irely, and the ordinary atmosphere took its place. It was one of the
most beautiful appearances I had ever witnessed.

June 25th.

The roads separate about a mile behind the little town of Thingvalla; the
one to the left goes to Reikholt, the right-hand one leads to the Geyser.
We rode for some time along the shores of the lake, and found at the end
of the valley an awful chasm in the rock, similar to the one of
Almanagiau, which we had passed on such a wretched road.

The contiguous valley bore a great resemblance to that of Thingvalla; but
the third one was again fearful. Lava covered it, and was quite
overgrown with that whitish moss, which has a beautiful appearance when
it only covers a portion of the lava, and when black masses rise above
it, but which here presented a most monotonous aspect.

We also passed two grottoes which opened at our feet. At the entrance of
one stood a pillar of rock supporting an immense slab of lava, which
formed an awe-inspiring portal. I had unfortunately not known of the
existence of these caves, and was consequently unprepared to visit them.
Torches, at least, would have been requisite. But I subsequently heard
that they were not at all deep, and contained nothing of interest.

In the course of the day we passed through valleys such as I had seen
nowhere else in Iceland. Beautiful meadow-lawns, perfectly level,
covered the country for miles. These rich valleys were, of course,
tolerably well populated; we frequently passed three or four contiguous
cottages, and saw horses, cows, and sheep grazing on these fields in
considerable numbers.

The mountains which bounded these valleys on the left seemed to me very
remarkable; they were partly brown, black, or dark blue, like the others;
but the bulk of which they were composed I considered to be fine
loam-soil layers, if I may trust my imperfect mineralogical knowledge.
Some of these mountains were topped by large isolated lava rocks, real
giants; and it seemed inexplicable to me how they could stand on the soft
soil beneath.

In one of these valleys we passed a considerable lake, on and around
which rose circling clouds of steam proceeding from hot springs, but of
no great size. But after we had already travelled about twenty-five
miles, we came to the most remarkable object I had ever met with; this
was a river with a most peculiar bed.

This river-bed is bro