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and his party set us the example by moving off
first.
I felt, however, a very strong desire to ascend
Mount Hecla, which stood before us with its three-
coned summit buried in snow, as majestic as the
three-forked Parnassus. Unwilling as 1 should
have been to part from my companions, nothing
prevented me from putting my wishes into execution
but the utter impracticability of doing so, as it
could only be accomplished by proper preparations
and skilful guides to be provided at Reikiavik.
In my anxiety to pursue my object, 1 had forgotten
that the last loaf of bread had been consumed
before we left the Geysers. After all, there
is no great wisdom, perhaps, in courting both toil
and danger, by clambering up a mountain buried
in snow, where nothing else is to he seen. The
people in the neighbourhood, it seems, discourage
every one from attempting it. When the French
doctor (mentioned in the introductory chapter)
made the attempt, he was told that it was the
entrance to the infernal regions, and that the devil
was busily employed in handing down the souls of
all those who had fallen in battle. Sir Joseph
Banks was told that the mountain was guarded by
a number of strange black birds, resembling crows,
and with beaks of iron, Avith Avhich they Avould
receive, in a very ungracious manner, any one Avho
might presume to infringe upon their territory.
Sir Joseph found the mountain surrounded, as the