A Journey to the Interior of the Earth

ure arrived. The day b

letters of introductio

. Picturssen, the bish

iavik. My uncle expre

pressions of b

ious baggage being safely on board the Valkyria

favourable?"

a sou'-easter. We shall pass down the

ail through the straits. In an hour the capital of Denmark seemed to sink below the distant waves, and the Valkyria was skirting t

expedition. Perhaps you would keep us company to the centre

heroic prince of Denmark. It now answers the purpose of a sumptuous lodge for the doorkeeper of t

he tower of Helsingborg, built on the Swedish coast, and the schoo

ependence. She was taking to Rejkiavik coal, household goods, earthenware, woo

he passage take?

ed, "if we don't meet a nor'-

subject to cons

t be uneasy, we shall get

er doubled the Skaw a

passed the Skager Rack

d entered th

eterhead, and the Valkyria turned her lead towards the F

the Faroes only with some difficulty. On the 8th the captain made out Myganness, the southernmost of these

les of the sea pretty well; my uncle, to his own intense di

he was obliged to put off these inquiries until his arrival, and spent all his time at full length in his cabin, of whic

us a good view of Myrdals jokul, which overhangs it. The cape is

ormous perforated rock, through which the sea dashed furiously. The Westman islets seemed to rise out of the ocean like a group of rocks in a liquid

rom coming on deck to admire these

ighted east of us the beacon on Cape Skagen, where dangerous rocks extend far away seaward. An Icelandi

pale and wretched-looking, but still full of enthusia

in the arrival of a vessel from which every one e

he schooner he dragged me forward, and pointing with outstretched finger north of the bay at a di

ll! Sn

silence, he went into the boat which awaited him. I foll

Professor was soon aware of the presence he was in. He delivered him his letters from Copenhagen, and then followed a short conversation in the Danish language, the purport of which

or, M. Finsen, whose appearance was as military, and

But M. Fridrikssen, professor of natural sciences at the school of Rejkiavik, was a delightful man, and his friendship became very precious to me. This modest philosopher spoke only Danish and Latin

his house contained, and we were soon installed in it with all our luggag

le, "we are getting on, a

!" I said,

we have nothing t

but after all, when we have gone down, w

elf about that. Come, t

brary. Perhaps there

, and I should be

there I will go into

It is not what is upon this island, but

wandered whereve

refore under no necessity to inquire the road, which exposes

other extends the vast bay of Faxa, shut in at the north by the enormous glacier of the Sn?fell, and of which the Valkyria was for the time the only occu

the merchants and traders, in wooden cabins made of red planks set horizontally; the other street, r

carpet, or some appearance of a kitchen garden, the sparse vegetables of which (potatoes, cabbages, and lettuces), would

I found the public cemetery, inclosed with a m

but compared with the town hall of Hamburg, a palace in

d out of the volcanoes by their own labour and at their own expense; in high westerly winds it was manifest t

h, with shame I confess it, I don't know a single word; after an examination I should have had to stand last of the forty scholars educated at this little college, and I s

. The Icelandic huts are made of earth and turf, and the walls slope inward; they rather resemble roofs placed on the ground. But then these roofs are meadows of comparative fertility. Than

but heavy, blond Germans with pensive eyes, conscious of being far removed from their fellow creatures, poor exiles relegated to this land of ice, poor creatures who should have been Esquimaux, since nature had condem

Scandinavian lands a 'vadmel,' a hat with a very broad brim, trousers with

ore gowns and petticoats of dark 'vadmel'; as maidens, they wore over their braided hair a little knitted bro

ridrikssen's house, where I found my