6.30 P.M.—Little farm, Eystrasel (in map, Mý-vatnssel), 1 hour 30 min. from Reykjahlíð; swamp to east, and stream to west. Line marked by tall Varðas, alternate layers of turf and sticks.
Up and down the Námaskarð (col of the wells), dividing Dalfjall, the northern, from Námafjall, the southern range. Pass through the heart of the solfatara.
At west end of pass sighted the Mý-vatn.
⊙ VI. 8.30 P.M.—Arrived at Reykjahlíð, our destination.
Second stage from river, 6 hours 15 min. = 17 to 18 direct geographical miles, riding fast and slow. Total of day’s work, 7 hours 30 min. = 20 miles.
Dull, grey morning; threatens glare and warmth. Wind from north-west; showers on hills. Dust clouds on plain, showing excess of electricity; signs of heat, not of rain. Sunny afternoon; gloomy evening.
CHAPTER XIV.
THREE DAYS AT THE SOLFATARA OF MÝ-VATN.
I cannot accuse myself of failing to do traveller’s duty at Mý-vatn: although the weather became raw and rainy, not an hour was wasted. The first step was to climb the nearest height and form a general notion of Midge-water, which must not be derived à micturitione Diaboli. It is said to be forty miles in circumference—you might as well measure round a spider—and the “gorgeous green isles” look like lumps of mud in a horsepond; their only use is to grow angelica; but we saw them under a dull grey sky, like an inverted pewter-pot. The mean of many observations gave for the aneroid 29·12, and the thermometer 54°: if this be correct, Midge Lake must be nearer 900 than 1500 feet above sea-level. Travellers tell you that the fair dimensions were curtailed by the great eruption of Leirhnúkr and Krafla (1724-30); that the lava is not yet thoroughly cooled; and that consequently the surface is never wholly frozen. But the Krafla, as we shall see, can never have flowed here, and there are old craters and hornitos, volcanoes in miniature, all about the edge: the whole becomes a solid sheet of ice, except where sulphur and other minerals send forth springs more or less tepid; moreover we found a depth of only 27 feet. The bottom is black and muddy; the water along shore is shallow and weedy, sedgy and spumy, whitening the coast and the island edges; it is glorious breeding-ground for the blood-drawing “chief inhabitants of the district.” Gnat terrors are emphatically noticed, and one traveller assures us that the people wear a visored cassinet of black cloth to guard head and neck. They are compared with those feræ naturæ, the midges of Maine; “No-see-ums,” the “Indians” call them. We brought
