AT SEA. 
5 
quently, heavy squalls, attended us, so that we 
made but slow progress. About the hour of 
Wednesday, midnight, on the 14th, we descried 
June 14 . } anc [ i n the horizon, or rather snow, 
for, as we approached it, we could discover no¬ 
thing but mountains of prodigious magnitude, 
covered on every side with snow, and most dis¬ 
tinctly seen, from being backed by a dark cloud, 
though at the distance, as we computed, of fifty 
miles. On the highest ridge of these moun¬ 
tains were some huge angular and projecting pre¬ 
cipices, which cast a deep shadow on the white 
snow, when the early rays of the sun were 
striking upon them, breaking the uniformity of 
such an extended outline. This range of moun¬ 
tains we afterwards discovered to be Klofa Jokul 
(Jokul means a range of snow mountains), in the 
south-eastern part of Iceland, and Mr. Phelps 
and I gazed upon it with astonishment and de¬ 
light, till a late hour in the morning. Such a 
scene was quite novel to us, and the circumstance 
of our contemplating it all night long did not 
at all diminish its effect. To the north-east of 
this, we saw a long stretch of nearly level land, 
of, comparatively, no great elevation, but every 
where covered with snow, and only here and 
there interrupted by a ragged mountain, whose 
Thursday, sides were of a very rude figure. The 
une is. following night, we passed within sight 
