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Updated: May 14, 2025
"Tell me, Zoega, are their breeches strong?" "Oh yes, sir." "That's lucky." I was thinking of an accident that once occurred to a young man of my acquaintance. Owing to a defect in the breech of his gun, the whole load entered his head and killed him instantaneously. The gravity of these good people in their forms of politeness is one of the most striking features in their social intercourse.
Zoega walked quietly away about twenty steps, saying he preferred not to be too close. There was a sudden growl and a rumble, a terrible plunging about and swashing of the sods below, and fierce, whirling clouds of steam flew up, almost blinding me as they passed. "Sir," said Zoega, gravely, "you had better stand away. It comes up very suddenly when it once starts."
Of other baggage I had none, save my overcoat and sketch-book, which, for a journey of five days, did not seem unreasonable. Zoega promised me any amount of suffering; but I told him Californians rather enjoyed that sort of thing than otherwise. My English friends were so well provided with funds and equipments that they found it impossible to get ready.
While the pack-train followed the trail, Zoega suggested that the Tintron had never been sketched, and if I felt disposed to "take it down" as he expressed it he would wait for me in the valley below; so I took it down. During this day's journey we crossed many small rivers which had been much swollen by the recent rains.
"Dear me, I didn't know that! It is a wonderful world, sir." "Very especially in Iceland." "Then, sir, I don't know how this could have happened, unless it was done by spirits that live in the ground. Some people say they are great monsters, and live on burnt stones." "Do you believe in spirits, Zoega?" "Oh yes, sir; and don't you? I've seen them many a time.
To me, however, it tasted very much like any other hot water. When I returned to the tent, and sat down to my frugal repast, and ate my bread and cheese, and quaffed the fragrant tea, Zoega sitting near by respectfully assisting me, something of the old California feeling came over me, and I enjoyed life once more after years of travel through the deserts of civilization in Europe.
Presently we entered a great gap between two enormous cliffs of lava. "What's this, Zoega?" I asked. "Oh, this is the Almannajau." "What! the great Almannajau, where the Icelandic Parliament used to camp!" "Yes, sir; you see the exact spot down there below." And, in good truth, there it was, some hundreds of feet below, in a beautiful little green valley that lay at the bottom of the gap.
"Don't be afraid, Zoega; I'll keep a sharp look-out for it. You may depend there's not a Geyser in Iceland can catch me when I make a break." "Very well, sir; but I'd advise you to be careful." Notwithstanding this good counsel, I could not resist the fascination of looking in. There was another tremendous commotion going on a roar, a whirling over of the sods, and clouds of steam flying up.
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