“The farmer does not want them, but there is one folded up under your bed. If I can get it the Governor will have it set up in the hall and sleep there.”
So saying, he took away the bed and we were soon asleep and did not awaken till the Governor sent word to us at ten in the morning that he would like our company at breakfast. The farmer’s wife prepared a special breakfast, cooking a young lamb. The good wife brought our her best dishes and loaded the table with her choicest food, for even in Iceland, it is not every morning that the Governor takes breakfast with the peasants.
The farmer at Kalmungstúnga, in former days, was accused by English writers of overcharging travellers. In comparison with other Icelandic rates it must be stated that there is still some truth in the assertion. However, he is enterprising, has built a fine large house with many arrangements for comfort and all his supplies have to be transported from the coast on the backs of the ponies. These things are expensive. If the traveller enjoys unusual comfort here or elsewhere in Iceland it is no more than common justness that he should pay unusual prices for his accommodation. On this farm there has recently been constructed a reinforced concrete stable, spacious enough for housing 500 sheep besides numerous horses and cows. The Governor pointed out to me the signs of prosperity while we were saddling the ponies and stated that more of the farmers might do as well if they had the enterprise. I might say with reference to our own bill at this farm that it was moderate but this is possibly due to the fact that I had been of some assistance in treating one of his favorite ponies that had a bad saddle gall on the shoulder.
It was one in the afternoon when we parted with the Governor to meet him some days later in his beautiful home in Reykjavik. We then rode down the green slope, and through the birch copse to the river, which we found easily fordable, though it has a bad reputation. Looking up from the hayfield, with its harvest in the full gathering, with men and women busy, the ice-crowned pyramids stand,—
“Like giants clad in armor blue,
With helmets of a silver hue.”
This view is of great interest and beauty and I gazed longingly to the peaks that enclose Thórisdalr, Thief’s-Dale, and desired to climb those ridges of tumbled moraine and examine that great wall of eternal ice that hangs above. The lack of sufficient time made it impossible. This pleasure was experienced in 1913 when I came into Kaldidalr, Cold-Valley from the opposite direction, having pitched my camp at Brunnar, Springs, for several days. This view from Kalmungstúnga leaves no doubt in the mind of the traveller that he is in the land of ice; but when he turns towards the west, passes into the green valley of the Hvitá and comes into close proximity with the numerous hot springs scattered over the plains and along the banks of the river a more temperate climate is suggested.
Having crossed the Geitlandsá, Goat-River, we followed it down to the Barnafoss, Child-Falls, so named because of the drowning of some children at this place by accident. Some guide books call these falls the Geitlandsáfoss, Goat-River-Falls. In ancient times, when places were named in Iceland there must have been many goats in various portions of the country for we came across the name in various places; thus there are several “goat” mountains, “goat” gullies, “goat” rivers, etc. Personally I have seen one flock of goats only in the entire range of my travels and that was near Ljósavatn. The explanation is that they will not stand the wet climate as well as the sheep. When the cold driving rains sweep down the mountain slopes the goats run to shelter while the sheep will continue their feeding.
At these falls the water, in a series of three strong leaps, drops over one hundred feet into the canyon. The rock formation at this point is of interest to the geologist, for there is a large mass of metamorphosed obsidian. It is the only rock formation of this character that I have ever witnessed, either in position or as samples in a collection of minerals and rocks in science museums. An examination of this formation leads to the following conclusion. In an early eruption a large mass of obsidian was formed at this place. During a more recent lava flow the heat of the adjacent flowing rock rendered this mass of obsidian plastic; this caused it to stick to the passing lava stream, like molten glass, and it was thus pulled, twisted and stretched into its present shape.