The day fixed for the expedition opened brightly and warmly.  At first the road led through fields of tolerable fertility, covered with a rich green herbage, soft as velvet; and then traversed patches of black sand, surrounded by hills, and blocks, and currents of lava.  By degrees it grew more difficult, and was so encumbered with lava as greatly to impede the progress of the travellers.  Around and behind them rolled the dark congealed lava; and it was needful to be constantly on the watch, to prevent themselves from stumbling, or to avoid rude contact with the rolling rocks.  Greater still was the danger in the rifts and gorges filled with snow moistening already in the summer heat; here they frequently broke through the deceptive crust, or at every step slipped backwards almost as far as they had advanced.

[Mount Hekla:  page159.jpg]

At length they reached a point where it became necessary to leave behind the horses, and trust entirely to their own strength.  Laboriously, but undauntedly, Madame Pfeiffer pressed upward.  Yet, as she looked around on the sterile scene, which seemed to have been swept by a blast of fire, and on the drear expanse of black lava that surrounded her, Madame Pfeiffer could scarcely repress a sensation of pain and terror.

They had still, she says, three heights to climb; the last of which was also the most dangerous.  The path clambered up the rocks which covered the entire area of the mountain-summit.  Frequent were our traveller’s falls; her hands were sadly wounded by the sharp jagged projections of the lava; and her eyes suffered severely from the dazzling brilliancy of the snow that filled every gorge and ravine.

But every obstacle gives way to the resolute; and at last Madame Pfeiffer stood on the topmost peak of Hekla.  Here she made a discovery:  in books of travel she had read of the crater of Mount Hekla, but a careful survey convinced her that none existed.  There was neither opening, crevasse, nor sunken wall; in fact, no sign of a crater.  Lower down on the mountain-side she detected some wide fissures; and from these, not from any crater, must have rolled the lava-rivers.  The height of the mountain is computed at 5110 feet.

During the last hour of the ascent the sun had been veiled in mists, and from the neighbouring glaciers dense clouds now poured down upon them, obscuring or concealing the entire prospect.  Fortunately, they gradually dissolved into snow, which spread a carpet, white and soft and glittering, over the dreary lava.  The thermometer stood at 29.75 degrees F.

The snow-storm passed, and the sun once more gladdened earth, and filled with light the clear blue arch of the firmament.  On her elevated watchtower stood the adventurous traveller, till the clouds, passing away, opened up to her wondering gaze the glorious view—­glorious, yet terrible!  It seemed as if the ruins of a burned-up world lay all around:  the wastes were strewn with masses of lava; of life not a sign was visible; blocks of barren lava were piled upon one another in chaotic confusion; and vast streams of indurated volcanic matter choked up every valley.