192 
JOURNEY TO KREISEVTG. 
parts of their bleak and barren sides. Leaving 
these on our left, we passed between several small 
insulated mountains, sometimes entering vallies 
abundantly clothed with Trichostomum canescens, 
and so surrounded on all sides by hills of black 
and porous lava, that for a short space of time it 
seemed as if our farther progress would be abso¬ 
lutely prevented. In these situations the elegant 
Geum rivale flourished as in more temperate cli¬ 
mates, and Orchis mascula , which was equally 
abundant, produced both reddish and white blos¬ 
soms. The only birds that we met with were nu¬ 
merous coveys of Ptarmigans, which ran about 
within a few yards of us without showing any 
symptoms of fear. The nearer we approached to 
Kreisevig the more broken and uneven the country 
became, and we were soon within view of some 
fine black and excessively rugged mountains, 
which lay between us and the object of our 
journey, and which we had consequently to cross. 
At the foot of these we rested our horses for a 
few minutes, to prepare them for the ascent, 
which, though steep, was for some way not dif¬ 
ficult. At length we approached the brink of a 
vast hollow, in shape like an inverted cone, the re¬ 
gularly sloping sides of which were composed of 
loose pieces of rock, while the bottom alone pro¬ 
duced a little grass and moss. Into this cavity, 
which has an Icelandic name signifying kettle , 
