The Iceland year-book - 01.01.1926, Blaðsíða 32

which the early converts to Chris-
A Reasonable tianity, made such by vote of the
Objection. Althing, were baptized, after re-
fusing to go into the very un-
comfortable cold water in order to ratify their
adoption of a religion in the tenets of 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 Thing-
vallavatn, filled with water as transparent as the
air above it, in which swim a marvellous multitude
•of trout. On its northern shore lies the Almanna-
gja, with the majestic cascade which falls into it,
and the Thingvellir plain, including
The the Logberg (,,Mount of the Law“),
Law Mount, on which, for more than 800 years,
the Icelandic popular assembly
annually met, failing in only one or two years be-
cause of the Great Plague, or Black Death, then
raging destructively in the island, or for some
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 Thingvallavatn is the northland’s Myvatn
(„Midge Lake"), to which we have already
referred, and which, too, is richly
Myriads of abundant in fish. It is likewise the
Wild Duck, 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, invit-
ing many excursions. In the neighbourhood are
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