THE INTERIOR--HVITARVATN AND GULLFOSS
I was early at work next morning, and did some plane-tabling at
Gránanes before breakfast. Afterwards, when I had finished what I
wanted to do at that station, Thomas and I, accompanied by Thorlakur,
the guide, proceeded to Efriskutur, a mountain four or five miles
distant, on the highest point of which I purposed making my sixth
station. We rode down the river and along the ridge of a long stretch
of moraine where there were some fine "erratics"; one very large
specimen being worthy of a photograph, I got Thorlakur on horseback to
stand beside it while I took a record with camera. Along these moraines
we went until reaching the slopes of Efriskutur, up which we rode to
the summit. I set up the table on the highest point, and got to work;
but the sorrows of a plane-tabler were very marked. A strong wind
was blowing, and my first trouble was when, in an unguarded moment,
I had my hand off the paper; the wind, a very cold and strong one,
caught up the map and tore it from the pins by which it was fastened
to the table; it was being whisked away, when Thomas caught it, and so
prevented it from disappearing on the wings of half a gale into the
valley several hundred feet below. I next found that my tracing-paper
had gone, and that it was impossible to use paper of any kind to work
out the position of the new station, for the wind was altogether too
strong for it to be held down on the map. I got out some drawing-paper,
however, in readiness for an attempt, and in a bit of a lull in the
wind I managed, by cutting holes along the lines of sight, to find the
position--it had not been fixed from other stations, for there was
only one ray to it. We were nearly frozen by the intense coldness of
the wind that was blowing straight from the ice of Lang Jökull, but
fortunately it abated slightly after a while and enabled me to get to
work. Lunch soon afterwards, and the reappearance of the sun, tended to
restore better circulation, and thenceforward all went well, except
that when I wanted to make a boiling-point observation for altitude,
the water-bottle was found to be empty. I had lent it to Hill the
previous day at the Kerlingarfjöll hot springs in order that he might
collect algæ; he had returned it empty, and I had forgotten to refill
it. As we had brought no water with us for lunch, it looked as if the
observation could not be made for want of it; but I remembered in time
that there was a small patch of snow on the mountain-side, not very
far down. Thomas kindly went to get some of the snow, which I melted,
and was thus enabled to complete the observation. Efriskutur is a tuff
mountain; at first we supposed that it was composed entirely of moraine
matter, for on the Kerlingarfjöll side, by which we ascended, the hill
is covered with it. On examining the other side there was no trace of
moraine; there was scree in places, but a great deal of the tuff was
uncovered. When the atmosphere was quite clear in the afternoon, we
saw standing out above the ice of Lang Jökull a prominent peak, a fine
specimen of a volcanic neck.
[Illustration: IMMENSE "ERRATICS."]
Our work done, we made tracks for Hvitarvatn, the lake beside which
we were to camp that night. To the river Svartá we traversed moraine
matter; beyond the river, however, which we crossed, there was no
moraine--nothing but the recent lava from Strytur, which quite covered
the intervening country to the Falakvisl, a river that has carved its
way along the other edge of the lava; on the far side there are great
moraine hills. The Falakvisl is a deep, swift river, flowing between
banks that are very high in places; it drains the valley between
the ice of Lang Jökull and the outlying range north of the mountain
Hrutafell, round which it flows, collecting the streams that run down
from it and from the other mountains and hills south of the divide of
Kjalhraun, the lava ridge by Strytur. This river discharges its waters
into Lake Hvitarvatn, and we followed its course to within a mile or so
of the point of discharge.
We found the camp beside the lake, about a mile from the water;
there was no convenient camping-ground any nearer to it, for the
intervening land was a mere swamp. We were in the midst of wonderful
and magnificent surroundings. The lake was covered with innumerable
icebergs--great lumps broken off from the edges of two great glaciers
that flow from Lang Jökull to the water's edge on the far side of the
lake. It was interesting to note the fact that the farther away the
icebergs were from the glaciers the smaller they were, until on the
margin of the lake where the water was not so cold they disappeared
altogether. Facing us was a great basaltic mountain, Skrutharfell,
set in between the two fine glaciers mentioned. To the left was the
great solid mass of Bláfell (pronounced Blou-fettle, the _á_ like _ou_
in blouse), a mountain that had much snow covering its sides; to the
right, Hrutafell reared its icy head high into the air; behind, there
was the mountain range of Kerlingarfjöll. All this was affected by
the gorgeousness of the sunset effects; the sun was descending behind
the ice-flow, and lighting up ice and snow with the most wonderful
colouring; it was a thing to be seen and remembered--to describe it in
adequate terms is impossible.
