242 
BORGAFIORD. 
in company with a person who had made botany 
one of the chief objects of his attention* and 
he spared no pains in collecting with his own 
hands and in directing his son to collect such 
specimens as I most wished to possess. It was 
not long* however* before we left behind us all 
traces of vegetation, and climbed the steeper and 
perfectly barren sides of the mountain* where we 
observed nothing remarkable* till we came to the 
difficult passage through which the sysselman 
had volunteered to conduct us. This was a sort 
of chasm* where a quantity of loose stones and 
decomposed rock, that had been washed down by 
the rains, afforded a rugged pathway overhang¬ 
ing a precipice on our right* so narrow as scarcely 
to leave room for our horses to set one foot before 
the other. We crossed it* however* in safety* 
and took leave of our kind friend* who returned 
to Leera. The higher we ascended the more 
severe was the cold* and a storm of snow* which 
we had watched for some time above us spending 
its rage against the upper part of the mountain* 
now assailed us, and made us feel still more 
sensibly the difference between the month of 
August in Iceland and in England. When we 
had reached the highest summit over which we 
had to pass* a still loftier one of a most remark¬ 
able shape presented itself to our view. Its 
figure* from the direction in which we saw it* 
was almost a perfect pyramid* of a most gigantic 
