Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/569

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in the past than to-day, and may have developed as a recreative feature in the long periods of isolation and idleness. Examples of this old art are difficult to get, and high prices are paid for authentic specimens.

I obtained an antique lamp, in hammered brass from Olafur Sveinsson, the goldsmith and jeweler (5 Austur St., Reykjavik), who deals in every variety of Icelandic curiosities, including belts, brooches, head-dresses, mantles, snuff boxes, bed boards, buttons, bracelets, drinking horns, etc. I paid about four dollars for my little fish-oil lamp and prize it greatly.

From Reykjavik the excursions into the interior are most usually made, though, as I described in a former number, they may begin from the east or northern ports. But the guides and ponies coming from Reykjavik and are sent overland. The preparations for a long sojourn in the interior are formidable, especially when the trip contemplated is beyond the zone of habitation and brings the traveller into the tenantless tracts of the middle island. I had no such ambitions or expensive schemes to consider. The ponies represent the vehicle of transport, and none to the accomplished rider could be more acceptable. Their endurance is phenomenal. Two are allotted to each rider, in order to