A Visit to Lonely Iceland 



737 



THE FAMOUS FALLS 



Near Geysir, at a riding distance of 

 about an hour and a half or two hours, 

 is situated, on the Hvita, or White River, 

 the GuUfoss— Gold Fall. The Gullfoss 

 descends in two immense cataracts which 

 together are said to more than equal 

 the height of Niagara. The Hvita takes 

 its rise in Hvitarvatn, a lake fed by 

 the melting ice of the Lang Jokull, a 

 large glacier lying from 20 to 25 miles 

 north of the Gullfoss. The waters of the 

 Hvita, like those of all the other glacier 

 rivers of Iceland, are of a dull, yellow 

 color, ver}' swift and cold. As they leap 

 over the immense precipices of the Gull- 

 foss and boil and foam in the narrow 

 gorge below, such an impression of 

 grandeur and majesty is aroused as 

 would be well nigh impossible to awaken 

 elsewhere. Both in volume and in pictur- 

 esqueness the Gullfoss far surpasses its 

 only Icelandic rival, the Dettifoss, in the 

 north. 



After visiting Geysir and the Gullfoss, 

 the majority of tourists, who have but a 

 short time at their disposal, proceed in 

 a southeasterly direction, across the Hvita 

 and the Thjorsa to Hekla, the most fa- 

 mous, although not the largest, volcano in 

 Iceland. As I did not visit Hekla per- 

 sonally, I cannot speak authoritatively as 

 to the difficulties of its ascent. It is said, 

 however, to be a reasonably easy climb, 

 but an entire day is required and an 

 early start is imperative. 



The trip from Reykjavik to Hekla, as 

 I have described it above, should take 

 not less than six or seven days. The 

 return trip may be made by a more 

 southerly route, on which the hot springs, 

 boiling mud cauldrons, and sulphur beds 

 of Krisuvik may be examined. This re- 

 turn journey will extend the time re- 

 quired to a total of eleven or twelve days. 



THE INTERIOR OE THE ISLAND IS DESERT 

 AND BARREN 



The interior of Iceland is a vast desert 

 of rubble and sand, broken up by moun- 

 tains and glaciers, and almost utterly 



devoid of vegetation. Across "one of the 

 routes of this desert^ the Sprengisandr, 

 or "Bursting Sands," our party jour- 

 neyed to the north coast of the island. 

 The Sprengisandr has been little de- 

 scribed, for but few choose to cross Ice- 

 land by this inhospitable route. It is 

 seldom used, even by the Icelanders them- 

 selves, almost all preferring to lengthen 

 the journey by taking the more accessible 

 and less dangerous coast routes. A 

 guide thoroughly familiar with the Spren- 

 gisandr and its environment is absolutely 

 essential, for the long ford of the Thjorsa, 

 which the party must cross before reach- 

 ing the desert proper, is difficult to lo- 

 cate, and, once across the river, the dan- 

 gers of losing the way and of becoming 

 entangled in the quicksands from which 

 this route derives its name are not merely 

 nominal. 



In order to convey an accurate idea of 

 the barrenness of the interior of Ice- 

 land, even at the risk of digressing, I 

 cannot do better than quote from Mr 

 W. G. Lock's "Guide to Iceland," pub- 

 lished in 1882, but even today the best 

 and most painstaking handbook of the 

 island. He says (page 38) : "Broadly 

 speaking, only the fertile tracts and val- 

 leys of the coastal regions are inhabited, 

 the interior being mainly a barren ele- 

 vated plateau, studded with ice-clad 

 mountains and slumbering volcanoes ; and 

 it is believed there are not half a dozen 

 houses in the whole island distant in a 

 beeline forty miles from salt water." To 

 appreciate the full significance of this 

 quotation it must be understood that Ice- 

 land contains 38.000 square miles, over 

 5,000 square miles more than Ireland. 



To return again to the Sprengisandr. 

 Properly speaking, the Sprengisandr 

 itself requires but one day to cross, but 

 from the time one leaves the last farm- 

 house in the south until the first habita- 

 tion is reached in the north, no less than 

 four days are required ; during this time 

 we did not see one human being besides 

 the members of our own party. The 

 chief reason which operates to make the 

 Sprengisandr and its approaches im- 



