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VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND: 643
what is remarkable, he makes ufe of a telefcope of his own conftruction, made of the
black Iceland agate, inftead of coloured g¢lafs.
Lightning and thunder {torms are rare, and both in fummer and winter feldom hap-
pen any where elfe but in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. Northern lights frequently
appear uncommonly ftrong *. Sometimes a kind of the ignis fatuus is obferved (Szve-
lios and bravas-eldur) which attaches itfelf to men and beatts.
Amongft other aerial phenomena, the lunar halo (rofabaugu) which prognofticates
bad weather, likewife deferves a place here, as well as parhelions (Aia/olar), which ap-
pear fometimes from one to nine in number. Fire-balls (called Viga Knottur) are like-
wife obferved, and when they are oval are named Wrigabrandur ; and laft of all comets,
or Haleftiernor, which are often mentioned in their chronicles.
The ebb and flood here, which the Icelanders call flod and fara, are perfettly the
fame as at other places: they are {tronger during the new and full moon than at other
times, and ftrongeft of all about the equinoxes.
As I am here fpeaking of the nature of the country, I cannot pafs over in filence the
earthquakes which often happen, particularly before volcanic eruptions. In Septem-
ber, in the year 1755, fifteen violent fhocks were obferved within a few days; and it
is not uncommon to fee whole farms overturned by them, and large mountains burft
afunder, as will be remarked hereafter, in the letter which treats of the conflagrations
in Iceland.
In fo mountainous a country, where there is no agriculture, and no commerce, except
that carried on by bartering of the various commodities on the arrival of the Danith
fhips, no good roads can be expected: they therefore make ufe of neither carts nor
fledges; and there are many places in which it is both difficult and dangerous even to
ride on horfeback, which have caufed the names of Ofcerur, Halfavegur, Hofdabrecka,
Illaxlif, to be given to fome roads. ‘Their length is not reckoned by the number of
miles, but that of thingmanna-leid, that is, as far as a man, who is travelling to a place
where juftice is adminiftered, can goin one day, which is about three and a half Swedith,
or four Icelandic miles {. Formerly houfes were built in fome particular places for the
ufe of travellers, which were called Thiodbrautar-/fhaala; but now the churches are
every where made ufe of for this purpofe.
When the Icelanders travel to fea-ports to exchange their fifh, &c. they have twenty,
thirty, and fometimes a greater number of horfes with them, which carry a load of
three hundred or four hundred pounds weight each; but they have always fome {pare
horfes along with them to relieve thofe that are fatigued: this cavalcade is called Left;
and the man who guides them is called Le/famadur : he rides on before, accompanied
with a dog, that, by uttering a certain word, drives the ftrayed or ftraggling horfes into
the right road. ‘They never carry any food for their horfes, as pafture is plenty every
where.
* The northern lights appear in Iceland in all the different quarters of the compafs, efpecially on the
foutherly horizon, where a dark fegment appears, from whence ftrong columns of light dart forth. They
are moft frequently feen in dry weather, though there are inftances of their appearance before, during, and
after a fhower of rain. The lights are often feen tinged with yellow, green, and purple. Sec Oggert Olaf-
fen’s and Biarne Paulfen’s Travels through Iceland, fec. 855.
+ The parhelions are obferved in Iceland chiefly at the approach of the Greenland ice, when an intenfe
degree of cold is produced, anh the frozen vapours fillthe air: there are many inftances proving, that under
fuch circumftances, the fun never appears without fhewing one or feveral parhelions, and o!ten a rainbow om
the oppofite fide.
£ About twenty-one or twenty Englifh miles.
4N 2 The
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