I was quietly sitting in my state-room, awaiting the departure of the steamer, when a tremendous racket on the cabin steps, followed by a rush of feet up and down the saloon, startled me out of a pleasant home-dream.

“Hello! What the devil! I say! Where’s every body! Stoord! Blast the fellow! Here, Bowser! What’r ye abeaout! Ho there! Where the dooce are our berths? By Jove! Ha! ha! This is jolly!”

Other voices joined in, with a general chorus of complaints and exclamations—“Egad! it’s a do! No berths, no state-rooms! Ho, Stoord! Where’s my trunk? I say, Stoord, where’s my fishing-rod? Hey! hey! did you ’appen to see my overalls? I’ve lost my gun! ’Pon my word, this is a pretty do! Let’s go see the Agent?” “Come on! Certainly!” “Oh, hang it, no!” “Oh yes!” “Here, Bowser! What the devil! Where’s Bowser? Gone ashore, by Jove! A pretty kettle of fish!” Here there was a sudden and general stampede, and amid loud exclamations of “Beastly!” and “Disgusting!” the party left the cabin. I barely had time to see that it consisted of some four or five fashionable tourists—spirited young bloods of sporting proclivities, who had taken passage for Iceland. The prospect of having some company was pleasant enough, and from the specimen I had seen there could be no doubt it would be lively and entertaining.

Once more during the night I was aroused by a repetition of the noises and exclamations already described. The steamer was moving off. The passengers were all on board. We were battering our way through the canal. Soon the heaving waters of the ocean began to subdue the enthusiasm of the sportsmen, and before morning my ears were saluted by sounds and observations of a very different character.

I shall only add at present, in reference to this lively party of young “Britishers,” that I found them very good fellows in their way—a little boisterous and inexperienced, but well-educated and intelligent. The young chap with the dog was what we would call in America a “regular bird.” He and his dog afforded us infinite diversion during the whole passage—racing up and down the decks, into and out of the cabin, and all over each other. There was something so fresh and sprightly about the fellow, something so good-natured, that I could readily excuse his roughness of manner. One of the others, a quiet, scholastic-looking person, who did not really belong to the party, having only met them on board, was a young collegian well versed in Icelandic literature. He was going to Iceland to perfect himself in the language of the country, and make some translations of the learned Sagas.

A favorable wind enabled us to sight the Orkneys on the afternoon following our departure from the Frith of Forth. Next day we passed the Shetlands, of which we had a good view. The rocky shores of these islands, all rugged and surf-beaten, with myriads of wild-fowl darkening the air around them, presented a most tempting field of exploration. I longed to take a ramble in the footsteps of Dr. Johnson; but to see the Shetlands would be to lose Iceland, and of the two I preferred seeing the latter. After a pleasant passage of two days and a half from Grangemouth we made the Faroe Islands, and had the good fortune to secure, without the usual loss of time occasioned by fogs, an anchorage in the harbor of Thorshavn.

A DANDY TOURIST.

THORSHAVN.