There came on board the _Botnia_ at _Húsavik_ three gentlemen with whom I was to associate a good deal during the coming year on the _Matador_, Walter Friedeberg, F. R. G. S., of Berlin, Baron Axel Klinckowström and his son Harald of Stockholm, Sweden. They were bound for _Mývatn_ to collect birds for the Museums of Berlin and Upsala. The Baron proved to be a rare entertainer, he speaks several languages with fluency, he is a man of profound learning, a scientist with several volumes in Swedish and German to the credit of his versatile pen. He has travelled from Spitzbergen to the Antarctic, associated with some of the best known explorers and scientists. He had many an anecdote with which to entertain the company. Late in the evening we steamed across the bay towards _Akureyri_, Corn-Land. At midnight we passed close to the coast beyond _Flatey_, Flat-Island, and the atmosphere was so clear that we had perfect views of the old craters along the shore. There are four of them and their rims coincide. The half of the craters next to the ocean has been blown out so that they present the appearance of four huge clam shells standing on edge with the concave sides towards the observer. The interiors are scorched and blistered and give a suggestion of the fierce fires that once raged within these walls. We passed up the _Eyjaförðr_, Island-Fiord, the longest and finest of the many fiords in Iceland, and at five in the morning, long ere the town awoke, we tied up to the little wharf in _Akureyri_. Our sea journey was at an end. Our guide and ponies having arrived from _Reykjavik_ the night before, we left the comfortable steamer without regret to spend a month with the ponies, to explore new regions, to enjoy the meadows, moors and mountains of a marvellous land. CHAPTER XIII MÝVATN “The lands are there sun-gilded at the hour When other lands are silvered by the moon,— The midnight hour, when down the sun doth pour A blaze of light, as elsewhere at the noon.” —_Anon._ Ólafur Eyvindsson had crossed the country from _Reykjavik_ by way of the western dales with a train of eight ponies. The packing boxes, saddles and provisions had been forwarded by the coast steamer, so that when we landed from the _Botnia_, thanks to the faithfulness of Helgi Zoëga, everything was in readiness for our departure. At one in the afternoon we entered a launch and crossed the broad _Eyjarförðr_. On the beach we found a farmer with ponies saddled and waiting for our departure to _Mývatn_, Midge-Lake. Ólafur had taken the precaution to drive the ponies around the upper end of the fiord and across the marshes at low tide the previous evening for pasturage as grass is scarce in _Akureyri_ and the charges are excessive.