ORÆFA JÖKUL, THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN ICELAND.
JÖKUL-RANGES AND VOLCANOES ON THE SOUTH COAST.
At ten o’clock P.M., August 3, the anchor was heaved and we sailed for the east of the island.
The bay at Reykjavik is very lovely. Every crevice of the Essian mountains is distinctly shown; while the positive colours and delicate tints of these and other heights rising far inland, which the eye takes in, in sweeping round the semicircle from Snæfell to Skagi, are bright, varied, and beautiful beyond description. Deep indigoes dashed with purple, violet peaks, pale lilac ranges; and, relieved against them, cones of dazzling snow and ice glittering like silver, side by side with rosy pinks and warm sunny browns, all rising over a foreground of black lava. The sky overhead is blue; and the northern horizon lit up with a mellow glow of golden light.
The frigate Artemise, the brig Agile, the Danish schooner Emma, and several trading vessels lying at anchor, animate the scene.
Snæfell Jökul—rising to the north-west on the extreme of yonder narrow ridge that runs out due west into the sea for nearly fifty miles, separating the Faxa from the Breida fiord—dome-shaped, isolated and perpetually covered with snow, is now touched with living rosy light.