52 GUIDE TO ICELAND. the service of travellers seeking a night’s lodging. Most farmers are willing for moderate payment to accommodate sporting tourists who may wish to make a stay of some days to fish or shoot in the neighbourhood. The roof is usually of turf, resting on a layer of birch-bark to render it waterproof, and gabled. Approaching from the front, a house frequently presents quite an imposing appearance, for it is not an uncommon thing to find a house with seven gables; a number of buildings which serve as blacksmith shop, harness room, and store-houses being attached on each side of the main one. The fronts of these additions are sometimes boarded and painted, as well as the front of the chief building. Climate.—This will be alluded to but briefly, as it is only the summer weather that is likely to interest the tourist. Iceland enjoys a milder climate than that part of North America lying between the same parallels, but a colder one than that part .of Norway lying immediately north of the Polar Circle. In the valley of the Alten, N. lat. 69° 70', com is successfully raised, and besides the birch, the fir, alder and rowan grow and thrive ; while in Iceland the only forest growth is some limited areas overgrown with stunted birch and willow bushes. The winters in Iceland are only occasionally so severe as the winters in the Alten valley, and the dearth of forest growth in Iceland is undoubtedly due to the fact that about once in every decade the Polar ice drifts southward in the spring to within a few miles of the northern coast, and remains there until late in the summer. "Whenever this happens, and it happened last year (1881), there is a frost at night throughout the summer, and hail and snow- storms whenever the wind blows from the N.W., and all vegeta- tion, save in sheltered localities, suffers severely. Last year the cold summer followed an unusually severe winter, and hundreds of square miles of moorland pastures were as utterly destroyed by the long continuance of the frost in the ground as they would have been had a fire swept over them. Usually the north and north-east parts of the island enjoy in summer far more settled and warmer weather than the southern parts and the north-west. In 1878 and 1880, in the six weeks between the middle of July and end of August, the author experienced respectively but four and six showery days, while last year scarcely a week passed without rain and snow; but the bad weather went out with August, and the month of September was delightful. South of a line drawn across the island due east from the Snafells Jolull, the summer weather is closely akin to that of Scotland, but the

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