In the afternoon we anchored in the open waters off Húsavik and rowed ashore for a few enjoyable hours while the Botnia was taking on board bundles of wool and bales of fish. Húsavik, House-by-the-Creek, is the place where the first known house in Iceland was built. Here it was that Gardar, the Swede, who first circumnavigated Iceland in 864, spent the winter. The village is a thriving trading station, the outlet for large quantities of wool and fish, skins and feathers collected here from a wide region. Pack trains arrive daily in the summer from the interior and the ponies, laden with big sacks, present a pretty picture as they wind down the mountain side into the village. The departure of the pack train is even more picturesque, as the ponies are buried under bundles of every conceivable shape; provisions, mostly rye, sugar and coffee, farming tools, furniture and lumber, the latter fastened by one end to the saddle while the other end drags on the ground. The Icelandic farmer is a past master in the art of loading a pony. In former days large quantities of refined sulfur from the Mývatn region were taken to this port on the backs of the ponies. There remain thousands of tons of good sulfur for the coming of capital and energy backed with business acumen.
Near Húsavik on the shore of Skálfandi Bay, Trembling, there is a geological formation unique in Iceland. It is a small area of old Pliocene crag, containing fossil shells, mostly the Venus Icelandica, embedded in clay, sand and marl. Some of the shells are filled with calcarious crystals. [8]The Pliocene is the most recent portion of the Tertiary Age, geologically speaking, and in a country so completely volcanic as is Iceland, this corner is of great interest to geologists as it helps to fix the age of the basalts relatively. This Pliocene section is practically the only section found in the country, though mention has been made above of a Tertiary tree fossil which I found in Faskrudsfjörðr. There is some lignite in this deposit and a thorough examination of the marls will yield further data for an interesting discussion. Lignite has been found in a few other portions of the country. On the slender strength of this evidence, during the summer of 1910 two Englishmen who presented engraved cards as civil and mining engineers, coal experts and a few other specialties, traversed a large portion of Iceland looking for a coal deposit. I met them on three different occasions and they were still looking for coal. There is no better country in the world in which to “look” for coal than Iceland for one may transmit this pastime to his children with no fear that his offspring will ever lack an occupation. The fierce volcanic fires that have raged in the bowels of this country and seared and blistered its surface would have effectually destroyed this substance had it ever existed. One might as well search for tinsel in a furnace as for coal in Iceland.
We visited the new church to examine the fine old altar piece, painted on wood over three hundred years ago. It is in an excellent state of preservation and the people are justly proud of this relic. Beside the road in front of the church there is an alms box on a post. Beside it hangs the key on a nail. There is a request in English, German, French and Icelandic for contributions for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those who have lost their lives at sea. We wondered if an alms box with its key in a similar position would be a profitable arrangement for charity in America or in any other country of Europe. This is another evidence of the honesty and integrity of the native.
There came on board the Botnia at Húsavik three gentlemen with whom I was to associate a good deal during the coming year on the Matador, Walter Friedeberg, F. R. G. S., of Berlin, Baron Axel Klinckowström and his son Harald of Stockholm, Sweden. They were bound for Mývatn to collect birds for the Museums of Berlin and Upsala. The Baron proved to be a rare entertainer, he speaks several languages with fluency, he is a man of profound learning, a scientist with several volumes in Swedish and German to the credit of his versatile pen. He has travelled from Spitzbergen to the Antarctic, associated with some of the best known explorers and scientists. He had many an anecdote with which to entertain the company.
Late in the evening we steamed across the bay towards Akureyri, Corn-Land. At midnight we passed close to the coast beyond Flatey, Flat-Island, and the atmosphere was so clear that we had perfect views of the old craters along the shore. There are four of them and their rims coincide. The half of the craters next to the ocean has been blown out so that they present the appearance of four huge clam shells standing on edge with the concave sides towards the observer. The interiors are scorched and blistered and give a suggestion of the fierce fires that once raged within these walls. We passed up the Eyjaförðr, Island-Fiord, the longest and finest of the many fiords in Iceland, and at five in the morning, long ere the town awoke, we tied up to the little wharf in Akureyri. Our sea journey was at an end. Our guide and ponies having arrived from Reykjavik the night before, we left the comfortable steamer without regret to spend a month with the ponies, to explore new regions, to enjoy the meadows, moors and mountains of a marvellous land.
CHAPTER XIII
MÝVATN
“The lands are there sun-gilded at the hour
When other lands are silvered by the moon,—