Jökull - 01.12.1993, Side 73

and his brother Sigurður' s knowledge of the character
of the region, the most probable location of the farm
Breiðá on Breiðamerkursandur and the circumstances
in which it might have been destroyed in 1732 by the
advance of Breiðamerkurjökull.
His acumen and persistence as a natural scientist
were brought home to me in the late 1970s, when he
inspected weekly, through two winters and summers,
packages of monitoring equipment which had been
emplaced at the margin of Breiðamerkurjökull. In
wintertime he would walk over a frozen lake, Breiðár-
lón, often in the teeth of a strong wind, check the
equipment, observe the changes in the glacier and
make whatever notes he thought were appropriate.
I still use the notebooks which he compiled as
sources of data, and as illustrations to students of the
way in which a good natural scientist should observe
and record the natural world around him.
Icelandic science and leaming has benefitted
greatly from the contributions of many such as Flosi
Bjömsson, with independent and enquiring minds
not easily cowed by the dogmas of official learning.
It is a tradition which I envy. I hope that it can be
sustained.
Edinburgh, 29 December 1993
Geoffrey Stewart Boulton
JÖKULL,No. 43, 1993 71