My guide considered the fine weather a very lucky omen, and told me that M.Geimard, the before-mentioned French scholar, had been compelled to wait three days for fine weather.

Nine years had elapsed, and no one had ascended the mountain since then.

A prince of Denmark, who travelled through Iceland some years before, had been there, but had returned without effecting his purpose.
Our road at first led us through beautiful fields, and then over plains of black sand enclosed on all sides by streams, hillocks, and mountains of piled-up lava.

Closer and closer these fearful masses approach, and scarcely permit a passage through a narrow cleft; we had to climb over blocks and hills of lava, where it is difficult to find a firm resting-place for the foot.

The lava rolled beside and behind us, and we had to proceed carefully not to fall or be hit by the rolling lava.