[See cut, page 29.]
“Still pressing on beneath Tornea’s lake,
And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow,
And farthest Greenland, to the pole itself,
Where, falling gradual, life at length goes out,
The Muse expands her solitary flight;
And hov’ring o’er the wide stupendous scene,
Beholds new scenes beneath another sky.
Throned in his palace of cerulean ice,
Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court,
And through his airy hall the loud misrule
Of driving tempest is forever heard;
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath;
Here arms his winds with all-subduing frost,
Molds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows.”
On proceeding along the southern coast of Iceland, and at an
inconsiderable distance from Skalholt, Mount Hecla, with its three
summits, presents itself to the view. Its hight is five thousand feet,
or nearly a mile above the level of the sea. It is not a promontory, but
lies about four miles inland. It is neither so elevated nor so
picturesque as several of the surrounding Icelandic mountains; but has
been more noticed than many other volcanoes of an equal extent, partly
through the frequency of its eruptions, and partly from its situation,
which exposes it to the view of many ships sailing to Greenland and
North America. The surrounding territory has been so devastated by these
eruptions, that it has been deserted.
“Vast regions dreary, bleak and bare!
There on an icy mountain’s hight,
Seen only by the moon’s pale light
Stern Winter rears his giant form,
His robe a mist, his life a storm:
His frown the shiv’ring nations fly,
And, hid for half the year, in smoky caverns lie.”
[Illustration: MOUNT HECLA AND THE GEYSERS.]
The natives assert that it is impossible to ascend the mountain, on
account of the great number of dangerous bogs, which, according to them,
are constantly emitting sulphurous flames and exhaling smoke; while the
more elevated summit in the center is covered with boiling springs and
large craters, which continually propel fire and smoke. To the south and
west the environs present the most desolating results of frequent
eruptions, the finest part of the territory being covered by torrents of
melted stone, sand, ashes, and other volcanic matter; notwithstanding
which, between the sinuosities of the lava in different parts, some
portion of meadows, walls and broken hedges may be observed. The
devastation is still greater on the north and east sides, which present
dreadful traces of the ruin of the country and its habitations. Neither
plants nor grass are to be met with to the extent of two leagues round
the mountain, in consequence of the soil being covered with stones and
lava; and in some parts, where the subterraneous fire has broken out a
second time, or where the matter which was not entirely consumed has
again become ignited, the fire has contributed to form small red and
black hillocks and eminences, from scoriæ, pumice-stones and ashes. The
nearer the mountain the larger are these hillocks, and there are some of
them, the summits of which form a circular hollow, whence the
subterraneous fire ejects the matter. On approaching Hecla the ground
becomes almost impassable, particularly near the higher branches of lava
thrown from the volcano. Round the latter is a mountain of lava,
consisting of large fused stones, from forty to seventy feet high, and
in the form of a rampart or wall. These stones are detached, and chiefly
covered with moss; while between them are very deep holes, so that the
ascent on the western side requires great circumspection. The rocks are
completely reduced to pumice, dispersed in thin horizontal layers, and
fractured in every direction, from which some idea may be formed of the
intensity of the fire that has acted on them.
“There Winter, armed with terrors here unknown,
Sits absolute on his unshaken throne;
Piles up his stores amidst the frozen waste,
And bids the mountains he has built stand fast;
Beckons the legions of his storms away
From happier scenes to make the land a prey;
Proclaims the soil a conquest he has won,
And scorns to share it with the distant sun.”
Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr. James Lind, of Edinburgh, and Dr.
Van Troil, a Swede, were the earliest adventurous travelers who ascended
to the summit of Mount Hecla. This was in 1772; and the attempt was
facilitated by a preceding eruption in 1766, which had greatly
diminished the steepness and difficulty of the ascent. On their first
landing, they found a tract of land sixty or seventy miles in extent,
entirely ruined by lava, which appeared to have been in a state of
complete liquefaction. To accomplish their undertaking, they had to
travel from three hundred to three hundred and sixty miles over
uninterrupted tracts of lava. In ascending, they were obliged to quit
their horses at the first opening from which the fire had burst: a spot,
which they describe as presenting lofty glazed walls and high glazed
cliffs, differing from anything they had ever seen before. At another
opening above, they fancied they discerned the effects of boiling water;
and not far from thence, the mountain, with the exception of some bare
spots, was covered with snow. The difference of aspect they soon
perceived to be occasioned by the hot vapor ascending from the mountain.
