Chapter II: Preface

“Without, or with, offence to friends or foes,
I sketch the world exactly as it goes.”—Byron.

IN September, 1883, the author, and the friend to whom this little volume is inscribed, visited Ohinemutu and Rhotomahana, in the famous Hot Lake District of New Zealand. Subsequently, early in June, 1884, as members of the Pioneer Party of the year—a party of eight, including guides—they succeeded in forcing their way into that extraordinary region of marvels the Yellowstone National Park, a vast tract of country which covers a total area of more than three thousand five hundred square miles in the Territories of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho; and has been “dedicated and set apart by ‘Act of Congress’ as a public park or pleasure ground for the enjoyment and benefit of the people of the United States for ever.”

Actuated by a natural desire to complete the chain of their experiences, they resolved last summer to take a Trip to Iceland, the oldest—in point of date of discovery—though now neither the most interesting, nor the most attractive, of the Three Great Volcanic Wonderlands of the World.

In the following pages—re-printed from the columns of the _Bradford Illustrated Weekly Telegraph_—the writer has attempted to describe the scenery and phenomena of Iceland; the social condition of its people; and the incidents of a voyage to the Arctic Circle, exactly as these came under his own observation, and in those aspects in which they would probably have presented themselves to the minds of most of his readers.

It is recorded that the Mayor of an English city once apologised to Queen Elizabeth for having omitted to receive her with the customary royal salute, and gave the three following reasons for his apparent act of official discourtesy: first, the city had no powder; second, it had no cannon; and, third, if it had had both, there was no one among its population who knew anything about either. Her Majesty, under the circumstances, was graciously pleased to hold him excused.

Similarly, the indulgence of the reader is claimed for the omission in this book of all abstruse scientific, or philological explanations or theories. These may be found in other and more important works written by competent authorities. Being neither scientist nor philologist the author has refrained from touching, even lightly, upon the curious problems which everywhere provoke scientific speculation and enquiry in Iceland; neither has he interlarded his pages with those philological puzzles, in the shape of Icelandic characters and words, with which some otherwise very interesting narratives are, if anything, a little over-weighted.

His object has rather been to tell the story of his own experiences for the guidance of the intending tourist; to furnish the general reader with some useful information regarding a lonely island in the North Atlantic, about which “_tout le monde et sa femme_” have hitherto concerned themselves but little; and to help to awaken in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen a sympathetic interest in a poor, isolated, kindly people who claim to be included among “our kin across the sea;” and who, after centuries of thraldom and hardship, are at last beginning, under improved social and political conditions, to look forward to a brighter and more prosperous future.

G. C. S.

Bradford, Nov. 24th, 1885.

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CONTENTS.

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