3-066-106 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The tourist in high latitudes: starting for the geysirs in Iceland, 1881. 'British tourists in summer can easily get to Iceland, by steamer...and they enjoy much longer days...as the sun does not set, except for two or three hours...They find simple, but tolerably comfortable, board and lodging at Reykjavik, the only town of Iceland, whence they can hire ponies and ride forth, like the party shown in our Illustration, to visit the curious and wonderful scenes in the neighbouring volcanic region. Mount Hecla, a powerful active volcano, is seen in the distance; and there are other "jokuls," of considerable note, besides vast fields of lava...; but the Geysirs, or boiling springs, are the most celebrated rarities among the natural features of that island. It should be observed,...that a "geysir," properly speaking, is a spring which spouts up a jet of hot water; one that only discharges a cloud of steam is called a "reykir." The most remarkable geysirs are found at Haukadalr and Uxahver, within a morning's ride eastward of Reykjavik...These and other natural wonders of Iceland are to be seen by the tourists at Reykjavik, who appear in our Sketch waiting for their ponies to be shod and saddled before starting on a trip to the geysirs'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.