The day’s work surprised us, we had not yet realised the shortness of the distances travelled over. This mild march also has been called a “maniac ride”--“one of the wildest in the world.” It is, however, only fair to own that we took the lake road, which is not laid down in the map, and that a few yards on either side of the way would offer as many difficulties as the horseman, however ambitious, could desire.
The steepleless chapel, which was not worse than that of Blúdán, had lost its key, and when the latter was found, the cabin proved a store and a lumber-room: clothes hung to the seats, milk stood to cream, and salt barrels cumbered the floor. A coffin, unfurnished, also stood on a beam: the idea underlying this premature precaution is that it prolongs the owner’s life. Here the chapel is the “mountain-stove” of Norway, the Indian traveller’s bungalow, and the Sind mosque in which Kafirs ate pork and drank wine. We pitched the tent near the byres, where broken bottles showed the habits of civilisation, and slept despite the normal evil, cold feet caused by riding in a hard head-wind. The frequent weary halts to adjust pack-saddles should be utilised for restoring circulation. “_Les picotements sont plus incommodes que le froid lui-même_,” justly remarks M. Gaimard’s expedition; and the French doctor advises the feet to be gradually warmed, or they will swell and cause _demangeaisons_, which prevent rest. Above all things avoid the Brazilian wrinkle, so valuable against damp in tropical climates--a glassful of spirits poured into the riding-boots. We must not leave the sulphur-field without some notice of the supply.
From Captain, now Commodore, Commerell’s Reports, dated Leith, July 9, 1857, we learn that “the mines of Krisuvik were worked from 1723 to 1730, with considerable profit; during that year, all the sulphur consumed in Denmark and Norway and the Duchies was obtained from there, but one of the owners, who had also been the director in Iceland, dying, the mines were abandoned in consequence.
“In 1833, a merchant of Copenhagen, a Mr Kenidzen, obtained one large cargo of sulphur from Krisuvik; the affair was managed through an agent or factor, whose mismanagement was the principal cause of failure, since then only a few tons having been taken by the peasants for home use.