The higher they proceeded, the larger these spots became; and, about two
hundred yards below the summit, a hole about a yard and a half in
diameter, was observed, whence issued so hot a stream, that they could
not measure the degree of heat with a thermometer. The cold now began to
be very intense. Fahrenheit’s thermometer, which at the foot of the
mountain was at fifty-four degrees, fell to twenty-four degrees; while
the wind became so violent, that they were sometimes obliged to lie
down, from a dread of being blown into the most dreadful precipices. On
the summit itself they experienced, at one and the same time, a high
degree of heat and cold; for, in the air, Fahrenheit’s thermometer
constantly stood at twenty-four degrees, but when placed on the ground,
it rose to one hundred and fifty-three degrees.
Messrs. Olafsen and Povelsen, two naturalists, whose travels in Iceland
were undertaken by order of his Danish majesty, after a fatiguing
journey up several small slopes, which occurred at intervals, and seven
of which they had to pass, at length reached the summit of Mount Hecla
at midnight. It was as light as at noonday, so that they had a view of
an immense extent, but could perceive nothing but ice; neither fissures,
streams of water, boiling springs, smoke, nor fire, were apparent. They
surveyed the glaciers in the eastern part, and in the distance saw the
high and square mountain of Hærdabreid, an ancient volcano, which
appeared like a large castle.
Sir G. S. Mackenzie, in his travels in Iceland, ascended Mount Hecla;
and from his account we extract the following interesting particulars.
In proceeding to the southern extremity of the mountain, he descended,
by a dangerous path, into a valley, having a small lake in one corner,
and the opposite extremity bounded by a perpendicular face of rock,
resembling, in its broken and rugged appearance, a stream of lava. While
advancing, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, and the brilliant
reflection of his beams, from different parts of this supposed lava, as
if from a surface of glass, delighted our traveler by the instantaneous
conviction that he had now attained one of the principal objects
connected with the plan of his expedition to Iceland. He hastened to the
spot, and all his wishes were fully accomplished in the examination of
an object which greatly exceeded the expectations he had formed. On
ascending one of the abrupt pinnacles, which rose out of this
extraordinary mass of rock, he beheld a region, the desolation of which
can scarcely be paralleled. Fantastic groups of hills, craters, and
lava, leading the eye to distant snow-crowned “jockuls,” (inferior
mountains,) the mist rising from a waterfall; lakes, embosomed among
bleak mountains; an awful profound silence; lowering clouds; marks all
around of the furious action of the most destructive of elements; all
combined to impress the soul with sensations of dread and wonder. The
longer he and his companions contemplated this scene, the more unable
they were to turn their eyes from it; and a considerable time elapsed
before they could bring themselves to attend to the business which had
tempted them to enter so frightful a district of the country.
Having proceeded a considerable distance along the edge of a stream of
lava, a narrow part of which they crossed, they gained the foot of the
south end of Mount Hecla. While, in ascending, they had to pass over
rugged lava, they experienced no great difficulty in advancing; but when
they reached the steepest part of the mountain, which was covered with
loose slags, they sometimes lost at one step by the yielding of these, a
space which had been gained by several.
Having passed a number of fissures, by leaping across some, and stepping
along masses of slags which lay over others, they at length reached the
summit of the first peak. The clouds now became so thick, that they
began to despair of being able to proceed any further: it was, indeed,
dangerous even to move; for the peak consists of a very narrow ridge of
slags, not more than two feet broad, having a precipice on each side,
several hundred feet in depth. One of these precipices forms the side of
a vast hollow, which seems to have been one of the craters. At length
the sky cleared a little, and enabled them to discover a ridge below,
which seemed to connect the peak they had ascended with the middle or
principal one. They lost no time in availing themselves of this
opportunity, and, by balancing themselves like rope-dancers, succeeded
in passing along a ridge of slags, so narrow that there was scarcely
room for their feet. After a short, but very steep ascent, they gained
the highest part of this celebrated mountain.
Its earliest eruption is said to have happened in 1004, since which time
upward of twenty have occurred. That of 1693 was the most dreadful, and
occasioned terrible devastations, the ashes having been thrown over the
island in every direction, to the distance of more than one hundred
miles. In 1728, a fire broke out among the surrounding lava; and also in
that to the west of the volcano, in 1754, which lasted for three days.
There has not been any eruption of lava since 1766; but for some years
after, flames issued from the volcano.