Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) was an eminent British botanist, best known for expanding and developing the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew into a leading centre of botanic research and conservation. At the age of nineteen he undertook an expedition to Iceland, his first outside Britain. Unfortunately, all his specimens and notes were destroyed in a fire on the return voyage (described in Volume 1), but he was able, with the help of the notes made by Sir Joseph Banks on an earlier expedition, to write this account. His work was first published privately in 1811, but a second edition was published in 1813 and is reproduced here. Volume 1 gives a brief history of Iceland, before Hooker begins his detailed observations of the people and topography, and the flora and fauna he found. His accounts of the lives of the people of the island are of particular interest. |
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abundant afforded Althing Amptman appeared Arngrim Arngrim Jonas basin Bishop boiling bolus called chasm church clothes coast color considerable Count Tramp Danes Danish Deduction distance Ditto Egclosen elevation eruption Etatsroed expences extremely feet fish foot formed Fuci Geyser ground height horses hot-springs hundred Iceland Icelandic language inhabitants Jökul Jorgensen journey lake land Lapland lava Lichen Lychnis alpina Margaret and Anne miles milk morass morning mountains natives nearly northern Norway o'clock observed Odin ornamented Phelps pieces of rock plants Povelsen and Olafsen priest Provstie qu'il quantity Reikevig remarkable Reykholt river rix-dollars Savigniac scarcely sheep shore side Sir John Stanley Sir Joseph Banks Skalholt snow species Splachnum vasculosum spot spring Stephensen Stiftsamptman stone stream summit Syssel tain tents thick Thingevalle tion Total sum Troil turf vegetation Veronica fruticulosa vessel Voyage en Islande whole WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER wind