guish the different
objects more plainly, the hillocks were transformed into human
habitations, with small doors and windows; and the groups of trees proved
to be huge lava masses, from ten to fifteen feet in height, entirely
overgrown with verdure and moss. Everything was new, was surprising; and
it was with pleasurable sensations of excitement and curiosity that
Madame Pfeiffer landed on the shores of Ultima Thule.

[Reikiavik: page135.jpg]

* * * * *

At Reikiavik she found the population inhabiting two very different
classes of habitations. The wooden houses of the well-to-do are of a
single story, she says, with five or six windows in front. A low flight
of steps conducts to an entrance in the centre of the building; and this
entrance opens into a vestibule, where two doors communicate with the
rooms on the right and left respectively. In the rear is the kitchen,
and beyond the courtyard. Such a house contains four or five rooms on
the ground-floor, and a few small chambers under the roof. The domestic
or household arrangements are entirely European. The furniture, much of
which is mahogany, comes from Copenhagen, which also supplies the mirrors
and cast-iron stoves. Handsome rugs are spread in front of the sofas;
neat curtains drop before the windows; English engravings ornament the
whitewashed walls; and china, silver, and cut-glass, and the like, are
displayed upon the cabinets or corner-tables.

But the poor live in huts which are decidedly much more Icelandic. They
are small and low; built of lava blocks, filled in with earth; and as the
whole is covered with turf, they might almost be mistaken for natural
elevations of the ground, if the wooden chimneys, and low doors, and
almost imperceptible windows, did not betray that they were tenanted by
human beings. A dark, narrow passage, not more than four feet high,
leads on one hand to the living-room, on the other to the store-room,
where the provisions are kept, and where, in winter, the cows and sheep
are stabled. The fireplace is generally at the end of this passage,
which is purposely built low to keep out the cold. Neither the walls nor
floors of these huts are boarded; the dwelling-rooms are scarcely large
enough for people to sleep in or turn round in; and the whole furniture
consists of the bedsteads (very poorly supplied with bedding), a small
table, and a few chests--the latter, as well as the beds, being used for
seats. To poles fasten