3-070-532 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Tourist in Iceland: on the road to the geysirs - boiling eggs in the hot springs, 1881. 'It is a journey of seventy miles, or two days, from Reykjavik, the seaport and only town to the principal exhibition of Geysirs, at a place called Haukadalr. There, on the slope of a small hill crested with cliffs of trap, overlooking a vale that descends to the Hvita or White River valley, is a piece of ground, less than half a mile square, containing all the Geysirs which are usually visited. The lower part of this ground is a grassy meadow, in which are found a number of wells and springs of hot water, each surrounded by a silicious incrustation. You can immerse a saucepan or a bag of eggs in the boiling water, and get your dinner cooked free of expense or trouble. This simple culinary performance, so wondrously favoured by Nature, is the subject of one of our Iceland Sketches. The atmosphere of the whole place is loaded with steam, and there is a pretty strong smell of sulphur'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.