Mímir. Icelandic institutions with adresses - 15.12.1903, Page 65

NOTES ON ICF.LANDIC MATTERS 55
One of these is, of course, the gentler average temperature of
the summer, when compared with that of more southern local-
ities, despite the prolonged sunshine and the dryness to which
we have referred. Even the noon day hours are rarely oppres-
sive to the foreigner. A second favourable point is the fact
that the abundant waters, already alluded to, have an une-
qualled range of temperature, from lukewarmness to the boiling-
point; and they include the Great Geysirs, with a myriad of lesser
ones, the strong sulphur cauldrons, and the bubbling, puffing,
seething kettles of mud. Of the cold and potable medicinal
waters, the so-called “alewells” (olkeldur), or carbonic-acid
sources, are, perhaps, of most frequent occurrence on the long
Snaefellsnes and in the adjacent districts of the west; at one
of these (Raudamels-dlkelda), most happily situated, and very
easy of access, the erection of a spacious summer hotel is
already contemplated. Many of the hot springs have long been
used, in a more or less crude way, for the treatment of rheu-
matic and kindred ailments, but many are still awaiting the
study and tests of the analyst, while the numerous strange
natural vapour-baths, even without any really proper methods
and means of appliance, have shown themselves efficacious in
more than one variety of gout. The kind of physical exercise,
moreover, most readily obtainable in Iceland, is also the most
valuable for the classes of invalids which usually frequent health-
resorts. It is no unimportant matter, though it be but a nega-
tive blessing, that the victim of indigestion is not exposed here
to the temptation of carriage or car. For although the govern-
ment of Iceland, in view of its greatly enhanced revenues, has
energetically set about the building of carriage-roads, and has
already completed long stretches, it will be many years before
the island possesses any such extended system of highways as
is to be found elsewhere. The man of torpid liver, or of slug-
gish blood, will thus generally be compelled to take his airings,
and make his excursions, on the Icelandic pony, one of the