Snioland: Or, Iceland, Its Jokulls and Fjalls

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Longmans and Company, 1875 - 183 strán (strany)
 

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Strana 112 - Groenatjall in 1871 ; but I was doomed to disappointment. After an hour's hard work of climbing with our heavy loads over the uneven surface, and dragging the unwieldy sleigh and the snow-shoes (which latter, although of no weight, were the most cumbersome part of our load), we were still surrounded by difficult and bewildering aiguilles, and hummocks of sand and ice, which seemed to increase around us. These obstructions rise to a great height where the largest quantity...
Strana 106 - ... plainly discernible, although the remainder of the mountain was obscured. As we returned towards the farm we remarked how lofty the Icelandic mountains looked, considering their stated height ; but it must be remembered that they generally rise directly from the sea-level. With much difficulty Paul succeeded in obtaining two recruits for the expedition, and then without delay we began to arrange the supplies, and direct the manufacture of a hand-sleigh and a pair of snow-shoes. The clouds had...
Strana 118 - ... northern sky, as is always the case in fine weather at the beginning of autumn. The moon had risen, and a sharp frost had set in, stiffening our hair and beards. Just after nightfall is the clearest time upon the mountains in Iceland, and for this I looked anxiously in order to see whether there were any traces of smoke to the north. To those who have never looked for smoke in the distance, it may seem easy to distinguish between smoke and cloud, but it is a most difficult task. Again and again...
Strana 118 - ... rest. In the morning my thermometer registered twenty degrees of frost, and our shoes and socks were frozen hard as a board. We had therefore to sit upon our foot-gear while we breakfasted before we could reduce them sufficiently to put them on. It was a glorious morning. The snow no longer clung to our shoes, and the snow-shoes travelled easily over the firmly frozen crust. After a couple of hours' dragging we sighted a peculiarlyshaped mountain, about ten miles to the NE The summit was shaped...
Strana 112 - ... poles, together with whisky and provisions for a fortnight, and the little Union Jack destined to adorn the summit of the Jokull. The sun as he rose was the only witness of the cache we made of the remainder of our things. We now commenced the ascent of the glacier, carrying everything upon our backs. It was impossible to think of hauling the sleigh over the rough surface of the glacier at this point, for the sand which the ice contained, even if the glacier had been smooth, would have soon worn...
Strana 130 - ... thickened upon us, and upon the sleigh, making the one more heavy, and us less comfortable. After a long and hard pull we reached Mount Paul. My watch had long been broken ; so I had left it behind, and now, not being able to see the sun, it was scarcely possible, with the thick darkness and fast-falling snow, to tell whether it was night or day, We descended into the crater for shelter, and, breaking away the ice which had accumulated about our neckwraps and hair, we partook of a good meal,...
Strana 109 - River (well deserving its nanre), in whose turbid waters no fish can live. We stopped to lunch at mid-day, and on resuming our journey we disturbed several flocks of ptarmigan, which were feeding upon the little black craig berries, here very numerous. We soon ascended the hills to the left, for it was no longer possible to get the horses over the lava ; and now being on higher ground we beheld Vatna Jdkull spreadout Before us, one vast white expanse, terminating in a rough glacier, coated with «/7//and...
Strana 102 - ... of Nupstad. Farther to the SE rose the snow-clad heights of Orefa, the highest mountain in Iceland, with its glaciers sloping down apparently to the sea, while to our left and north were the fine basaltic cliffs which skirt the outlying hills of Vatna and Skapta Jokull, sweeping in graceful curves, terrace after terrace displaying beautiful columnar structures. Numerous caves, some of which have their weird Norse legends, indicated perhaps the wash of oceans, long before the eye of man ever rested...
Strana 128 - August 13. 1874, about thirty-six miles in a straight line from Nupstad, which bore ssw three days' journey — adding a PS requesting the finder of the money " not to squander it in any of the adjacent shops." The bag was well bound round the pole. On this spot we left "Jack " to endure a lonely existence in the middle of Vatna Jokull, with a stanza of "God save the Queen " from me, and the Icelandic National Hymn of " Gamals Islands Folk " from my companions, the tunes cf which are nearly identical....
Strana 128 - Jökull, though the highest point must be the summit of one of those mountains we saw away to the east. I took one of the poles, six feet long, and attached to it our small Union Jack ; then, forcing the point down into the snow, we raised a mound around it. I fastened to the pole a little bag, well greased, containing a shilling and a penny, with a note, saying we four, WL "Watts, Englishman, Paul Paulson, Biartny, and John, Icelanders, reached this point and planted this flagpost August 13, 1874,...

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