102 
FIRST ASCENT OF THE OR.EFA JOKULL. 
May, 1892- 
trigonometrical measurement had assigned to the peak of the 
Orsefa. It was disappointing, of course, but nevertheless 
the vantage ground was valuable. A few moments’ observa¬ 
tion convinced me that I was on the summit of the rock 
wall, from the southern foot of which Mr. Holland retired— 
and that the point itself was the most westerly of the two 
black, snow-capped cones, which look so imposing from 
Knappavellir. 
In finer weather the view over the Atlantic would be 
glorious, but now it was sadly circumscribed, though the 
headland of Ingolfshofthi, where the first permanent colonist 
landed, certainly showed itself clearly enough. The height 
proved to be about 5,600ft. It was now 4 o’clock, and no 
time was to be lost if the true summit were to be gained. At 
4 80 I was down, and a few minutes took us off the ridge. 
Then we sat down for tea, and almost in a moment were 
chilled through. I ordered the men to drive their alpen¬ 
stocks into the snow and hang a cow-skin coat over them for 
a shelter. This, with another to sit on, answered very well, 
and at 5 o’clock we were off again. Poor fellows, thev 
thought our destination was home, and my decidedly 
expressed determination to go north in search of the ridge 
aforementioned evoked a rather mournful sigh from Pall. 
Still, as soon as he saw I was firm, he trotted off bravely 
enough. 
In an hour we covered two and a half miles of the frozen 
waste, and in another hour found ourselves half-way up the 
ice staircase that leads to the summit of the cross ridge. 
The work here was very fine. So precipitous was the slope 
that in each crevasse the front lip had fallen so far below the 
hinder as to offer to our delighted gaze wall after wall of pure 
virgin ice fringed with with huge and lengthy icicles. Some¬ 
times the passage from one to the other was difficult in the 
extreme ; once, indeed, the legs of my camera had to be called 
into action as a means of strengthening a snow bridge of 
doubtful safety. 
At 7 80 we reached the dome. Three cheers, a line or 
two of the National Anthem, and a verse of “ Praise God, 
from whom all blessings flow,” discharged our duties to our¬ 
selves, the powers that be, and those that act. 
A motlev crew we must have looked with our cow or oil- 
skin coats strapped tightly round us, and caps tied over 
our ears, and beards thickly matted with half-frozen snow, as 
we stood on our lofty perch, 6,400 feet above sea level. Of 
view there was little or none; now and then the wind tore its 
way through the snow-cloud that enshrouded us, and gave 
