Hveradalir in Kerlingarfjöll.

I have read with great interest Mr. Humlum's Paper on Hveradalir in Kerlingarfjöll.*) It seems to me that his Sketch-Map gives a quite clear and correct idea of the hot spring areas in Vestur and Mid-Hveradalir as well as in the main valley of Austur-Hveradalir, and it is therefore a pity that he had no time to examine tre springs in Austur-Hveradalir for giving us a similar sketch of the hot spring areas north and northeast of the main valley. In 1906 I spent two days (not "ein paar Stunden" as Wunder indicates) on exploring the hot springs of Kerlingarfjöll. Nevertheless I considered my knowledge of this interesting hot spring district so fragmentary that I abstained from giving a detailled description of the different ravines as well as of the individual hot springs. In my work "The Hot Springs of Iceland" I have therefore only indirectly indicated, in the explanatory note of PlateVll a, that there is a great number of hot springs in ravines on the right side of the main valley of Austur-Hveradalir. I can still remember two ravines running in northeasterly directions from the main river. From the ravine farthest east a third ravine runs first in northwesterly then in northerly directions passing near the end of the other ravine. In all these ravines we encountered a great number of hot springs, but the ravine runnig north shewed by far the greatest activity. Besides this, we saw several more isolated hot springs on the surrounding hills and mountain slopes. It seems to me rather probable that the cauldron valley mentioned by Wunder is identical with the northern most ravine mentioned just know. On Wunder's Map the connexion between the cauldron valley and the main valley of Austur-Hveradalir is missing, on the other hand

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*) Geografisk Tidsskrift. 39. Bind, 1936, p. 11.

I have now forgotten the relative position of the ravine to the adjacent mountain peaks so that a quite definitive decision is not obtainable. Hoyever, at my visit it seemed to me must likely that we had seen there the northernmost hot spring area, but we had no time to ascend the mountains on the northern side of this broad ravine to ascertain that there were no hot spring groups farther north. Further, Wunder's description of the hot springs in the cauldron valley with their sulphur deposits agrees quite well with what we saw in the ravine under discussion.

I should like to point out that Austur-Hveradalir does not only
include the main valley, as shown by Humlum's Map, but also the
ravines situated on the right side of this valley.

Reykjavik, August 16th 1936.