If They Cannot Discover A Firm
Resting-Place For The Feet, They Stop At Once, And Cannot Be Urged
Forward Without Many Blows.
After a halt of two hours we continued our journey, which again led
us across fields of lava.
At past nine o'clock in the evening we
reached an elevated plain, after traversing which for half an hour
we saw stretched at our feet the valley of Reikholt or Reikiadal; it
is fourteen to seventeen miles long, of a good breadth, and girt
round by a row of mountains, among which several jokuls sparkle in
their icy garments.
A sunset seen in the sublime wildness of Icelandic scenery has a
peculiarly beautiful effect. Over these vast plains, divested of
trees or shrubs, covered with dark lava, and shut in by mountains
almost of a sable hue, the parting sun sheds an almost magical
radiance. The peaks of the mountains shine in the bright parting
rays, the jokuls are shrouded in the most delicate roseate hue,
while the lower parts of the mountains lie in deep shadow, and frown
darkly on the valleys, which resemble a sheet of dark blue water,
with an atmosphere of a bluish-red colour floating above it. The
most impressive feature of all is the profound silence and solitude;
not a sound can be heard, not a living creature is to be seen; every
thing appears dead. Throughout the broad valleys not a town nor a
village, no, not even a solitary house or a tree or shrub, varies
the prospect.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 123 of 329
Words from 32697 to 32953
of 87606
