5°4 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 9, 1884 



surround the lava (the OdaSahraun), and from each of 

 these in turn, as my base of operations, to undertake 

 trips into and about the lava to such a distance as cir- 

 cumstances in each particular case seemed to warrant. 

 To attempt any comprehensive survey of the whole lava 

 at once, the explorer must be supplied with a far larger 

 stock of ponies than I, with my limited means, could 

 muster, and unless such an expedition can carry sufficient 

 fodder for the animals, any lengthened sojourn in one 

 and the same spot is out of the question. But, by 

 the method of exploration that circumstances forced me 

 to adopt, the result must always come short of one's 

 aspirations. 



During the first part of July, which I spent in the 

 country-side of Myvatn, I was engaged in examining the 

 volcanoes of the neighbourhood, which for the most part 

 as yet are quite unknown. I also investigated the geology 

 of the country generally, made collections of insects and 

 plants, and ascended the highest mountain peaks in order 

 both to take the bearings of the mountains about 

 OdaSahraun, which are visible from Myvatn, and to 

 connect my surveys with such points in the neighbour- 

 hood as Bjorn Gunnlaugsson had formerly fixed trigono- 

 metrically. Having finished my outfit and other prepara- 

 tions, I started on July 16, from the place where 1 am 

 now writing, for the desert. The weather was cold and 

 threatening, with snow-showers travelling along the higher 

 mountain rises. Our first day's eastward march took us 

 over the mountain called Namafjall into the large wilder- 

 ness of Myvatnsorrefi, which is bounded on the east 

 by Jokulsa i AxarfirSi, the longest river in Iceland. 

 Generally speaking this wilderness is covered with old 

 lavas, which are connected with that of OdaSahraun ; but 

 plains of drift-sand open here and there, which arc 

 studded with hillocks sustaining tufts oiElymus arenarius. 

 In these wilds are found a great number of craters 

 arranged in rows on defined lines from north to south, 

 many crevasses, and rifts floored with earth at the bottom 

 (jarSfoll, i.e. earth-falls, sinks, or dips), which is but what 

 might be expected, where so many lavas have welled forth 

 from the disruptured bowels of the earth. In this locality 

 there occurred a great eruption in 1875, and in shaping 

 our course to the more southern localities, which were the 

 object of my exploration, we passed close under the 

 northern skirts of the new lava which that eruption 

 created. As the day wore on, a gale of wind arose, and 

 in such a case travelling over these parts ceases to be a 

 pleasure. For some time we had the sand-storm at 

 some distance to the northward before our eyes until it 

 overtook us at last ; columnal clouds of brown ashes are 

 whirled into the air, and on joining together in ever 

 increasing numbers the whole view soon becomes enve- 

 loped in such dusty darkness that eyesight becomes of 

 little avail ; eyes, nostrils, ears are filled with pulverised 

 sand, which is of such a fineness as to penetrate without 

 difficulty even the traveller's clothes ; drifts of it find their 

 way into the boxes, and gather together under the saddles 

 and the packing gear on the horses : when in contact 

 with the skin it causes great irritation and general dis- 

 comfort to the body. 