The lake was the resort of many swans, which disturbed the slumbers of
at least one member of the party, for they called and squawked in the
most persistent manner through the small hours--I will not say of the
night, for we were having twenty-four hours of daylight just then.
I was moving early next morning, for I intended to get to work at
the plane-table, but the Fates were against me once more, this time
in the shape of clouds which overhung the tops of Kerlingarfjöll and
Hrutafell, completely hiding two of the points of those mountains
that I required to sight in order to fix my position. I set up the
plane-table, however, in the hope that the clouds would clear later on,
and then took a boiling-point observation. After breakfast I waited
in vain for an hour or two for the clouds to rise and the peaks to
clear, for otherwise it was impossible to fix the position. The peaks
_were_ gradually clearing, but time was passing; we had a long day's
journey before us, and a deep and dangerous river to ford on the way,
so a guide could not well be spared to wait an hour or two until proper
observations were possible. I had to make the best of it, so took
sights on a separate sheet of paper to a number of points, hoping that
eventually I should be able to complete. The peaks _did_ clear at the
last moment, and I took sights to them; but as there was not time to
fix the position on the map itself and to take the other sights again,
I did all that was possible under the circumstances, hoping that what
had been done would fit in properly. On returning to England, I found
the observations agreed very well with my previous work.
My work, so far as the map was concerned, was at an end. I cannot say
that it was completed, for the time spent there was too short to permit
of the whole of the country lying between Lang Jökull and Hoff Jökull
being mapped. I had hoped to complete a map extending from Dufufell
and Hveravellir in the north to the mountains of Kerlingarfjöll and
the lake of Hvitarvatn to the south; but several things conspired to
prevent my doing it full justice, the chief of which were that we were
two days late in arriving at Hveravellir, and that the weather was not
quite so good as it might have been.
It was about mid-day, if I remember rightly, when we got under way and
proceeded along near the shore of the lake; we crossed the Svartá close
by where it enters the lake, and at a point just below where the river
falls over a ledge of hard rock ten to twelve feet high. We passed over
great accumulations of moraine matter towards Bláfell, gradually rising
until an excellent view of Hvitarvatn and the myriads of icebergs
floating on its surface was obtained. So we proceeded until we came to
the river Hvitá. This was one of our big rivers, and its crossing was
a dangerous undertaking. The pack, as usual, showed the way and made a
successful crossing. We stayed behind, for the purpose of photographing
the pack when in mid-stream. The photograph that I took shows the
pack-train right in the middle of the river. We followed, and crossed
without any untoward incident occurring; the water was rather deep,
and when in mid-stream it came up to our knees. At this river we saw a
number of sheep swimming across, which is quite a common thing for them
to do.
[Illustration: THE PACK-TRAIN CROSSING THE HVITÁ.]
I afforded some entertainment to my companions in the course of the
day. The pony I was then riding was a confirmed stumbler, and he
blundered along during the whole day, sometimes on four legs, but
more often on three; occasionally he shortened his two front legs and
tried to make good time on his knees. It was not altogether pleasant
riding, for there was great uncertainty as to which mode of progression
he would next adopt. After several bad stumbles he came to grief. He
stumbled, recovered, went on two paces, and then came right down.
He caught me off guard when having a loose seat immediately after
his recovery, with the result that I was deposited, very nicely and
quietly, however, in a soft sand-patch that was handy. I was much
disgusted, for I happened to be just in front of the other members of
the party. But this was nothing compared with the next entertainment
that I gave soon afterwards. We had not proceeded much farther before
some of the rotten saddlery gave way: my crupper broke and a ring at
the back of the saddle was dragged out--my oilskins, etc., came adrift
and fell; but one of the packages did not get free, it hung by a strong
cord at the pony's heels, where it dangled, knocking against them.
My pony did what any self-respecting pony would have done in similar
circumstances--he promptly bolted! Now the ground thereabouts was
not remarkable for its evenness; indeed, it was one of the roughest
pieces of ground that we passed over in the course of the day. He
made excellent time, and the harder he went, the more the package
hit against his heels, until he became quite frantic with fright and
ran amuck. I was at the rear of the party some distance behind when
he started off, but we soon caught up the others, bumping into one,
cannoning off a second to a third, and nearly unseating Miss Hastie,
who was not prepared for the charge. My only fear, as he was such a bad
stumbler and had already been down, was that he would come a cropper
in the course of his wild career and throw me upon a lump of lava; but
as he kept his feet, I stuck to him and at last managed to get him
under control and pull him up. He stood trembling in affright, for the
objectionable package was still at his heels. I dismounted and removed
the disturbing cause, afterwards returning in company with the "handy
man" to collect the goods and chattels that were lying distributed over
the country that had just been crossed in something like record time.
