up the clods of turf, which have been its obstruction, like a number of rockets. This magnificent display continues for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. The erupted water flows back into the pipe from the curved sides of the bowl. This occasions a succession of bursts, the last expiring effort, very generally, being the most magnificent.

Strokr gives no warning thumps like the Great Geysir, and there is not the same roaring of steam accompanying the outbreak of the water.

Bunsen, who visited this part of Iceland in 1845, ascertained by experiment that water, long boiled, becomes almost entirely free of air; by which the cohesion of the aqueous particles is so much increased that, when it is exposed to a heat sufficient to overcome the force of cohesion, the production of steam is so instantaneous and so considerable as to cause an explosion. To this cause he accordingly attributed the eruption of Geysir and Strokr, which, being in constant ebullition for many hours, are then so freed from air, that the intense heat at the bottom at last overcomes the cohesion of the particles, and an explosion ensues.

The only objection which can be raised to this theory is that the characteristics of Geysir and Strokr are very different. The latter is in constant ebullition, not so Geysir. Now, if air were liberated in great quantities, the surface would be continually boiling; as a matter of fact, the surface, except during an explosion, is perfectly at rest, and scarcely a bubble rises through it.

Now, let an iron tube be bent to the angle of 110, keeping one arm half the length of the other. Let the pipe be filled with water, and the short arm be placed in the fire. The surface of the liquid will remain still and calm for a minute; then the pipe begins to quiver, a slight overflow takes place without any signs of ebullition over the lip of the bore, and suddenly, with a throb, the whole column of water is forced high into the air.

With a tube the long arm of which is 2 ft., and the bore inch, I can send a jet to the height of 18 feet.

The rationale of this is simple enough. Steam is generated in the short arm of the pipe, and presses down the water, causing an overflow till the steam bubble turns the angle, when it forces out the column in the long arm with incredible violence.

This experiment is merely an adaptation of Sir George Mackenzie's theory, that the Great Geysir is supplied from an underground reservoir. I suggest that a bend in the pipe is sufficient to produce all the phenomena of the Great Geysir.

As we lay in our tent, towards evening, when the weather was cold, Mr. Briggs turned to me, and asked me to tell one farewell Saga before our return to Reykjavík.

"And let it be a good one," said he.

After thinking for a few moments, I began the following story.

To the south of this well-watered plain, over which our eyes reach to the horizon in full view of the white peaks of Tindfjalla, is a farm named Tratharholt, crowning a toft which rises out of green meads and almost impassable swamps.

This hillock was occupied by farm buildings in 986, when my story begins.

It then belonged to a bonder, Thorgils, who lived on it, surrounded by his family and friends.

The farmer was a man of strong convictions. Having satisfied his own mind that the religion of the Esir was false, and that Christianity opened a more glorious future to man, besides being more accordant with his own internal convictions of morality, Thorgils received baptism, and remained ever after a staunch adherent to the true faith. He did not exactly become a model Christian, but he acted consistently with the little light given him, and that is saying a great deal for any man.

One idea he certainly had grasped, that he owed a chivalrous obedience to Christ as his Monarch; but of the laws which govern the Kingdom of Grace, and the obligations which he had incurred on his admission into it, he was profoundly ignorant.

Thorgils' own disposition prevented him from acquiring the requisite knowledge; for he was passionately fond of

* Floamanna Saga, chap. 20-24, 28, 29, in Fornsögur, Leipz. 1860.

change; and the love of visiting new scenes was so strongly implanted in his soul, that not even the fertility of the meadows around Tratharholt could attach him to a quiet life, and restrain him from indulging in his natural roving propensities. However, he had spent several years at his fair farm, and kept himself from vegetating by squabbles with his neighbours, and by litigation with his brother chiefs.

At last, on an inauspicious day, came a message from Eirek the Red, the discoverer of Greenland, begging Thorgils to pay him a visit, and assist him in colonizing the new country.

This was a proposal after the bonder's own heart: he fired up with enthusiasm at once; and if Greenland had been Paradise, he could not have been more impatient of the delay which the rigour of winter imposed on him of postponing his voyage till the summer.

"What think you of this expedition to Greenland ?" asked Thorgils one night of his good woman; "people do say that Eirek is becoming enormously wealthy."

"You must please yourself about going," answered Thorey, his wife; "but the voyage is long and boisterous enough to make me shrink at the notion of it. I have become much attached to Tratharholt!"

"My dear," quoth the bonder, "I can think and dream of nothing but Greenland, with its glorious meadows and rich mountain pastures; so that I shall have no rest till I have seen it with my own eyes. But there is no necessity for you to accompany me at present. If you prefer it, you can remain at home and keep house till I return and report the state of the country."

"No! sweet friend!" replied the housewife; "wherever you go I shall follow, only I have no great forebodings of success."

The husband added, "I have been talking matters over with your foster-father, Jósteinn, and he is already half inclined to join me in my venture, and bring along with him that termagant of a wife of his, and his fine strapping boys,

Kolr and Skarkathr. Our son, Thorleif, shall also accompany us, and he is a man of experience after his Norway voyage. So, you see, we shall be quite a family party!"

When summer was well set in, all was ready for the voyage. Thorgils had purchased a vessel conjointly with Jósteinn, and had laden it with all things necessary for farming in Greenland. Both of the bonders brought a select party of thralls to manage the vessel and tend the cattle in the new settlement. Unfortunately, Thorgils' little daughter sickened at the last moment, and had to be left behind with a friendly farmer, as it was impossible to delay sailing till her

recovery.

On the eve of departure, Thorgils had a dream. A mighty red-bearded figure stood before him, brandishing a heavy mallet.

"I am Thor!" spoke the apparition; "you have renounced me for the white Christ. I shall be your foe, unless you return to my worship. Storm and tempest, or soft breezes, are at your choice. I can fan you swiftly to your new home over a blue scarce-ruffled deep, or sink you like lead with one blow of my hammer, in the green, boiling ocean."

"Be off!" exclaimed Thorgils; "I care little for your threats. I commit my course to Him whom the winds and the sea obey."

"Follow me!" said Thor, and his voice was loud and wrathful like the mutter of thunder among the icefields of Eyjafjalla.

In his dream the bonder fancied that he was led by the red-bearded one to the summit of a bluff overhanging the sea.

A brown ragged rack was creeping up the heavens; puffs of wind made cat's-paws on the palpitating bosom of the deep, and then sighed through the stunted grass of the headland.

The god raised his hand, and with a howl the gale descended. Billows heaped themselves up, and thundered against the crags, shivering into white eddies of foam and drifts of brine.