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 bl