From the egress of the river, Breidamark Yökul stretches in a north-west direction, till it is relieved by the Öræfu Yökul, the lower division of which is spread over the low mountains that line the coast, and is quite green, while the upper regions, consisting of the purest snow, tower to the height of 6240 feet in the horizon. * Between the two Yökuls, a

• As Öræfa Yökul is the highest mountain in Iceland, it is presumed the following description of its ascent from Mr Paulson's MS. will not be unin teresting to the reader.

"We left Quiskér, (a small solitary farm at the eastern base of the mountain,) a quarter before six in the morning of the 11th of August, 1794, with a clear atmosphere and calm weather, after having furnished ourselves with a ba rometer, a thermometer, a small compass, a pointed hammer, a long pole, and a rope about ten fathoms in length. Our route lay up the precipitous mountains, which form the base of the Yökul, till we gained the ice at a quarter before nine o'clock, when we rested a few minutes on a small height, at the base of which we observed several specimens of the beautiful Alpine plant, Ranunculus nivalis, some of which had already withered. Such as had recently blossomed had snow-white petala, but those of longer standing were more or less red, resembling a saffron yellow. This plant is very rarely to be met with on the Southern Alps of Iceland. The barometer had now fallen from 28° 44′, where it stood at Quiskér, to 25° 41′, and the heat was 8 of Reaumur. The margin of the Yökul had evidently pushed forward against the height on which we stood, and raised a wall of small stones and sand nearly half up its side, but had again retreated to the distance of several fathoms.

"Having bound myself to my two companions by means of the rope, leaving a distance of two fathoms between each, that we might assist each other, in case any of us should happen to fall into a rent of the ice, we proceeded up the Yökul, but had scarcely advanced twenty paces, when we heard a noise louder than thunder, running as it were longitudinally through the whole ice mountain from S. to N. accompanied with a perceptible concussion under our feet, which lasted for about a minute. My companions now wished to return, but though this shock retarded our progress a few moments, a kind of natural impulse to visit these icy Alps prompted me to continue my ascent; and we afterwards found, that the report was occasioned by what is called Yikla-brestr, or Yökulburst, the ice having disrupted and fallen in from either side of a gulley, about a mile (five English miles) in length. We continued our route up the southeast side of the Yökul where it was least acclivitous, passing a number of black tuffa rocks, and crossing a multiplicity of fissures deeper than the eye could reach. Here, as is common at such elevations, the atmosphere got too thin to admit of our breathing with freedom. One of our party was so much affected, and felt such an inclination to sleep, that he remained behind us, and on lying down on the bare ice, immediately fell asleep; the other, naturally subject to a beating at the heart and melancholy, found himself more relieved and cheerful

narrow black mountain rears its peaked summits, and though engulphed in eternal snows, its sides and gullies are clothed with verdure, and the neighbouring cottagers drive their sheep over the ice to feed there during the summer. In our progress across the sand we were met by several other considerable rivers, the principal of which are the Breida, the Deildarâ, and the Hrutâ, but none of them occasioned us any difficulty; leaving which, we came to the south-east corner of the Öræfa Yökul, where we obtained the view of a magnificent glacier which has been precipitated from near the summit of that Yökul, and, on coming in contact with Breidamark Yökul, it appears to have impelled it forward to some distance.

We now entered a tract the most doleful and haggard that can possibly be conceived. It consists of the ruins of a range of mountains that had been convulsed to their very foundations in the year 1362, when the Yökul burst with

the higher we ascended, without being sensible of any particular fatigue from the tenuity of the air. We at length gained the south-east peak of the Yökul at a quarter before twelve o'clock, and found, that, in conjunction with the three or four other peaks to the west and north, it describes the side of an immensely large crater of a circular form. These peaks on the summit of the Yökul are so precipitous, that the mass of ice has in different places disengaged itself, and fallen down from them, leaving a number of black calcined rocks, the tops of which are covered with hats of frozen snow, and for the most part inaccessible, as a single false step would inevitably precipitate the traveller into the unfathomable chasms at their base. The barometer fell here to 22° 6′′, or 5o 10}′′, from what it was at Quisker. The thermometer, at the same height with our eye from the surface of the Yökul, stood at 111° of Reaumur. The atmosphere was clear, and the wind blew keenly from the north. We could not discover any irregularity of the compass, and the whole of its variation was two points towards the west.

