Letters from high latitudes : being some account of a voyage, in 1856, in the schooner yacht "Foam", to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen . edinto twenty thousand fissures, an irregular oval area, of abouttwo hundred feet by fifty, was left almost entirely surroundedby a crevice so deep and broad as to be utterly impassable;—at one extremity alone a scanty causeway connected it withthe adjoining level, and allowed of access to its is true, just at one point the encircling chasm grows sonarrow as to be within the possibility of a jump; and anancient worthy, named Flosi, pursued by
Letters from high latitudes : being some account of a voyage, in 1856, in the schooner yacht "Foam", to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen . edinto twenty thousand fissures, an irregular oval area, of abouttwo hundred feet by fifty, was left almost entirely surroundedby a crevice so deep and broad as to be utterly impassable;—at one extremity alone a scanty causeway connected it withthe adjoining level, and allowed of access to its is true, just at one point the encircling chasm grows sonarrow as to be within the possibility of a jump; and anancient worthy, named Flosi, pursued by his enemies, didactually take it at a fiy : but as leaping an inch short wouldhave entailed certain drowning in the bright green watersthat sleep forty feet below, you can conceive there was nevermuch danger of this entrance becoming a thoroughfare. Iconfess that for one moment, while contemplating the sceneof Flosis exploit, I felt,—like a true Briton,—an idiotic desire VII.] TITE AL THING. to be able to say that I had done the same;—that I sur-vive to write this letter is a proof of my having come subse-quently to mv A. The Althing. B. The Hill of Laws. C. The place where Flosi jumped. D. Adjacent Chasms. This spot then, erected by nature almost into a fortress,the founders of the Icelandic constitution chose for themeetings of their Thing,^ or Parliament, armed guardsdefended the entrance, while the grave bonders deliberatedin security within : to this day, at the upper end of theplace of meeting, may be seen the three hammocks, wheresat in state the chiefs and judges of the land. But those grand old times have long since passed the banks of the Oxeraa no longer glisten the tents andbooths of the assembled lieges ; no longer stalwart berserksguard the narrow entrance to the Althing ; ravens alone 1 From thing, to speak. We have a vestige of the same word mDingwall, a town of Ross-shire. 74 L E TTERS FR OM HIGH LA TITUDES. [ \ 11. sit on the sacre
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