let off as much as possible; and the ensnared fish, feeling
it grow shallower, dart hither and thither in frantic confusion, and
eventually gather together in such a mass that the fishermen have only to
thrust in their hands and seize their prey.

Yet _some_ degree of skill is necessary, for, as everybody knows, the
salmon is full of vivacity, and both strong and swift. So the fisher
takes his victim dexterously by head and tail, and throws it ashore
immediately. It is caught up by persons who are specially appointed to
this duty, and flung to a still greater distance from the stream. Were
not this done, and done quickly, many a fine fellow would escape. It is
strange to see the fish turn round in the hands of their captors, and
leap into the air, so that if the fishermen were not provided with
woollen mittens, they could not keep their hold of the slippery creatures
at all. In these wholesale razzias, from five hundred to a thousand fish
are generally taken at a time, each one weighing from five to fifteen
pounds.

[Salmon-fishing in Iceland: page145.jpg]

* * * * *

Iceland may, with little exaggeration, be described as nothing more than
a stratum of snow and ice overlying a mass of fire and vapour and boiling
water. Nowhere else do we see the two elements of frost and fire in such
immediate contiguity. The icy plains are furrowed by lower currents, and
in the midst of wastes of snow rise the seething ebullitions of hot
springs. Several of the snow-shrouded mountains of Iceland are volcanic.
In the neighbourhood of Kriservick Madame Pfeiffer saw a long, wide
valley, traversed by a current of lava, half a mile in length; a current
consisting not merely of isolated blocks and stones, but of large masses
of porous rock, ten or twelve feet high, frequently broken up by fissures
a foot wide.

Six miles further, and our traveller entered another valley, where, from
the sulphur-springs and hills, rose numerous columns of smoke. Ascending
the neighbouring hills, she saw a truly remarkable scene: basins filled
with bubbling waters, and vaporous shafts leaping up from the fissures in
the hills and plains. By keeping to windward, she was able to approach
very near these phenomenal objects; the ground was lukewarm in a few
places, and she could hold her hand for several minutes at a time over
the cracks whence the vapour escaped. No water was visible. The roar
and hiss of the steam, combined with the violence of