friths, he presented me in a moment with a chart of them, by laying his hand flat on the table, and traced the navigation from the Faxaford round his thumb into the Breidafiord, then past his foremost finger into Tálkneford, &c. till he had got round the principal bays.

of Pope's. The Messiah, in particular, is well executed, an autographical copy of which I have in my possession.

My object in penetrating into the Syssel of Isafiord was to pay a visit to the Dean, and make the necessary arrangements with him for the distribution of the Scriptures; but on my arrival at Hollt, I was disappointed to find, that, owing to the immense quantity of snow with which the mountains to the north of the Önundarfiord were covered, it was absolutely impossible to cross them, though now about the middle of June. The only means, therefore, in my power of making provision for supplying the inhabitants of these distant regions, was to settle the business with the Sysselman who lives at Hiardarhollt, at a short distance to the west of Hollt. I accordingly rode on to that place in the afternoon, accompanied by Sira Thorvaldr, and was happy to find the Sysselman, Mr Ebenezer Thorsteinson, enter cordially into the plan, and willing to do his utmost to promote its execution. We were hospitably entertained at his house, and returned in the evening to Hollt.

The inhabitants of this part of Iceland being almost entirely excluded from intercourse with foreigners, retain perhaps more of the original Scandinavian customs than those of the other parts. They are not only more tenacious of the traditions which have been delivered to them by their ancestors, but they apply themselves with greater diligence to the transcription of the written or printed sagas, the greater part of which many of them have learned by heart, and they are almost all capable of expatiating on the excellence or turpitude of the leading actions in the story. What particularly struck me, was the long patriarchal beard which distinguishes the Önundarfirdingar; and I am certain that if I had fallen in with them in any part of the continent of Europe, and it had not been for the fairness of their hair, I should have taken them for Polish Jews.

Close behind Hiardardal I was surprised to find a pretty extensive tract of lava, as it has been asserted that no such substance existed in the vicinity of the western friths, It appears to be very ancient; exhibits both the porous and