In spite of the bumps and knocks that they received, my companions
enjoyed the spectacle, and it afforded them an opportunity for some
good-natured chaff.
[Illustration: A FINE GORGE IN THE SIDE OF BLÁFELL.]
During the latter part of the day's journey, which was along the high
banks of the river Hvitá, we saw some fair specimens of columnar
basalt. There were times, when we were travelling along on the edge of
these high banks within a few inches of the edge of a drop of two or
three hundred feet, that I did not feel quite comfortable, for my pony
continued to stumble along to the end of the journey; but he did not
come right down again, though several times he had to be pulled up from
his knees.
[Illustration: GULLFOSS--FRONT VIEW WITH "RAINBOW" EFFECT.]
[Illustration: GULLFOSS--SIDE VIEW.]
We came round Bláfell in the course of the day, and there saw a number
of very fine gorges in the mountain sides, deep ravines carved out by
the streams and torrents on their way to the river, the Hvitá.
Our way lay over moraine accumulations nearly the whole of the day, and
during the latter part of it along the right bank of the Hvitá (White
River), a swift-rushing glacier stream that drains Lake Hvitarvatn of
the water there collected from Lang Jökull. There are many deep and
picturesque gorges in the basalt through which the river flows.
[Illustration: GULLFOSS--THE UPPER FALL.]
We camped beside the Hvitá at a spot known as Sandá, which lies just
below the confluence of the Hvitá and Sandá. We were then near the
southern end of Lang Jökull, looking upon the very striking mountains
that fringe its edge, the Jarlhettur (the Earl's Hats) as they are
called, because of the shapes of their upper portions; several of these
peaks are interesting inasmuch as they are, without doubt, the hard
cores of ancient volcanoes--volcanic plugs or necks.
[Illustration: GULLFOSS--THE FALL INTO THE RAVINE.]
At Sandá we remained over Sunday, but as it rained hard we were
confined to our tents nearly the whole day--our Sundays were, as a
rule, very wet, and of six or seven that we had in or about Iceland
only two were fine; it did not matter much, for Sunday with us was
always a day of rest, and the rain only kept us to our tents. On these
occasions much tobacco was consumed and as many matches were used as
economy allowed.
On leaving Sandá our way lay for several miles over a desolate sandy
and stony desert. Farther on there were many evidences of ice-action:
the rounded forms of boulders attracted our attention, as did numerous
ice-scratchings on them; some of the outcropping lumps were beautifully
rounded, and in one place (in the same valley as Gullfoss) after
passing the falls, but just before reaching Bratholt, there was
undoubted evidence that the ice had swept up a slight rise in the
valley before descending the steep slope towards the Bratholt farm.
[Illustration: GULLFOSS--THE RAVINE BELOW THE FALLS.]
[Illustration: BELOW GULLFOSS--CASTELLATED DYKES.]
Gullfoss is one of the sights of Iceland. It is a magnificent waterfall
on the Hvitá, where the white water of the river cascades over a
series of step-like barriers stretching from side to side, and then
plunges finally over a ledge of very hard rock into a yawning abyss
more than a hundred feet deep, whence it throws up clouds of spray
that are carried hither and thither as the wind sweeps first this way
and then that; so thick is the spray, that one's clothing soon becomes
saturated on incautiously getting into it. Gullfoss is one of the
finest waterfalls in Europe, and it is only surpassed in grandeur, if
at all, by one or two others in Iceland. We saw the falls at their
best, for when we arrived the sun was shining brightly and a rainbow
playing over the spray as it rose from the gorge. It is true that the
sky clouded over afterwards, and that rain began to fall before we left
Gullfoss, but we carried away the impression of the broken waters of
the cascade sparkling in the sun, and of the colours of the rainbow
playing on the spray over the ravine. The water has carved out a deep
gorge in the basalt, and below the falls there are many good specimens
of basaltic columns. In the lower part of the gorge there are the
picturesque remains of a very fine hard dyke that has a much softer one
beside it. These remains are to be seen on both sides of the river,
and they have assumed the outline and form of a number of castellated
buildings perched high upon prominent peaks.