94 GUIDE TO ICELAND. Shortly after the largest of the lakes, the Hafravatn (Goat-lake), is passed, the Seljadalr (? Shieling-dale) is entered, and the bridle- path abruptly comes to an end in the bed of a shallow stream. This is bordered on either hand for some distance by morass, down through which it has worn a channel to a sub-stratum of sand and shingle, which affords firm footing for the ponies, and the bed of the stream is utilized as a road. The author forded this stream twenty-three times (Capt. Burton twenty-five times) to avoid the deeps and enable his pony to keep on the belts of shingle fringing the stream. How the natives manage to traverse this part of the country during the early summer floods is a puzzle to every stranger who has ridden up the Seljadalr. At the head of this valley a halt will be made for half an hour or so, to pasture the ponies and partake of luncheon ; and on the journey being resumed the saddles and baggage will be shifted on to the relay ponies, that were previously driven on ahead by the guide. A path will again be met with, and it leads still upward till the plateau of the Mosfellshei^i (Moss-fell-heath) is attained ; before reaching which a wild rocky glen will be passed. In this the stream which furnished a roadway through the morass has its birth-place. The Mosfellshei^i is a dreary stony waste, which it will take nearly two hours to traverse: a road was being constructed over it in 1878. Early in August the sportsman will find that curlew and plover and an occasional grouse are to he bagged while crossing the heath. The somewhat monotonous ride over the dreary waste has its advantages, however ; for, like the gloomy scene which invariably precedes the transformation scene of a pantomime, it enhances the beauties of the charming landscape which is shortly, and as suddenly as if by enchantment, to be opened to the view of the travellers. Eirst the monarch of the Icelandic lakes, 'p’mgvallavatn, comes in sight; an imposing sheet of water covering an area of close on forty square miles ; its surface broken by two small islands, said by Burton to be crater-islets, and picturesque headlands jutting outward from the eastern and western shores. Quite unexpectedly, while the traveller is riding slowly onward gazing admiringly at the lake, his pony comes to a halt, and looking for the cause, the ground appears to have suddenly opened at the very feet of his steed, and he beholds a vast rift stretching away in a north-north-easterly direction for over two miles. This is the famous Almannagja, or All-men’s-rift, so named because, when the AIJnng held its meetings at ])'mgvellir, it was the custom of the people to assemble on the outer slope of the eastern wall of the rift, whence they could command an

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