I had now been three nights and two days in the immediate vicinity
of the Geyser, and had witnessed five eruptions, of which two were
of the most considerable that had ever been known. But I can assure
my readers that I did not find every thing as I had anticipated it
according to the descriptions and accounts I had read. I never
heard a greater noise than I have mentioned, and never felt any
trembling of the earth, although I paid the greatest attention to
every little circumstance, and held my head to the ground during an
eruption.
It is singular how many people repeat every thing they hear from
others - how some, with an over-excited imagination, seem to see,
hear, and feel things which do not exist; and how others, again,
tell the most unblushing falsehoods. I met an example of this in
Reikjavik, in the house of the apothecary Moller, in the person of
an officer of a French frigate, who asserted that he had "ridden to
the very edge of the crater of Mount Vesuvius." He probably did not
anticipate meeting any one in Reikjavik who had also been to the
crater of Vesuvius. Nothing irritates me so much as such falsehoods
and boastings; and I could not therefore resist asking him how he
had managed that feat. I told him that I had been there, and feared
danger as little as he could do; but that I had been compelled to
descend from my donkey near the top of the mountain, and let my feet
carry me the remainder of the journey. He seemed rather
embarrassed, and pretended he had meant to say NEARLY to the crater;
but I feel convinced he will tell this story so often that he will
at last believe it himself.
I hope I do not weary my readers by dwelling so long on the subject
of the Geyser. I will now vary the subject by relating a few
circumstances that came under my notice, which, though trifling in
themselves, were yet very significant. The most unimportant facts
of an almost unknown country are often interesting, and are often
most conclusive evidences of the general character of the nation.
I have already spoken of my intoxicated guide. It is yet
inexplicable to me how he could have conducted me so safely in such
a semi-conscious state; and had he not been the only one, I should
certainly not have trusted myself to his guidance.
Of the want of cleanliness of the Icelanders, no one who has not
witnessed it can have any idea; and if I attempted to describe some
of their nauseous habits, I might fill volumes. They seem to have
no feeling of propriety, and I must, in this respect, rank them as
far inferior to the Bedouins and Arabs - even to the Greenlanders.
