October 20, 2025 • 18 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twelve. The huge volcano, which was the first stage
for our daring experiment, is above five thousand feet high.
Sneffels is the termination of a long range of volcanic
mountains of a different character to the system of the
island itself. One of its peculiarities is its two huge
(00:24):
pointed summits. From whence we started, it was impossible to
make out the real outlines of the peak against the
gray field of sky. All we could distinguish was a
vast dome of white which fell downwards from the head
of the giant. The commencement of the great undertaking filled
me with awe. Now that we had actually started, I
(00:46):
began to believe in the reality of the undertaking. Our
party formed quite a procession. We walked in single file,
preceded by hands the imperturbable Eider duck Hunter. He only
led us by narrow path where two persons could by
no possibility walk abreast. Conversation was wholly impossible. We had
(01:10):
all the more opportunity to reflect and admire the awful
grandeur of the scene around. Beyond the extraordinary basaltic wall
of the Fiord of Stappi, we found ourselves making our
way through fibrous turf, over which grew a scanty vegetation
of grass, the residum of the ancient vegetation of the
(01:33):
swampy peninsula. The vast mass of this combustible, the field
of which, as yet as utterly unexplored, would suffice to
warm Iceland for a whole century. This mighty turf pit,
measured from the bottom of certain ravines, is often not
less than seventy feet deep, and presents to the eye
(01:55):
the view of successive layers of black, burned up rocky deastus,
separated by thin streaks of porous sandstone. The grandeur of
the spectacle was undoubted, as well as its arid and
deserted air. As a true nephew of the great Professor Hardwig,
(02:17):
and despite my preoccupation and doleful fears of what was
to come, I observed with great interest the vast collection
of mineralogical curiosities spread out before me in this vast
museum of natural history. Looking back to my recent studies,
I went over and thought the whole geological history of Iceland,
(02:40):
this extraordinary and curious island, must have made its appearance
from out of the great world of waters at a
comparatively recent date. Like the Coral islands of the Pacific,
it may, for aught, we know, be still rising by
slow and imperceptible degrees. If this really be the case,
(03:02):
its origin can be attributed to only one cause, that
of the continued action of subterranean fires. This was a
happy thought. If so, if this were true, away with
theories of Sir Humphrey Davy, Away with the authority of
the parchment of arn sacmicin the wonderful pretenses to discover
(03:26):
on the part of my uncle, and to our journey
all must end in smoke. Charmed with the idea, I
began more carefully to look about me. A serious study
of the soil was necessary to negative or confirm my hypothesis.
I took in every item of what I saw, and
(03:48):
I began to comprehend the succession of phenomena which had
preceded its formation. Iceland, being absolutely without sedimentary soil, is
composed of exclusively of volcanic tufa, that is to say,
of an agglomeration of stones and of rocks of a
porous texture. Long before the existence of volcanoes, it was
(04:13):
composed of a solid body of massive trap rock lifted
bodily and slowly out of the sea by the action
of the centrifugal force at work in the earth. The
internal fires, however, had not as yet burst their bounds
and flooded the exterior cake of Mother Earth with hot
and raging lava. My readers must excuse this brief and
(04:37):
somewhat pedantic geological lecture, but it is necessary to the
complete understanding of what follows. At a later period in
the world's history, a huge and mighty fissure must, reasoning
by analogy, have been dug diagonally from the southwest to
the northeast of the island, through which by degrees flowed
(05:00):
the volcanic crust. The great and wondrous phenomenon then went
on without violence. The outpouring was enormous, and the seething
fused matter ejected from the bowels of the earth spread
slowly and peacefully in the form of vast level plains
or what are called mamlons or mounds. It was at
(05:24):
this epoch that the rocks called deldspars, cyanides, and porphyries appeared.
But as a natural consequence of this overflow, the depth
of the island increased. It can readily be believed what an
enormous quantity of elastic fluids were piled up within its center,
(05:47):
when at last it afforded no other openings. After the
process of cooling the crust had taken place at length,
a time came when, despite the enormous thickness and weight
of the upper crust, the mechanical forces of the combustible
gases below became so great that they actually upheaved the
weighty back and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts.
(06:12):
Hence the volcanoes which suddenly arose through the upper crust,
and next the craters which burst forth at the summit
of these new creations. It will be seen that the
first phenomena in connection with the formation of the island
were simply eruptive. To these, however, shortly succeeded the volcanic phenomena.
