HISTORICAL NOTICE. 53 months of July and August are generally finer and drier than in that country, or the western districts of Norway. The summer usually breaks up about the end of the first week in October, though sometimes, but rarely, it will do so a fortnight earlier, and winter may be said to last until the following June; spring and autumn having virtually no existence in Icelandic chronology. In fine weather the air, in the words of Capt. Burton, ‘ is a medium of matchless purity,’ and mountains distant seventy to eighty miles can be seen plainly by any one with average eyesight; and in July, it is almost unnecessary to add, there is ‘ nightless night ’ in Iceland, while even in the latter end of August there are not many hours of darkness; so that the sportsman or tourist need never fear that he will be benighted should sport, or a wish to visit some distant object of interest, induce him to prolong his excursions. The atmospheric effects late in August and in September are splendid; and it is no uncommon occurrence to see first all the mountain summits of the landscape, with their snow-fields and glaciers, glowing crimson masses in the evening aurora, the Alpenglow, and a few hours’ later to behold, should there be strong or contrary upper air currents, the northern streamers, the true aurora, holding high revel in the sky. Every one who visits Iceland experiences benefit from the bracing, pure air, and Burton says :—‘ All the English travellers upon the island in the summer of 1872 agreed that Anglo-Indians on “ sick leave” should prefer a tour in the north to the debilitating German Bader, or to the fantastic hydropathic establishments, which are best suited to riotous health.’ SECTION III.—HISTORICAL NOTICE.1 To WHICH IS APPENDED AN OUTLINE OF THE NjXL SAGA. Prior to a.d. 874 Iceland was uninhabited, save by a few Culdee anchorites; monks who in the sixth century seceded from the Church of Rome, and retired to the outlying isles of the west of Europe that they might worship God in peace and simplicity. 1 Works consulted in the compilation of this Historical Notice: — ‘The Thousandth Anniversary of the Norwegian Settlement in Iceland,’ by J6n A. Hjaltalln, Reykjavik, 1874; and Dasent’s Introduction to ‘ The Story of Burnt Njal.’

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