THE ICELAND EXPEDITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4239, 21 October 1874, Page 3

THE ICELAND EXPEDITION.

(From the Correspondent of the New York Herald.) Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, July 21—1 p.m. We left Aberdeen yesterday, and arrived here this forenoon. It is a quaint old town, with a fine harbour and good anchorage. When it was founded nobody seems to know, but it was somewhere back in old Norse days. They were evidently Christians, for they built a church, and it was in consequence called Kirkevaag, which simply means Church Bay. It is chiefly remarked for its grand old cathedra], built in 1137 or 1139—accounts differ—by powerful Irol Ronald, and was by him dedicated to the patron Saint of Orkney, St. Magnus, who, when in the flesh as a proper man, was cruelly set upon and murdered some twenty years before. SIGHT SEEING ON LAND. As soon as I could get ashore I hurried off to see it, and, having other projects in view, wo all stopped by the way at a little comfortable looking hotel, whose proprietor promptly offered to bo our guide, and we followed him up to the very top of the tower, through any number of round galleries and narrow winding stairways. The view from the top was very fine. Below us lay the Aberdeen looking town, for all the houses are built of granite. Hound about lay a rolling country, clothed with flocks of sheep, but without trees, for the sea winds are so strong that no trees will grow. Away beyond was the fine castle of Belony, while at our feet were the ruins of the Bishop’s palace and of the Earl’s palace. The Bishop’s palace finds quite a memorable place in history, for it was here that, in 1203, after the battle of Torgs, King Hakon, or Haoo, of Denmark, took up his residence and died. The Earl’s palace, still in a fair state of preservation, is a monument of the tyranny and oppression of Earl Patrick Steward, by whom the people hereabouts at that time were plundered and oppressed. It is gratifying to know that in the end he had his head chopped off after the most approved method of the time. THE CATHEDiiAL. - The cathedral itself is 226 feet long by fiftysix feet in width, while the cross is ninety-two feet by twenty-eight feet. Originally the cross was precisely one-half the length of the nave, but thirty-two feet were added about three centuries ago. This part is now used as a parish church, and is .partitioned off from the great body of the cathedral by a wooden partition, and by being more decidedly Gothic the effect is in a measure destroyed. The whole interior rising to the roof is very imposing. The roof is seventy-one feet above the floor. The massive columns, as well as the whole of the church, are of red sandstone, which is everywhere much crumbled. The style is the early Saxon-Norman, and is regarded as one of the finest specimens of that style in existence. I would have lingered by the hour in this old, grand work of an age which we cannot now comprehend, for when this great pile was erected there could not have been 500 inhabitants here, to care for it or glory in it. The age which it represents, the feudal times of our traditional chivalry, gave us all those architectural wonders, now so often ruins, that excite our wonder and admiration; but while beholding them we are too apt to forget that they were erected at the sacrifice of the liberties of the people, merely to gratify the passing whim of some powerful king, lord, or baron. The churchwood, with its crumbled and crumbling tombstones and slabs and monuments, on which could often not be traced a mark or a letter, and its newly-made graves, was a place of peculiar interest ; but from it I hastened away to see the most curious and, in its way, perhaps the most remarkable ruin in all Britain. This is the widely celebrated MAESHOWB. It lies on the Stromness road, nine miles away from Kirkwall, and hither we hied away over a good turnpike road, behind two funereallooking horses, with sore knees and eyes, and in a waggon that gave me the best bouncing I ever had in all my life. But there is some compensation in the fine view we had of the Bay of Firth on the right, and of Wideford Hill on the left, and then of the long stretches of purple heather which met us here and there, and the picturesque little thatched huts and villages. One of these, Fiustone by name, seemed to have about 200 inhabitants, who lived in the oddest looking old one story stone huts, you , could hardly call them houses. Three good sized churches are, however, supported by this singular people, and the three parsonages looked quite cosey and comfortable, the only ones answering'’that description we saw. The Maeshowe is situated in the midst of a plain which washes down to the sea. From the summit of it wo see a mile away the standing stones, supposed to he the work of the Druids of old. Near by are the Loch of Stenuess and the Kiely Tang Hills, beyond which lies the parish of Orphir, where was fought the famous battle of Bigs wall, where numerous mounds mark the victory over the old Caithness invaders by the Orcanians. The Maeshowe remains to the present time A MYSTEKY to everybody. Some think it one thing and some another. It appears as a simple tumulus of conical shape, about 300 feet in circumference and 90 feet in diameter, surrounded by a trench about 10 feet wide and from 3 to 10 feet deep. It is all overgrown with the finest grass, and is about 40 feet above the general level. The interior is the remarkable feature. The stones of which it is constructed are of immense size and have required extensive machinery to move them and place them where they are. The entrance in the side of the mound is by a doorway 2 feet 4 inches in width, and gives access to a passage 54 feat long, which leads into a chamber 15 feet square by 13 feet high. On the sides are cells of smaller dimensions. The surface of many of the faces of the stones is polished and carved with Runic inscriptions. In one place there is the figure of a dragon, and below this is a serpent. MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. One of the inscriptions has been translated variously, but the following is very likely correct :—“ This sepulchral mound was raised for the sons of the deceased hero Todlrock. They were wise, brave, and powerful. Scarcely have there ever been men such as they were in the Northwest. Great funeral honors were paid them.” ' If this Todlrock mentioned in this epitapli was the famous EAGNAE TODDEOCK, the erection of this structure must have been in the latter part of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century. It is probable that after the stone structure was erected it was doubtless covered over with its present immense load of earth, taken from the ditch which surrounds it.