(06:35):
Through the newly formed openings escaped the marvelous mass of
basaltic stones with which the plain we were now crossing
was covered. We were trampling our way over heavy rocks
of dark gray color, which, while cooling, had been molded
into six sided prisms. In the back distance, we could
(06:56):
see a number of flattened cones, which formerly were so
many fire vomiting mouths. After the basaltic eruption was appeased
and set at rest, the volcano, the force of which
increased with that of the extinct craters, gave free passage
to the fiery overflow of lava and to the mass
(07:18):
of cinders and pumice rural stone, now scattered over the
sides of the mountain like disheveled hair on the shoulders
of a bauschante. Here in a nutshell, I had the
whole history of the phenomena from which Iceland arose, all
take their rise in the fierce action of interior fires.
(07:39):
And to believe that the central mass did not remain
in a state of liquid fire white hot, was simply
and purely madness. This being satisfactorily proved. Qed what incense
its folly to pretend to penetrate into the interior the
mighty earth. His mental lecture delivered to myself while proceeding
(08:03):
on a journey, did me good. I was quite reassured
as to the fate of our enterprise, and therefore went,
like a brave soldier mounting a bristling battery, to the
assault of old sneffels. As we advanced, the road became
every moment more difficult. The soil was broken and dangerous,
(08:25):
The rocks broke and gave way under our feet, and
we had to be scrupulously careful in order to avoid
dangerous and constant falls. Hans advanced as calmly as if
he had been walking over Salisbury Plain. Sometimes he would
disappear behind huge blocks of stone, and we momentarily lost
(08:47):
sight of him. There was a little period of anxiety,
and then there was a shrill whistle, just to tell
us where to look for him. Occasionally he would take
it into his head to stop, to pick up long
rock and silently pile them up into small heaps, in
order that we might not lose our way on our return.
(09:08):
He had no idea of the journey we were about
to undertake. At all events. The precaution was a good one,
though how utterly useless and unnecessary. But I must not
anticipate three hours of terrible fatigue. Walking incessantly had only
brought us to the foot of the great mountain. This
(09:31):
will give some notion of what we had still to undergo. Suddenly, however,
Hans cried a halt. That is, he made signs to
that effect, and a summary kind of breakfast was laid
out on the lava before us. My uncle, who now
was simply Professor Hardwig, was so eager to advance that
(09:52):
he bolted his food like a greedy clown. This halt
for refreshment was also a halt for repose. The Professor
was therefore compelled to wait the good pleasure of his
imperturbable guide, who did not give the signal for departure
for a good hour. The three Icelanders, who were as
(10:13):
taciturn as their comrade, did not say a word, but
went on eating and drinking, very quietly and soberly. From
this our first real stage, we began to ascend the
slopes of the Sneffel's Volcano, Its magnificent snowy nightcap, as
we began to call it, by an optical delusion very
(10:35):
common in mountains, appeared to me to be close at hand.
And yet how many long, weary hours must elapse before
he reached the summit? What unheard of fatigue must we endure?
The stones on the mountain side, held together by no
cement of soil, bound together by no roots or creeping
(10:56):
herbs gave way continually under our feet and went rushing
below into the plains like a series of small avalanches.
In certain places, the sides of this stupendous mountain were
at an angle so steep that it was impossible to
climb upwards, and we were compelled to get around these
(11:16):
obstacles as best we might. Those who understand alpine climbing
will comprehend our difficulties. Often we were obliged to help
each other along by means of our climbing poles. I
must say this for my uncle, that he stuck as
close to me as possible. He never lost sight of me,
(11:38):
and on many occasions his arm supplied me with firm
and solid support. He was strong, wiry, and apparently insensible
to fatigue. Another great advantage with him was that he
had the innate sentiment of equilibrium, for he never slipped
or failed in his steps. The Icelanders, though heavily loaded,
(12:01):
climbed with the agility of mountaineers. Looking up every now
and then at the height of the great volcano of Sneffels,
it appeared to me wholly impossible to reach to the
summit on that side. At all events, if the angle
of the inclination did not speedily change. Fortunately, after an
(12:21):
hour of unheard of fatigues and of gymnastic exercises that
would have been trying to an acrobat, we came to
a vast field of ice which wholly surrounded the bottom
of the cone of the volcano. The natives called it
the table cloth, probably from some such reason as the
dwellers in the Cape of Good Hope called their mountain
(12:44):
table mountain, and their roads table bay. Here, to our
mutual surprise, we found an actual flight of stone steps,
which wonderfully assisted our ascent. This singular flight of steps
was like everything else volcanic. It had been formed by
one of those torrents of stones cast up by the
(13:06):
eruptions of which the Icelandic name is Stina. If this
singular torrent had not been checked in its descent by
the peculiar shape of the flanks of the mountain, it
would have swept into the sea and would have formed
new islands. Such as it was, it served us admirably.
