102 JOURNEY TO THE GEYSERS. 
almost of a black color, came in sight. On 
reaching the bottom of a steep hill, we entered 
a small and fertile valley, which appeared the 
more so, perhaps, from being shut in, almost 
on every side, by these high black mountains. 
At one extremity of this valley, upon an emi¬ 
nence of lava, we remarked several conical masses 
of rock, which appeared to be the apertures of 
extinguished craters, and exactly of the same na¬ 
ture as the one we had just left. They, however, 
were too far from us to examine, as it would 
have detained us a day mor.e, before we could 
arrive .at the Geysers. I therefore proposed 
staying here, if possible, on my return, and con¬ 
tented myself with going a little way up a gul- 
ley, in one of the mountains, to look at a cave, 
which an Icelander in our party had assured 
us was worth seeing, though I must confess I 
found in it nothing remarkable. It was an open¬ 
ing in the side of the mountain, barely six feet 
high, by twenty or thirty feet deep, excavated 
in a black sand stone, which, (at least, that 
part of it that had not been exposed to the air,) 
was of a very shining quality. Although the 
whole of this mountain appeared to be composed 
of sandstone rock, yet it was not all equally 
soft: some lay in interrupted, but horizontal, 
strata of several feet in thickness, and o a very 
firm and compact nature, not being so easily 
