ther by a female, who took hold of my hand, and led me through a dark passage and a bed-room, where but a small portion of light was admitted from an aperture in the roof, into the cooking-room, whence so much smoke was rushing out through the sleepingroom, as the only vent, that I hesitated about proceeding, till I found myself dragged in. I with difficulty discovered two or three filthy females sitting on the ground, or on some broken chests, and in the middle of them Jacob on the bare earth. A fire was also on the ground between his legs, over which he held some fish cut in slices, in the fryingpan, an article which caused consider able astonishment among the women. Close by him sat a pretty Icelandic girl, who had won Jacob's regards so much that he every now and then, with his knife, turned out a slice of the fish for her; while she, in return for every piece thus offered, rose from the ground, hugged him about the neck and kissed him. This innocent custom, in use both ainong the male and female Icelanders, upon the most trivial occasions, was here exemplified in a very strong and ludicrous manner, and so occupied the attention of

Jacob, (who, probably, mistook for a mark of affection, what was in reality nothing more than an expression of gratitude,) that I was obliged to tap the honest fellow on the shoulder, and remind him that I had not yet had my dinner, and that I wished to have some of the fish saved for me. Before going out of the house I was anxious to make some trifling present to the mistress of it, a little, dirty, ugly, old woman, by no means free from cutaneous diseases. I presented to her a snuff-box; but her modesty would at first only allow her to suppose that I meant the contents of it for her. As soon, however, as she was made to understand that the box, also, was to be included in the gift, I had the mortification to find myself, before I was aware of it, in the embraces of this grateful old lady, from which I extricated myself with all possible haste, and performed a most copious ablution at the nearest stream. Of the poverty of the clergy, as well as of the common people in Iceland, I had heard much previously to my coming to Middalr, yet was scarcely prepared for what I here met with, though I had been assured by the priest Egclosen that instances

were not wanting of gentlemen of his profession having been reduced in bad winters to such a state, for want of the necessaries of life, that they have been obliged to beg a scanty subsistence from house to house; till, through cold and weakness and hunger, they have perished miserably among the mountains. Their salaries are, usually, exceedingly small: that of the priest of Middalr was only twenty rix-dollars a year, four of which he received from the king. It is true, he added some little to his income by exercising the trade of a blacksmith, but the wretched maintenance which these two professions, so incompatible, happily, in the ideas of an Englishman, conjointly afforded, may be easily conceived, when I mention, that I observed both him and two or three persons of his family eagerly picking up from the ground the heads and entrails of the fish, which Jacob, in preparing for cooking, had thrown away. After dinner, the priest brought down to my tent a present of a large quantity of the Lichen islandicus (Fiallagros Isl.). It is, perhaps, in no country found in such plenty, as in this from which it takes its name. The extensive

desert tracts of Skaptar-fel Syssel produce this plant in extreme abundance, and numerous parties from great distances migrate thither, with their horses, tents, and provisions in the summer months, and remain some time, for the sole purpose of gathering it. They then convey it on their horses to Reikevig, or any other factory, and dispose of it to the Danish merchants. Povelsen and Olafsen observe, that a person can collect four tons or a horse-load in a week, and that a peasant is better off with this quantity of the lichen, than with one ton of meal *. It is said to require three years before it has

* Kerguelen, in the Account of his Voyage to the North, gives us an extract from a letter of an Icelander, (Mr. Olave) whom he met with in Patrixfiord, where the qualities of this lichen are very highly extolled; perhaps more so than they deserve. " I send to you, Sir, (says Mr. Olave) a herb, which, resembling lung's-wort, serves among the Icelanders as a succedaneum for bread; it is called Iceland-moss, and grows on the rocks of the loftiest mountains ; so that with truth we may say, God gives us bread from stones. It never grows in earth or soil of any description, nor casts forth roots. It affords a noble feast; the powder of it is taken in milk, and is so pleasant and salubrious, that I prefer it to every kind of flour; it is, besides, an excellent stomachic, and a most safe medicine in a dysentery."-Amongst many

arrived at its full growth; for, having once cleared a spot of ground by gathering the lichen, the natives wait always that length of time before they visit the same place

other good qualities of the mind which Icelanders in general possess, contentment with the station in which Providence has placed them, and a strong sense of gratitude for the supplies which the Deity is pleased to grant to them, are, certainly, the most predominant. Cut off by the situation and poverty of his native land from almost all communication with happier climates, where plenty and luxury abound, an Icelander is ignorant even of their existence, and eats his dried uncooked fish, and rancid butter with a grateful heart. He possesses the amor patriae in as strong a degree as the inhabitant of any country: Volcanoes, which have laid waste his whole island, earthquakes, disease, and famine, cannot drive him from his native shores. The few who have gone over to Denmark have expressed the greatest desire to return home, although the kindest treatment, and every thing that was likely to make them comfortable, had been employed to induce them to remain. The man, who was my guide during most of my excursions in Iceland, had himself passed two years in Copenhagen, and, although, as he confessed to me, it was a milder climate and he had better living in Copenhagen, yet he had much rather spend his days where he then was. Besides the Lichen islandicus, Povelsen and Olafsen notice three other species of Lichen which are occasionally eaten. Lichen proboscideus the Coralloides tenuissimum nigricans of Dill.) and L. nivalis. This