(13:27):
The abrupt character of the slopes momentarily increased. But these
remarkable stone steps a little less difficult than those of
the Egyptian pyramids were the one simple natural means by
which we were enabled to proceed. About seven in the
morning of that day, after having clambered up two thousand
of these rough steps, we found ourselves overlooking a kind
(13:51):
of spur of projection of the mountain, a sort of
buttress upon which the cone like crater properly so called
leaned for support. The ocean lay beneath us at a
depth of more than three thousand, two hundred feet, a
grand and mighty spectacle. We had reached the region of
(14:12):
eternal snows. The cold was keen, searching and intense. The
wind blew with extraordinary violence. I was utterly exhausted. My
worthy uncle, the Professor, saw clearly that my legs refused
further service, and that in fact I was utterly exhausted.
(14:35):
Despite his hot and feverish impatience, he decided with a
sigh upon a halt, he called the eider duck hunter
to his side. That Worthy, however, shook his head often
for was his sole spoken reply. It appears, says my uncle,
with a woe begone look, that we must go higher.
(14:59):
He then turned Hans and asked him to give him
some reason for this decisive response, mistour replied the guide. Jia, mistour. Yes,
the mistour, cried one of the Icelandic guides in a
terrified tone. It was the first time he had spoken.
(15:21):
What does this mysterious words signify, I anxiously inquired look,
said my uncle. I looked down upon the plain below,
and I saw a vast, prodigious volume of pulverized pumice, stone,
of sand, of dust rising to the heavens in the
form of a mighty water spout. It resembled the fearful
(15:43):
phenomenon of a similar character known to the travelers in
the desert of the Great Sahara. The wind was driving
it directly upwards that side of Sneffels of which we
were perched. This opaque veil, standing up between us and
the sun, project a deep shadow on the flanks of
the mountain. If this sand spout broke over us, we
(16:06):
must all be infallibly destroyed, crushed in its fearful embraces.
This extraordinary phenomenon, very common when the wind shakes the
glaciers and sweeps over the arid plains, is in the
Icelandic tongue called mistour hastigt hastigt cried our guide. Now
(16:27):
I certainly knew nothing of Danish, but I thoroughly understood
that his gestures were meant to quicken us. The guide
turned rapidly in a direction which would take us to
the back of the crater, all the while ascending slightly.
We followed rapidly, despite our excessive fatigue. A quarter of
(16:49):
an hour later, Hans paused to enable us to look back.
The mighty whirlwind of sand was spreading up the slope
of the mountain to the very spot where we had
proposed to halt. Huge stones were caught up, cast into
the air, and thrown about as during an eruption. We
were happily a little out of the direction of the
(17:10):
wind and therefore out of reach of danger. But for
the precaution and knowledge of our guide, our dislocated bodies
are crushed and broken limbs would have been cast to
the wind like dust from some unknown meteor. Hans, however,
did not think it prudent to pass the night on
(17:30):
the bare side of the cone. We therefore continued our
journey in a zigzag direction. The fifteen hundred feet which
remained to be accompanied took us at least five hours.
The turnings and windings, the no thoroughfares, the marches and
marches turned that insignificant distance into at least three leagues.
(17:53):
I never felt such misery, fatigue, and exhaustion in my life.
I was ready to faint from hunger and cold. The
rarefied air, at the same time painfully acted upon my lungs.
At last, when I thought myself at my last gasp,
(18:14):
about eleven at night, it being in that region quite dark,
we reached the summit of Mount Sneifels. It was in
an awful mood of mind that, despite my fatigue, before
I descended into the crater which was to shelter us
for the night, I paused to behold the sun rise
at midnight, on the very day of its lowest declination,
(18:36):
and enjoyed the spectacle of its ghastly pale rays cast
upon the aisle which lay sleeping at our feet. I
no longer wondered at people traveling all the way from
England to Norway to behold this magical and wondrous spectacle.