As we proceeded through this wilderness, we were 

 struck by the frequent occurrence of horses' bones, in some 

 cases singly, in others in masses, peeping through the 

 sand between the hillocks. This day, by 1 1 o'clock at 

 night, we halted in Fjallagj^, a long glen between two 

 rifts, where we found Elyinus arenarius growing in con- 

 siderable quantity, but no water ; it was a troublesome 

 task to secure our tent in the loose drift-sand, but after 

 repeated attempts we succeeded at last in fixing the pegs 

 tolerably securely in the flanks of the hummocks among 

 the interwoven tissues of the roots of the upright lyme- 

 grass. In the evening the temperature fell to 30 0- 2 F., 

 and during the night the earth was covered white with 

 snow ; our ponies spent the uncomfortable time in con- 



stant attempts at running away, which, however, were 

 frustrated by our vigilance. The following morning the 

 same weather continued, still alternating all through the 

 day between sand-storms, snow-showers, hail and sleet 

 squalls. With our view obscured so that we could not 

 take any bearings of the mountains, we still pushed on all 

 day long in a southerly direction, reaching our baiting- 

 place to the south of Her ubreiS late at night, in some 

 grass plots along the River Lindaa, a tributary to the 

 above-mentioned Jokulsa, which it joins close on the 

 northern spurs of HertfubreiS. The evening came on 

 bitterly cold, and with such a thick fog that even the 

 mountain of HerSubreiS in our close neighbourhood was 

 rendered invisible. From this spot, where I remained 

 for a fortnight, I directed my excursions in various direc- 

 tions about the eastern portion of OdaSahraun. HerSu- 

 breiS is one of the highest mountains in Iceland (5290 

 feet), and of remarkably commanding aspect, terminating, 

 towards the top, in a shoulder of precipitous rocks capped 

 with a cone of perennial ice. This mountain, in spite of 

 repeated attempts, has never yet been ascended. In a 

 north-westerly direction from HerSubreiS there arises a 

 mountain-range of considerable length, on a line from 

 south to north, which is called HerSubreiSarfjoll or 

 Dyngjufjoll ytri (the outer, i.e. northern, Dyngjufjoll), and 

 is utterly unknown. My first excursions I directed to the 

 examination of these mountains. To the south of this 

 range there rises a great volcano called Dyngja, built up 

 of layers of lava with an inclination of 8' to g° on 

 all sides and rising shield-fashioned to an elevation of 

 3600 feet ; it bears a close resemblance to the famous 

 volcano SkjaldbreiS in the south. On the 19th I set out 

 to examine this volcano. Starting in the early morning 

 from my tent on the banks of Lindaa, 1 had to traverse a 

 lava plateau 1500 feet above the level of the sea, and such 

 was the difficulty of travelling here, that frequently we 

 were on the point of giving up all further attempts 1 t 

 pushing our ponies on, but by dint of perseverance w e 

 reached the volcano after a tortuous scramble of four 

 hours and a half. The layers of lava forming the slopes 

 of this volcano are excessively rough and of peculiar 

 formation, all split up into fissures from north to south 

 or hollowed out by caves and lava bubbles. Wherever 

 the foot is planted the ground sounds hollow ; in every 

 direction there are innumerable hornitos, seemingly formed 

 originally of a variety of strands of the fiery ooze twisted 

 into all sorts of fantastic shapes, the outer surface sug- 

 gestive of a tangle of intertwisted snakes of inordinate 

 thickness. When we had made the ascent half way up 

 the mountain, we were overtaken by fog and snowstorm, 

 so that in a short time all objects were hidden out of view 

 and the earth covered with snow. Still in the expectation 

 of the fog clearing away, and the snowstorm blowing over, 

 we went on, and after two hours' brisk walk reached the 

 summit of the volcano. Here all was covered with ice 

 and snow in a temperature of 28° F. Although the 

 blinding snowstorm prevented anything being seen, I set 

 my theodolite on the chance of the darkness clearing, and 

 had to wait for an hour and a half shivering in the biting 

 blast, when the weather so far cleared that I could take 

 the bearings of several surrounding mountain peaks. 

 This volcano has never been ascended by any man before 

 me, nor would the fact have been passed over in silence, 

 if such had been the case, for even in Iceland the activity 

 of fire has hardly left any traces behind comparable to 

 what is witnessed here. The original crater is 1500 to 

 1600 feet in diameter, and has, some time subsequent 

 to its first formation, been filled with masses of lava, and 

 now exhibits in the centre a large patch of lava round the 

 circumference of which there stand twelve peak-formed 

 lava columns. In the centre of this plain again there is 

 an enormous crater 400 to 500 feet in diameter and 600 

 to 700 feet deep. It is hardly possible to picture to the 

 imagination any sight more stupendous than that which 



