CHAPTER XIV
KRAFLA
… “The mountain’s head
Stupendous rose; crags, bare and bleachen, spread
In wild confusion,—fearful to the eye,—
In barren greatness, while the valleys lie
Crouching beneath, in their brown vesture clad,
And silent all.”
—Cottle.
In the early morning we mounted the best of our ponies for the toilsome ascent of Krafla, Creeping. We crossed the intervening ridge of mountains through the pass of Námaskarð, Solfatara-Pass, which is a deep defile in the volcanic range. At the base of this ridge there are spread out broad plains of multi-colored earth from which clouds of steam and sulfur gases ascend, which are visible for many miles across the lake. With caution we picked a way for the ponies amid the fumaroles and entered the pass. As far as the eye can range, this slope of the mountain is strewn with crystals of sulfur and gypsum interspersed with alum and needle zeolites in various forms. This slope is thinly crusted and perforated, like a skimmer, with orifices whence issue vile smelling gases to mingle with the steam and become dissipated in the upper air.