A journey across Iceland in the summer of 1900 offers a glimpse of travel before modern roads: an expedition combining an inland crossing, journeys through western Iceland and voyages along the coast. W. Bisiker’s account, Across Iceland, documents those connections through descriptions, illustrations and maps.
Bisiker describes travelling across Central Iceland from the northeast to the southwest, followed by further journeys overland in the west and by sea into the fjords of the northwest, north and east coasts. His account shows how one travelling party combined different ways of moving through the country, rather than following a single continuous land route.
The international connection was maritime. The party reached Iceland aboard a vessel belonging to the United Steamship Company, which Bisiker describes as a Danish company trading from Copenhagen to Leith, then onward to the Faroes and Iceland. That itinerary placed the Icelandic journey within a wider network of ports.
For the inland expedition, the book’s illustrations record a pack train crossing the Hvitá and two men loading a pony. Other illustrations show a river crossing and a small snow slope. Together, these records give concrete glimpses of animals carrying supplies and the terrain encountered along the route. They do not establish how quickly ordinary residents travelled or how accessible these journeys were to different households.
The six travellers also had a particular purpose. Bisiker calls them a semi-scientific party. Their interests included botany, geology, photography and geography; his own work involved mapping part of the country they crossed and recording its physical features. This was an organised expedition whose experience cannot automatically stand for everyday Icelandic travel.
Its value lies in that specificity. The account preserves one documented combination of overseas shipping, coastal passages and inland pack transport. It helps explain how a journey could connect different parts of Iceland, while leaving broader questions about routine travel, costs and journey times open.
