The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-15 00:00:00

802

On the left—a still more extraordinary sight presented
itself. A kind of baby glacier actually hung suspended
half way on the hillside, like a tear in the act of rolling
down the turroned cheek of the mountain.

T have tried to convey to you a notion of the falling
impetus impressed on the surface of the Jan Mayen ice
rivers; but in this case so unaccountable did it seem
that the overhanging mass of ice should not continue
thunder down upon its course, that one's natural impulse
was to shrink frGui crossing the path along which a breath
—a sound—might precipitate the suspended avalanche into
the valley.

On these inhospitable shores there is no
vegetation but a little scanty black moss, and
the slightest modification of the sun's power,
even in the month of August, produces a thin
pellicle of ice over the sea, which causes the
waves to assume the appearance of billows of
oil. The melancholy result of the few at-
tempts that have been made to winter on the
island is attested by the open coffins and
bleaching skeletons which, undisturbed some-
times for a century or two, moulder unburied
on the frozen ground, too hard to he pierced
by any spade:—

No description can give an adequate idea of the intense
rigour of the six•months winter in this part of the world.
Stories crack with the noise of thunder ; in a crowded hut
the breath of its occupants will fall in flakes of snow ;
wine and spirits turn to ice; the snow burns like caustic ;
if iron touches the flesh it brings the skin away with it;
the soles of your stockings may be burnt off your feet
before you feel the slightest warmth from the fire ; linen
taken out of boiling water instantly stiffens to the con-
sistency of a wooden board; and heated stones will not
prevent the sheets of the bed from freezing. If these are
the effects of the climate within an airtight, fire•warmed,
crowded hut—what must they be among the dark, storm•
lashed, mountain peaks outside!

Lord Dufferin returned to England by way
of Trondheim in Norway, and Copenhagen—
having been absent the greater part of a year.
Our extracts have dwelt more on the extraor-
dinary aspects of nature than of human
nature which he encountered. If the glaciers
of Spitzbergen, however, should have struck
too cold a chill to the reader's hones, he may
find an antidote in the following trait of
Icelandic manners, which goes far to realise
the tropical paradise imagined by Don Gaul-
tier. Fitz (the surgeon) having, while at the
Geysers, unluckily caught cold,
instead of sleeping in the tent, he determined to seek
shelter under a solid roof-tree, and, conducted by our
guide Olaf, set off on his pony at bedtime in search of en
habitation. The next:morning he reappeared so unusually
radiant that 1 could not help inquiring what good fortune
had in the meantime befallen him: upon which he gave
me such an account of his last night's reception at the
farm, that I was almost tempted to bundle tent and beds
down the throat of our irritable friend Strnkr, and throw
myself for the future upon the hospitality of the inhabi-
tants. It is true, I had read in Van Troll of something of
the kind, but until now I never fully believed it. The
doctor, however, shall tell his own history.
"No twoner," said he, " had I presented myself at the
door, and made known my errand, than I was immediately
welcomed by the whole family, and triumphantly inducted
into the guest quarters : everything the house could pro-
duce was set before me, and the whole society stood by to
see that I enjoyed myself. As I had hut just dined, an
additional repast was no longer essential to my happiness;
hut all explanation was useless, and I did my hest to give
them satisfaction. Immediately on rising from the table,
the young lady of the house—(old Van Troll says it is
either the mother or the daughter of the house, if she be
grown up, who performs this office)—proposed by signs to
conduct me to my apartment: taking in one hand a large
plate of skier, and in the other a bottle of brandy, she led
the way through a passage built of turf and stones to the
place where I was to sleep. Having watched her deposit
—not without misgivings, for I knew it was expected both
should be disposed of before morning—the skier by my
bedside, and the brandy-bottle under the pillow, I was
preparing to make her a polite bow, and to wish her a very
good night, when she advanced towards me, and with a
winning grace difficult to resist, insisted upon helping me
off with my coat, and then—proceeding to extremities—
with my shoes and stockings. At this critical part of the
proceedings I naturally imagined her share of the per-
formance would conclude, and that I should at last lie
restored to that privacy which at such seasons is generally
considered appropriate. Not a bit of it. Before I knew
where I was I found myself sitting on a chair, in my shirt,
trouserless, while my fair tirewoman was engaged in neatly
folding up the raviahed garments on a neighbouring chair.
She then, in the most simple manner in the world, helped
me into bed, tucked me up, and having said a quantity of
pretty things in Icelandic, gave me a hearty kiss and de-
parted. If," he added, "you see anything remarkable in
my appearance, it is probably because—
"rhis very morn I've telt the sweet surprise
tsfunexpected lips on seated eyes;' "
by which he poetically intimated the pleasing ceremony
which had awaked him to the duties of the day. I think
it needless to subjoin that the doctor's cold did not get
better as long as we remained in the neighbourhood, and
that had it not been for the daily increasing tire of his
looks, I should have begun to be alarmed at so protracted
en indisposition.