"The prospect was naturally enchanting. We had a view of all the Yökuls and mountains towards the north-east, between the spot on which we stood and Hornaford, and the situation of Mafabygdir, a little to the north-west of Breidamark mountain, from which two chains of sandy and stony mountains project towards the south-east, to the spot where the river breaks forth from the founda tion of the Yökul. Towards the west, the Eyafialla Yökul rose majestically before us, and in a northerly direction, we could descry the summit of Sniáfiall, but were prevented from seeing the regions in the interior by the peaks of the Yökul intercepting our view. We again reached Quisker, much fatigued, about half-past four o'clock in the afternoon."

a dreadful explosion, and completely devastated the coast in the vicinity. All around us lay immense masses of tuffa or hardened clay, filled with innumerable small black stones, which, upborne by the violence of subterraneous heat, have been whirled down in this direction, and lodged in the wildest confusion along the foot of the Yökul. Towards the heart of the mountain stretched a gloomy gulley, terminated by rugged shapeless rocks, round which, in every direction, lay masses of hoary ice, connecting with the Yökul behind, and mixing in every possible form with the ancient erupted matter of the volcano; so that to no place could the poetic description of the throne of winter more aptly or more literally apply:

"Beyond the pointed cliffs that girt the coast,
Extending to the dark horizon round,
Were huge dark masses of mis-shapen rocks,
With dreary glens between, rude defiles, fill'd
With frozen snow, accumulating still,
And glaciers vast of everlasting ice;

A cheerless solitude, where nought was heard
But the wild uproar of contending winds,
Which, howling, swept at intervais the waste.'

Leaving this singularly gloomy desert, we passed over a sloping hill, for the most part covered with moss, and intersected by deep ravines, made by the inundations from the Yökul, and came into a level tract called Hnappafells-sandar, consisting of fragments of obsidian, pumice, slag, and large erupted masses of tuffa, some of which are entire, and others have been split into several divisions by the violence of their fall. The north side of this plain is bounded by a high ridge of precipitous mountains, on which the Yökul rests at its basis; and near the middle, where there are two breaks in the ridge, the cliffs stand quite insulated, in the cold embrace of two glaciers, which hang down almost perpendicularly to the very end of the plain. About eight o'clock in

• Poetical Effusions, p. 12. Kendal, 1814

the evening we arrived at Hnappavellir, so called from the Yökul that beetles over it at a great height, in which there is a large round black spot, like a knap or button, forming a striking contrast to the whiteness of the snow. It consists of two farms, which are situated close together; and, as I pitched my tent between them, the inhabitants seemed to dispute with each other to whom the right of hospitality ought to belong, bringing me large dishes of excellent cream, and, what I had not before observed in the east country, begging I would excuse them if I did not find it so polished as I might wish. The prospect of obtaining copies of the Bible gave them great joy; for there were none in the vicinity, and some of them had not so much as ever seen the precious volume. Scanty and precarious, therefore, as the pittance is which nature affords them, the famine they labour under is not so much a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, as a famine of the words of the Lord. Blessed be his name! there is reason to hope, that before twelve months have elapsed, it may be said of this desert (Öræfi,) “ it shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the deaf shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert," Isaiah xxxv. 1, 2-5, 6.

Directly opposite to Hnappavellir is the promontory of Ingolfshöfdi, which derives its name from the circumstance of its being the spot where Ingolf, one of the first Norwegian settlers, landed, when he came out the second time in order to establish himself on the island. It has originally formed part of the main-land, but having been separated from it in some of the dreadful convulsions that have raged in the vicinity, it now forms a long insulated rock, which rises as it stretches into the sea, and ultimately falls perpendicularly into the water. At this place the sand reef ends,