End of Chapter twelve
Chapter twelve. The huge volcano, which was the first stage
for our daring experiment, is above five thousand feet high.
Sneffels is the termination of a long range of volcanic
mountains of a different character to the system of the
island itself. One of its peculiarities is its two huge
(00:24):
pointed summits. From whence we started, it was impossible to
make out the real outlines of the peak against the
gray field of sky. All we could distinguish was a
vast dome of white which fell downwards from the head
of the giant. The commencement of the great undertaking filled
me with awe. Now that we had actually started, I
(00:46):
began to believe in the reality of the undertaking. Our
party formed quite a procession. We walked in single file,
preceded by hands the imperturbable Eider duck Hunter. He only
led us by narrow path where two persons could by
no possibility walk abreast. Conversation was wholly impossible. We had
(01:10):
all the more opportunity to reflect and admire the awful
grandeur of the scene around. Beyond the extraordinary basaltic wall
of the Fiord of Stappi, we found ourselves making our
way through fibrous turf, over which grew a scanty vegetation
of grass, the residum of the ancient vegetation of the
(01:33):
swampy peninsula. The vast mass of this combustible, the field
of which, as yet as utterly unexplored, would suffice to
warm Iceland for a whole century. This mighty turf pit,
measured from the bottom of certain ravines, is often not
less than seventy feet deep, and presents to the eye
(01:55):
the view of successive layers of black, burned up rocky deastus,
separated by thin streaks of porous sandstone. The grandeur of
the spectacle was undoubted, as well as its arid and
deserted air. As a true nephew of the great Professor Hardwig,
(02:17):
and despite my preoccupation and doleful fears of what was
to come, I observed with great interest the vast collection
of mineralogical curiosities spread out before me in this vast
museum of natural history. Looking back to my recent studies,
I went over and thought the whole geological history of Iceland,
(02:40):
this extraordinary and curious island, must have made its appearance
from out of the great world of waters at a
comparatively recent date. Like the Coral islands of the Pacific,
it may, for aught, we know, be still rising by
slow and imperceptible degrees. If this really be the case,
(03:02):
its origin can be attributed to only one cause, that
of the continued action of subterranean fires. This was a
happy thought. If so, if this were true, away with
theories of Sir Humphrey Davy, Away with the authority of
the parchment of arn sacmicin the wonderful pretenses to discover
(03:26):
on the part of my uncle, and to our journey
all must end in smoke. Charmed with the idea, I
began more carefully to look about me. A serious study
of the soil was necessary to negative or confirm my hypothesis.
I took in every item of what I saw, and
(03:48):
I began to comprehend the succession of phenomena which had
preceded its formation. Iceland, being absolutely without sedimentary soil, is
composed of exclusively of volcanic tufa, that is to say,
of an agglomeration of stones and of rocks of a
porous texture. Long before the existence of volcanoes, it was
(04:13):
composed of a solid body of massive trap rock lifted
bodily and slowly out of the sea by the action
of the centrifugal force at work in the earth. The
internal fires, however, had not as yet burst their bounds
and flooded the exterior cake of Mother Earth with hot
and raging lava. My readers must excuse this brief and
(04:37):
somewhat pedantic geological lecture, but it is necessary to the
complete understanding of what follows. At a later period in
the world's history, a huge and mighty fissure must, reasoning
by analogy, have been dug diagonally from the southwest to
the northeast of the island, through which by degrees flowed
(05:00):
the volcanic crust. The great and wondrous phenomenon then went
on without violence. The outpouring was enormous, and the seething
fused matter ejected from the bowels of the earth spread
slowly and peacefully in the form of vast level plains
or what are called mamlons or mounds. It was at
(05:24):
this epoch that the rocks called deldspars, cyanides, and porphyries appeared.
But as a natural consequence of this overflow, the depth
of the island increased. It can readily be believed what an
enormous quantity of elastic fluids were piled up within its center,
(05:47):
when at last it afforded no other openings. After the
process of cooling the crust had taken place at length,
a time came when, despite the enormous thickness and weight
of the upper crust, the mechanical forces of the combustible
gases below became so great that they actually upheaved the
weighty back and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts.
(06:12):
Hence the volcanoes which suddenly arose through the upper crust,
and next the craters which burst forth at the summit
of these new creations. It will be seen that the
first phenomena in connection with the formation of the island
were simply eruptive. To these, however, shortly succeeded the volcanic phenomena.
