Mímir. Icelandic institutions with adresses - 15.12.1903, Blaðsíða 76

66 NOTES ON ICELANDIC MATTERS
which they, as yet, felt no very ardent faith. — The lakes
of Iceland are many in number, as the traveller ascertains,
the largest being the l?ingvallavatn, filled with water as trans-
parent as the air above it, in which swim a marvellous mul-
titude of trout and other fish. On its northern shore lies the
Almannagja, with the majestic cascade which falls into it, and
the Pingvellir plain, including the Logberg (“Mount of the Law”),
on which, for more than 800 years, the Icelandic popular
assembly annually met, failing in only one or two years because
of the Great Plague, or Black Death, then raging destructively
in the island, or for some other similar cause. Many are the
foundations still traceable of the temporary booths in which
dwelt, in earlier ages, the law-making leaders of the people
and their adherents. A little smaller than the Pingvallavatn is
the northland’s Myvatn (“Midge Lake”), to which we have
already referred, and which, too, is richly abundant in fish.
It is likewise the home of a score of varieties of wild duck,
who build their myriad nests on the countless islands, many
of which are old craters, and on low capelets along the shore.
It is the middle point of a wide field of interest, inviting many
excursions. In the neighbourhood are the old volcano Krafla,
the obsidian mountain, the great gorge known as the Grjotgja
the northern sulphur sources and mud pools, and that grotesque
lava wonder, the so-called Natt-troll, the demon of the night,
who, carelessly caught outside of his hidden dwelling of dark-
ness by the rising sun, was changed by its rays into this ghastly
figure of stone. — Three products of the realm of nature, be-
longing largely or exclusively to Iceland, deserve notice in this
place. The first is the down taken from the nests of the eider-
duck, and sold in many countries for cushions or bed coverlets.
These ducks are provided with places for breeding purposes,
i and are protected by strictly-enforced laws. A visit to one of
their breeding-sites is of much interest to foreigners. The second
peculiar production is the Icelandic Moss (lichen islandicus),