29 Galloping onward, we got many suggestive glances into dark boles lined with cinders, where doubtless Vulcan had a workshop (Suddenly our progress was arrested by a tremendous precipice, or rather chasm, which yawned beneath our feet, and completely separated the barren plateau we had been so painfully traversing from a lovely,gay, green plain, some ten miles broad, that lay sunk at a level lower than a hundred feet between us and the opposite mountain. This was the celebrated Almanna Gja Many are the explana- tions given of its origin, but Dufferin says :— “ Ages ago—who shall say how long ? some vast commotion shook the foundations of the island, and bubbling up from sources far away amid the hills, a fiery deluge must have rushed down between their ridges, until, escaping from their narrow gorges, it found space to spread itself into one broad sheet of molten stone over an entire district of country, reducing its varied surface to one blackened level. Then while the pith or marrow of the lava was still in a fluid state, its upper surface became solid and formed a roof, beneath which the molten stream flowed on to lower levels, leaving a vast cavern, into which the upper crust subsequently plumped dow-n.” Then commenced the usual process of Icelandic vegetation ; for hundreds of years the lava stands up cold, bleak and naked. Finally, a thin species of moss begins to cover the rocks with a delicate brown or pale green, and after a long period—by the winds carrying the dust, by the flight and rest of birds, by insects and the growth of mosses, a little soil appears, then the beautiful heath, to be succeeded, after another long period, by a scanty growth of grass. No country produces such fragrant hay as Iceland, but we noticed the lava appeared only six or eight inches below the surface of the meadows. The precipitous sides and immense depth of the chasm seemed at once to bar our further progress. But Ericson said “We must go down it,” and down it we went, our ponies picking their way, zig-zagging from point to point and crag to crag, or stepping from one huge block of lava to another. We repeatedly leaned back, touching the pony’s tail with the back of our heads in order to maintain the perpendicular and avoid being shot over their heads. Sometimes they drew up their

(1) Front Board
(2) Front Board
(3) Front Flyleaf
(4) Front Flyleaf
(5) Front Cover
(6) Front Cover
(7) Page [1]
(8) Page [2]
(9) Page 1
(10) Page 2
(11) Page 3
(12) Page 4
(13) Page 5
(14) Page 6
(15) Page 7
(16) Page 8
(17) Page 9
(18) Page 10
(19) Page 11
(20) Page 12
(21) Page 13
(22) Page 14
(23) Page 15
(24) Page 16
(25) Page 17
(26) Page 18
(27) Page 19
(28) Page 20
(29) Page 21
(30) Page 22
(31) Page 23
(32) Page 24
(33) Page 25
(34) Page 26
(35) Page 27
(36) Page 28
(37) Page 29
(38) Page 30
(39) Page 31
(40) Page 32
(41) Page 33
(42) Page 34
(43) Page 35
(44) Page 36
(45) Page 37
(46) Page 38
(47) Page 39
(48) Page 40
(49) Page 41
(50) Page 42
(51) Page 43
(52) Page 44
(53) Page 45
(54) Page 46
(55) Page 47
(56) Page 48
(57) Page 49
(58) Page 50
(59) Page 51
(60) Page 52
(61) Page 53
(62) Page 54
(63) Page 55
(64) Page 56
(65) Page 57
(66) Page 58
(67) Rear Flyleaf
(68) Rear Flyleaf
(69) Rear Flyleaf
(70) Rear Flyleaf
(71) Rear Board
(72) Rear Board
(73) Spine
(74) Fore Edge
(75) Scale
(76) Color Palette