Freminmlle j s Voyage to the North Pole. 85 



our commandant at first was making for the Bay of Strunsa, 

 in Danish Lapland ; but contrary winds forced us to relin- 

 quish this intention, and to bear away for Iceland. 



July 3d, we were off Langeness, the N. E. point of that 

 large island ; as we meant to bring up in the Bay of Patrix 

 Fiord, at the opposite extremity, our course' made us nearly 

 go the circuit of it, and we seized the opportunity of adding 

 to our geographical information, with respect to the coasts of a 

 country so little known. 



Langeness, or Long Point, is easily to be distinguished ; 

 it is a low land, stretching a great way into the sea. I take 

 it to be the only part of the island that has so very little of ele- 

 vation ; all the coasts are lofty, abrupt, and perpendicularly 

 steep. Scarcely had we doubled this point, when we found 

 high lands over-hanging us like walls ; their rough and craggy 

 indentations, the basaltic columns of their brown sides, feasted 

 the eye with a spectacle truly picturesque ; but not a glimpse 

 of verdure, no signs of vegetation were discernible on a soil 

 of which Vulcan alone seems to have possessed the property. 

 At a very great distance we could distinguish the smoking 

 summit of Mount Krafte, a considerable volcano, that makes 

 part of the mountainous chain in the N. K. of the island. 



On the 5th, we discovered the small island of Walzback, 

 distant about five leagues from the Terra Firma ; it stands 

 so low, that it scarcely appears above the level of the 

 sea. Kergueleu, who was in these seas in the years 1767 and 

 1768, reports, from the evidence of the whale-fishers, that no 

 passage existed between Walsback and Iceland, from a chain 

 of breakers stretching through it. We determined to ascer- 

 tain this point, and bore up into the passage, finding a consi- 

 derable depth of water everywhere, as it is all along on the 

 coast. We were continually sounding, and the lead always 

 brought up a portion of heavy volcanic sand, or a kind of 

 black puzzolane. 



July 6th, we reached the Isles of Portland, at the most 

 southern extremity of the island ; it was at this point that the 

 Marquis Verdun de la Crenne terminated his voyage of dis- 

 covery ; when he came to visit Iceland, in 1771, in the frigate 

 La Flore, having with him Borda and Pingre, for scientific 

 purposes. The labours of those valuable men well deserve the 

 praise of rigid accuracy ; we have observed that the chart pub- 

 lished by them in 1776, with respect to all the parts of the 

 coast of Iceland which they visited, that is to say, the part 

 from the Isles of Portland to Patrix Fiord, is traced with a 

 precision that leaves nothing to be wished for, either in point 

 of positions or of configurations. 



