Olafsen also mentions collections of snow under the various openings in the lava which forms the roof of the cave.

The latter explorer discovered interesting signs of the early inhabitants of the Surtshellir, as, for instance, the common bedstead, built of stones, 2-1/2 feet high, 36 feet long, and 14 feet broad, with a pathway down the middle, forming the only passage to the inner parts of the cave.

The spaces enclosed by these stones were strewn with black sand, on which rough wool was probably laid by way of mattress.

This could scarcely have been a bedstead in the time of the giants, for a total breadth of 14 feet, deducting for the pathway down the middle, will not give more than 6 feet for the layer of men on either side, unless indeed they lay parallel to the passage, and required a length of 36 feet.

He also found an old wall, built with blocks of lava across one part of the cave, as if for defence, and a large circular heap of the bones of sheep and oxen, presumably the remains of many years of feasting.