It was one in the afternoon when we parted with the Governor to meet him some days later in his beautiful home in _Reykjavik_. We then rode down the green slope, and through the birch copse to the river, which we found easily fordable, though it has a bad reputation. Looking up from the hayfield, with its harvest in the full gathering, with men and women busy, the ice-crowned pyramids stand,—
“Like giants clad in armor blue, With helmets of a silver hue.”
This view is of great interest and beauty and I gazed longingly to the peaks that enclose _Thórisdalr_, Thief’s-Dale, and desired to climb those ridges of tumbled moraine and examine that great wall of eternal ice that hangs above. The lack of sufficient time made it impossible. This pleasure was experienced in 1913 when I came into _Kaldidalr_, Cold-Valley from the opposite direction, having pitched my camp at _Brunnar_, Springs, for several days. This view from _Kalmungstúnga_ leaves no doubt in the mind of the traveller that he is in the land of _ice_; but when he turns towards the west, passes into the green valley of the _Hvitá_ and comes into close proximity with the numerous hot springs scattered over the plains and along the banks of the river a more temperate climate is suggested.
Having crossed the _Geitlandsá_, Goat-River, we followed it down to the _Barnafoss_, Child-Falls, so named because of the drowning of some children at this place by accident. Some guide books call these falls the _Geitlandsáfoss_, Goat-River-Falls. In ancient times, when places were named in Iceland there must have been many goats in various portions of the country for we came across the name in various places; thus there are several “goat” mountains, “goat” gullies, “goat” rivers, etc. Personally I have seen one flock of goats only in the entire range of my travels and that was near _Ljósavatn_. The explanation is that they will not stand the wet climate as well as the sheep. When the cold driving rains sweep down the mountain slopes the goats run to shelter while the sheep will continue their feeding.
At these falls the water, in a series of three strong leaps, drops over one hundred feet into the canyon. The rock formation at this point is of interest to the geologist, for there is a large mass of metamorphosed obsidian. It is the only rock formation of this character that I have ever witnessed, either in position or as samples in a collection of minerals and rocks in science museums. An examination of this formation leads to the following conclusion. In an early eruption a large mass of obsidian was formed at this place. During a more recent lava flow the heat of the adjacent flowing rock rendered this mass of obsidian plastic; this caused it to stick to the passing lava stream, like molten glass, and it was thus pulled, twisted and stretched into its present shape.