After concluding my frugal meal, I sought out a corner beside a cottage, where I was partially sheltered from the too-familiar wind; and wrapping my cloak around me, lay down on the ground, having wished myself, with all my heart, a good night's rest and pleasant dreams, in the broad daylight, {37} under the canopy of heaven.

Just dropping off to sleep, I was surprised by a mild rain, which, of course, at once put to flight every idea of repose.

Thus, after all, I was obliged to wake some one up, to obtain the shelter of a roof.
The best room, _i.e._ the store-room, was thrown open for my accommodation, and a small wooden bedstead placed at my disposal.
Chambers of this kind are luckily found wherever two or three cottages lie contiguous to each other; they are certainly far from inviting, as dried fish, train-oil, tallow, and many other articles of the same description combine to produce a most unsavoury atmosphere.

Yet they are infinitely preferable to the dwellings of the peasants, which, by the by, are the most filthy dens that can be imagined.

Besides being redolent of every description of bad odour, these cottages are infested with vermin to a degree which can certainly not be surpassed, except in the dwellings of the Greenlanders and Laplanders.
June 18th.
Yesterday we had been forced to put upon our poor horses a wearisome distance of more than fifty miles, as the last forty miles led us through desert and uninhabited places, boasting not even a single cottage.
To-day, however, our steeds had a light duty to perform, for we only proceeded seven miles to the little village of Reikiadal, where I halted to-day, in order to visit the celebrated springs.
The inconsiderable village called Reikiadal, consisting only of a church and a few cottages, is situated amidst pleasant meadows.