(06:35):
Through the newly formed openings escaped the marvelous mass of
basaltic stones with which the plain we were now crossing
was covered. We were trampling our way over heavy rocks
of dark gray color, which, while cooling, had been molded
into six sided prisms. In the back distance, we could
(06:56):
see a number of flattened cones, which formerly were so
many fire vomiting mouths. After the basaltic eruption was appeased
and set at rest, the volcano, the force of which
increased with that of the extinct craters, gave free passage
to the fiery overflow of lava and to the mass
(07:18):
of cinders and pumice rural stone, now scattered over the
sides of the mountain like disheveled hair on the shoulders
of a bauschante. Here in a nutshell, I had the
whole history of the phenomena from which Iceland arose, all
take their rise in the fierce action of interior fires.
(07:39):
And to believe that the central mass did not remain
in a state of liquid fire white hot, was simply
and purely madness. This being satisfactorily proved. Qed what incense
its folly to pretend to penetrate into the interior the
mighty earth. His mental lecture delivered to myself while proceeding
(08:03):
on a journey, did me good. I was quite reassured
as to the fate of our enterprise, and therefore went,
like a brave soldier mounting a bristling battery, to the
assault of old sneffels. As we advanced, the road became
every moment more difficult. The soil was broken and dangerous,
(08:25):
The rocks broke and gave way under our feet, and
we had to be scrupulously careful in order to avoid
dangerous and constant falls. Hans advanced as calmly as if
he had been walking over Salisbury Plain. Sometimes he would
disappear behind huge blocks of stone, and we momentarily lost
(08:47):
sight of him. There was a little period of anxiety,
and then there was a shrill whistle, just to tell
us where to look for him. Occasionally he would take
it into his head to stop, to pick up long
rock and silently pile them up into small heaps, in
order that we might not lose our way on our return.
(09:08):
He had no idea of the journey we were about
to undertake. At all events. The precaution was a good one,
though how utterly useless and unnecessary. But I must not
anticipate three hours of terrible fatigue. Walking incessantly had only
brought us to the foot of the great mountain. This
(09:31):
will give some notion of what we had still to undergo. Suddenly, however,
Hans cried a halt. That is, he made signs to
that effect, and a summary kind of breakfast was laid
out on the lava before us. My uncle, who now
was simply Professor Hardwig, was so eager to advance that
(09:52):
he bolted his food like a greedy clown. This halt
for refreshment was also a halt for repose. The Professor
was therefore compelled to wait the good pleasure of his
imperturbable guide, who did not give the signal for departure
for a good hour. The three Icelanders, who were as
(10:13):
taciturn as their comrade, did not say a word, but
went on eating and drinking, very quietly and soberly. From
this our first real stage, we began to ascend the
slopes of the Sneffel's Volcano, Its magnificent snowy nightcap, as
we began to call it, by an optical delusion very
(10:35):
common in mountains, appeared to me to be close at hand.
And yet how many long, weary hours must elapse before
he reached the summit? What unheard of fatigue must we endure?
The stones on the mountain side, held together by no
cement of soil, bound together by no roots or creeping
(10:56):
herbs gave way continually under our feet and went rushing
below into the plains like a series of small avalanches.
In certain places, the sides of this stupendous mountain were
at an angle so steep that it was impossible to
climb upwards, and we were compelled to get around these
(11:16):
obstacles as best we might. Those who understand alpine climbing
will comprehend our difficulties. Often we were obliged to help
each other along by means of our climbing poles. I
must say this for my uncle, that he stuck as
close to me as possible. He never lost sight of me,
(11:38):
and on many occasions his arm supplied me with firm
and solid support. He was strong, wiry, and apparently insensible
to fatigue. Another great advantage with him was that he
had the innate sentiment of equilibrium, for he never slipped
or failed in his steps. The Icelanders, though heavily loaded,
(12:01):
climbed with the agility of mountaineers. Looking up every now
and then at the height of the great volcano of Sneffels,
it appeared to me wholly impossible to reach to the
summit on that side. At all events, if the angle
of the inclination did not speedily change. Fortunately, after an
(12:21):
hour of unheard of fatigues and of gymnastic exercises that
would have been trying to an acrobat, we came to
a vast field of ice which wholly surrounded the bottom
of the cone of the volcano. The natives called it
the table cloth, probably from some such reason as the
dwellers in the Cape of Good Hope called their mountain
(12:44):
table mountain, and their roads table bay. Here, to our
mutual surprise, we found an actual flight of stone steps,
which wonderfully assisted our ascent. This singular flight of steps
was like everything else volcanic. It had been formed by
one of those torrents of stones cast up by the
(13:06):
eruptions of which the Icelandic name is Stina. If this
singular torrent had not been checked in its descent by
the peculiar shape of the flanks of the mountain, it
would have swept into the sea and would have formed
new islands. Such as it was, it served us admirably.
