Fastening forget-me-nots into the manes of the ponies we resumed our ride up the valley and turned into the _Öxnadalr_, Ox-Valley. It is a fine illustration of a glacial valley. The cross section is nearly a semicircle and the sides are deeply grooved; the glacial carving is much more pronounced than that of the lower end of _Seyðisfjörðr_. We stopped over night at _Thverá_, Tributary-River, in a humble home perched upon the steep hillside above the river and just below the ice cliffs. Across the river rise the _Hraundrangar_, Lava Pillars, which tower in a long chain of spires above the castellated ridge, a prominent feature in the landscape for miles up and down the valley. High up between the ridges there is a sheet of water which pours out through a small rift in the nearer ridge and falls into the valley as if some Moses had smitten the lava wall with his rod of wrath. We enjoyed our stay at _Thverá_ and experienced several things of interest. It is an ancient farm located on the trail through the defile where Icelanders have passed between the east and west for a thousand years. A newly wedded couple had just taken up their abode under the paternal roof in this historic spot and were beginning the problems of life where generations of their ancestors had solved the same enigmas with the variations which the succeeding centuries have added. They were attentive to our necessities with the inborn hospitality of the race but there was something in the atmosphere that revealed the newness of the work and the shyness of the wedded couple added much to our amusement. [Illustration: _Thverá, a Highland Home in the Öxnadalr._ _Vatnsdalshólar, Numberless Conical Hills in Vatnsdalr._]