At First The Road Lay Between Masses Of Lava, Where It Certainly Was
Not Easy To Ride; Then Over Flats And Small Acclivities, From Whence
We Could Descry The Immense Plain In Which Are Situated Havenfiord,
Bassastadt, Reikjavik, And Other Places.
Bassastadt, a town built
on a promontory jutting out into the sea, contains one of the
principal schools, a
Church built of masonry, and a few cottages.
The town of Reikjavik cannot be seen, as it is hidden behind a hill.
The other places consist chiefly of a few cottages, and only meet
the eye of the traveller when he approaches them nearly. Several
chains of mountains, towering one above the other, and sundry
"Jokuls," or glaciers, which lay still sparkling in their wintry
garb, surround this interminable plain, which is only open at one
end, towards the sea. Some of the plains and hills shone with
tender green, and I fancied I beheld beautiful meadows. On a nearer
inspection, however, they proved to be swampy places, and hundreds
upon hundreds of little acclivities, sometimes resembling mole-
hills, at others small graves, and covered with grass and moss.
I could see over an area of at least thirty or forty miles, and yet
could not descry a tree or a shrub, a bit of meadow-land or a
friendly village. Every thing seemed dead. A few cottages lay
scattered here and there; at long intervals a bird would hover in
the air, and still more seldom I heard the kindly greeting of a
passing inhabitant. Heaps of lava, swamps, and turf-bogs surrounded
me on all sides; in all the vast expanse not a spot was to be seen
through which a plough could be driven.
After riding more than four miles, I reached a hill, from which I
could see Reikjavik, the chief harbour, and, in fact, the only town
on the island. But I was deceived in my expectations; the place
before me was a mere village.
The distance from Havenfiord to Reikjavik is scarcely nine miles;
but as I was unwilling to tire my good old guide, I took three hours
to accomplish it. The road was, generally speaking, very good,
excepting in some places, where it lay over heaps of lava. Of the
much-dreaded dizzy abysses I saw nothing; the startling term must
have been used to designate some unimportant declivities, along the
brow of which I rode, in sight of the sea; or perhaps the "abysses"
were on the lava-fields, where I sometimes noticed small chasms of
fifteen or sixteen feet in depth at the most.
Shortly after eight o'clock in the evening I was fortunate enough to
reach Reikjavik safe and well. Through the kind forethought of Herr
Knudson, a neat little room had been prepared for me in one of his
houses occupied by the family of the worthy baker Bernhoft, and
truly I could not have been better received any where.
During my protracted stay the whole family of the Bernhofts shewed
me more kindness and cordiality than it has been my lot frequently
to find.
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