The snow remained on the ground, and the thermometer stood at one degree of cold.
In a little while the clear blue sky once more was visible, and the sun again shone over us.

I remained on the top till the clouds had separated beneath us, and afforded me a better distant view over the country.
My pen is unfortunately too feeble to bring vividly before my readers the picture such as I beheld it here, and to describe to them the desolation, the extent and height of these lava-masses.

I seemed to stand in a crater, and the whole country appeared only a burnt-out fire.

Here lava was piled up in steep inaccessible mountains; there stony rivers, whose length and breadth seemed immeasurable, filled the once-verdant fields.
Every thing was jumbled together, and yet the course of the last eruption could be distinctly traced.
I stood there, in the centre of horrible precipices, caves, streams, valleys, and mountains, and scarcely comprehended how it was possible to penetrate so far, and was overcome with terror at the thought which involuntarily obtruded itself--the possibility of never finding my way again out of these terrible labyrinths.
Here, from the top of Mount Hecla, I could see far into the uninhabited country, the picture of a petrified creation, dead and motionless, and yet magnificent,--a picture which once seen can never again fade from the memory, and which alone amply compensates for all the previous troubles and dangers.

A whole world of glaciers, lava-mountains, snow and ice-fields, rivers and lakes, into which no human foot has ever ventured to penetrate.