tain, where the proprietor of the farm urged
them to accept him for their guide, he
being acquainted with the country all around
the volcano, though he had never actually
reached even its foot. The whole of the
inhabitants who reside in the neighborhood
consider it as the height of temerity for any
one to endeavour to climb the mountain:
^ order, therefore, to deter these gentlemen
from being rash enough to make the attempt,
they represented a variety of supernatural
obstacles, which, having, from time
Immemorial, been handed down from father
to son, were perhaps as devoutly believed
as they were seriously related, telling, among
other things that were also urged to me,
how Hecla is guarded by a number of
strange black birds resembling crows, but
armed with beaks of iron, with which they
would receive in a very ungracious manner
any man that might presume to infringe
upon their territory. The country for two
leagues around Hecla they found wholly
destitute of vegetation, the soil consisting of
scoria, pumice, and red and black cinders,
which, by the breaking out of the subterraneous
fires, were here and there raised
into numerous little hilis and eminences, increasing
in size the nearer they approached
the mountain. The principal one, which
is called Raud-oldur*, is of an oblong
form, with an opening in its summit of an
hundred and forty-four feet in depth, and
eight hundred and forty feet in circumference:
it consists entirely of small red
shining stones, that have evidently been in
a state of liquefaction. On reaching Hecla,
the difficulty of proceeding was increased,
especially when it became necessary to travel
over the heaps of lava that have flowed from
the volcano, and formed round the base of
the mountain a sort of rampart from forty to
seventy feet in height, consisting of masses
* ff We-arrived (September 24, 1772) at a green spot
under Graufel-hraun where we pitched our tents and
proceeded to a crater which has an opening of half a
mile in circumference, but its western side is destroyed
by the eruption. The hraun lies as if it came from this
crater, and the tufa and ashes which formerly made a
part of its western side are still seen among it. The
lower part and remaining walls are composed of nothing
but ashes, cinders, and pieces of lava in various states.
Its name is Rod-Oldur.—The scene of desolation all
around is almost inconceivable.”—Sir Joseph Banks'
Manuscript Journal.