738 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Milking; Time 



practicable as a traveling route is the ex- 

 treme scarcity of grass for the ponies. 

 The desert itself offers absolutely none, 

 and even after this part of the route is 

 covered the forage is very meager. In 

 consequence, our ponies were obliged at 

 one time to go for over twenty-four hours 

 without food of any kind. 



If the term scenery may be used of the 

 region of the Sprengisandr, that which 

 presents itself during the time necessary 

 to reach the first fertile land in the north 

 is monotonous beyond expression. The 

 vast undulating plains of the desert, 

 broken here and there by small hills of 

 the same sand and volcanic ash, offer 

 no other obstruction to the eye than slen- 

 der wooden stakes, ten or twelve feet in 

 height, placed at intervals of perhaps 400 

 or 500 feet for the guidance of the win- 

 ter wayfarer who may elect to expose 

 himself and his pon}' to the inclemency 

 of this route at a season when it is cov- 

 ered to a considerable depth with snow. 

 Where the desert joins its rocky and 

 mountainous approach on the north, these 

 stakes give place to high rock cairns, 



standing like sentinels on every elevation 

 of a forbidden and hostile region. 



The Sprengisandr lies between two im- 

 mense glaciers, one of which, the Vatna 

 Jokull, or Great Glacier, is said to be the 

 largest in all Europe. Because of its 

 situation, the desert is continually ex- 

 posed to the fierce winds and snows 

 which sweep across these ice-fields. For 

 over half the day, in August, on which 

 our party crossed the desert, we rode in 

 the face of a driving snow-storm, which, 

 although it had abated somewhat by 

 nightfall, did not wholly cease until nine 

 o'clock of the following morning. The 

 cold was intense, and with our compara- 

 tively light sleeping equipment the night 

 was spent very uncomfortably. 



After reaching the first farm-house, 

 Myri, in the north, one day's ride brought 

 us to Akureyri, which is the second town 

 in point of size on the island. Here our 

 party separated, the majority returning 

 to Reykjavik by the western-coast route, 

 while two of us, with one guide and 

 a complement of nine ponies, went east- 

 ward. 



