The inhabitants found this heat so
insupportable, that they complained of being unable to work or to go
on messages during the day-time. On such warm days they would only
begin their hay-making in the evening, and continued their work half
the night.
The changes in the weather are very remarkable. Twenty degrees of
heat on one day would be followed by rain on the next, with a
temperature of only five degrees; and on the 5th of June, at eight
o'clock in the morning, the thermometer stood at one degree below
zero. It is also curious that thunderstorms happen in Iceland in
winter, and are said never to occur during the summer.
From the 16th or 18th of June to the end of the month there is no
night. The sun appears only to retire for a short time behind a
mountain, and forms sunset and morning-dawn at the same time. As on
one side the last beam fades away, the orb of day re-appears at the
opposite one with redoubled splendour.
During my stay in Iceland, from the 15th of May to the 29th of July,
I never retired to rest before eleven o'clock at night, and never
required a candle. In May, and also in the latter portion of the
month of July, there was twilight for an hour or two, but it never
became quite dark.
