May, 1892. 
FIRST ASCENT OF THE ORjEFA JOKULL. 
97 
THE FIRST ASCENT OF THE ORiEFA JOKULL,* 
BY FREDK. W. W. HOWELL, F.R.G.S. 
[All Rights Reserved.] 
At 4 45 on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 12th, 
1891, we reached the summit of the Almannaskarth (or All 
Men’s Peaked Pass), that Icelandic Skarf Gap which pierces 
the mountain ridge ending in the beautiful three-peaked 
Vestrahorn. As we rounded the corner of the last spur we 
suddenly exchanged the homely foreground of brown rock for 
a glorious sweep of sun-lit sea. Right across it, fifty-two miles 
away, westward ho ! rose in virgin beauty the snow-clad 
ridge of the Onefa. The coast between was fringed with 
glaciers from the split-up Heinabergs to the giant mass of the 
Breithamerkr. Twenty-four hours later we were struggling 
with the drainage torrents from these icy masses, and at mid¬ 
night on that same day the electric-gold of a grand aurora 
was scintillating over our heads in long quivering bundles as 
we neared Reynivellir. 
On the 14th, when we turned out of Eyolfur’s hospitable 
home, I carefully examined the eastern flanks of our moun¬ 
tain, now just twenty miles away, with a telescope kindly 
produced by our amiable host. Two broken ribs curve east 
and south-east and south from under the summit. Somewhere 
in the neighbourhood of the most southerly of these Mr. 
Paulson’s (the first) attempt was made in 1794 from Kvisker. 
Reaching the top of the snow-fields he beheld sundry 
peaks with “ hats ” of ice on, and, thinking discretion the 
better part of valour, returned lest he should be dashed in 
pieces in the chasms at the feet of the said peaks. Up 
the sky-line there on the south, Mr. Holland and Mr. Shep¬ 
herd made their attempt in 1861, till an impassable rock wall 
did for Mr. Holland what fatigue had already nearly accom¬ 
plished for Mr. Shepherd. To the north of the summit was 
the gap in the snow-field, through which had hurtled the 
snow-laden storm that levelled my leading guide and myself 
a year ago. 
I judged it but a short day’s ride to Kvisker, but reckoned 
without the Breithamerkr. This mighty glacier, twelve 
miles wide , as well as long, found us a dozen hours of 
work. Its drainage river, the Jokulsa (the glacier river, par 
*From a paper read before the Geological Section of the Birming¬ 
ham Natural History and Microscopical Society, February 16th, 1892. 