(13:27):
The abrupt character of the slopes momentarily increased. But these
remarkable stone steps a little less difficult than those of
the Egyptian pyramids were the one simple natural means by
which we were enabled to proceed. About seven in the
morning of that day, after having clambered up two thousand
of these rough steps, we found ourselves overlooking a kind
(13:51):
of spur of projection of the mountain, a sort of
buttress upon which the cone like crater properly so called
leaned for support. The ocean lay beneath us at a
depth of more than three thousand, two hundred feet, a
grand and mighty spectacle. We had reached the region of
(14:12):
eternal snows. The cold was keen, searching and intense. The
wind blew with extraordinary violence. I was utterly exhausted. My
worthy uncle, the Professor, saw clearly that my legs refused
further service, and that in fact I was utterly exhausted.
(14:35):
Despite his hot and feverish impatience, he decided with a
sigh upon a halt, he called the eider duck hunter
to his side. That Worthy, however, shook his head often
for was his sole spoken reply. It appears, says my uncle,
with a woe begone look, that we must go higher.
(14:59):
He then turned Hans and asked him to give him
some reason for this decisive response, mistour replied the guide. Jia, mistour. Yes,
the mistour, cried one of the Icelandic guides in a
terrified tone. It was the first time he had spoken.
(15:21):
What does this mysterious words signify, I anxiously inquired look,
said my uncle. I looked down upon the plain below,
and I saw a vast, prodigious volume of pulverized pumice, stone,
of sand, of dust rising to the heavens in the
form of a mighty water spout. It resembled the fearful
(15:43):
phenomenon of a similar character known to the travelers in
the desert of the Great Sahara. The wind was driving
it directly upwards that side of Sneffels of which we
were perched. This opaque veil, standing up between us and
the sun, project a deep shadow on the flanks of
the mountain. If this sand spout broke over us, we
(16:06):
must all be infallibly destroyed, crushed in its fearful embraces.
This extraordinary phenomenon, very common when the wind shakes the
glaciers and sweeps over the arid plains, is in the
Icelandic tongue called mistour hastigt hastigt cried our guide. Now
(16:27):
I certainly knew nothing of Danish, but I thoroughly understood
that his gestures were meant to quicken us. The guide
turned rapidly in a direction which would take us to
the back of the crater, all the while ascending slightly.
We followed rapidly, despite our excessive fatigue. A quarter of
(16:49):
an hour later, Hans paused to enable us to look back.
The mighty whirlwind of sand was spreading up the slope
of the mountain to the very spot where we had
proposed to halt. Huge stones were caught up, cast into
the air, and thrown about as during an eruption. We
were happily a little out of the direction of the
(17:10):
wind and therefore out of reach of danger. But for
the precaution and knowledge of our guide, our dislocated bodies
are crushed and broken limbs would have been cast to
the wind like dust from some unknown meteor. Hans, however,
did not think it prudent to pass the night on
(17:30):
the bare side of the cone. We therefore continued our
journey in a zigzag direction. The fifteen hundred feet which
remained to be accompanied took us at least five hours.
The turnings and windings, the no thoroughfares, the marches and
marches turned that insignificant distance into at least three leagues.
(17:53):
I never felt such misery, fatigue, and exhaustion in my life.
I was ready to faint from hunger and cold. The
rarefied air, at the same time painfully acted upon my lungs.
At last, when I thought myself at my last gasp,
(18:14):
about eleven at night, it being in that region quite dark,
we reached the summit of Mount Sneifels. It was in
an awful mood of mind that, despite my fatigue, before
I descended into the crater which was to shelter us
for the night, I paused to behold the sun rise
at midnight, on the very day of its lowest declination,
(18:36):
and enjoyed the spectacle of its ghastly pale rays cast
upon the aisle which lay sleeping at our feet. I
no longer wondered at people traveling all the way from
England to Norway to behold this magical and wondrous spectacle.
End of Chapter twelve
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