Summer Traveling in Iceland

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Excerpt from Summer Traveling in Iceland: Being the Narrative of Two Journeys Across the Island by Unfrequented Routes So few people ever read a preface, that it would almost appear to be a work of supererogation to write one. I shall nevertheless venture to do so, as it will, at least, afford an opportunity of acknowledging my obligations to those who have kindly assisted me in the production of the present volume, the foremost among whom are my two travelling companions, Mr. Cuthbert E. Peek and Mr. E. Delmar Morgan. By allowing me to refer to his carefully kept diary, Mr. Peek has rendered me valuable service, and Mr. Morgan has contributed a chapter on Askja, a volcano which has only been visited by one other Englishman, to Dr. Jon A. Hjaltalin, the Principal Of mo'gruvellir Technical College, my thanks are due for much of the information contained in the Historical Introduction, as also to Mr. Eirikr Magnusson, Assistant Librarian of the Cambridge University Library, for kindly supervising the translation of the three Sagas which form the Appendix. The plan of the Great Geysir and Neighbourhood, which was originally published in the R. G. S. Proceedings, has, by kind per mission of the Council, been given in the present volume. Having thus acknowledged my obligations, it next remains for me to give some good reason for venturing to intrude on public notice, and that I will now endeavour to do. In thefirst place, though many works on Iceland have been pub lished, dealing with its botany, geology, and natural history, I am only aware of one, of recent date, that would be of any real service to a tourist, viz., the 'home of the Eddas, ' by Charles G. Warnford Lock, and this, unfortunately, is out of print. This being the case, I have, at the request of my friends, undertaken the production of the present work, in the hope that a plain narrative of my wanderings in Iceland, by unfrequented routes, will convey to the mind of the in tending traveller a sufficiently clear notion of the kind of country he is about to visit and that the hints, given at the end of this work, will enable him to count the cost, and make those preparations which are absolutely necessary, to avoid loss of time and ensure comfort. I had contemplated giving, at length, the results of many observations, taken by my friends and myself, during our journey, but, on second thoughts, I felt sure that the general reader would not be interested in them, the more especially as they are given on my map, which has been carefully compiled from all reliable sources. Many of the heights have been recal culated and given in English feet, others have been added, computed from aneroid readings, taken during our journey, the readings at the lower stations have been received from the Danish Meteorological Office, through the courtesy of rear-admiral Irminger, of the Royal Danish Navy. The illustrations are, for the most part, taken from sketches made by myself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.