第21章 LETTER VII(3)

[Figure:fig-p050.gif with following caption:

1Gjas.

2Lava deluge.

3Original surface.

4Thingvalla sunk to a lower level.

5Astonished traveller.]

1.Are the two chasms called respectively Almanna Gja,[Footnote:Almanna may be translated main;it means literally all men's;when applied to a road,it would mean the road along which all the world travel.]or Main Gja,and Hrafna Gja,or Raven's Gja.In the act of disruption the sinking mass fell in,as it were,upon itself,so that one side of the Gja slopes a good deal back as it ascends;the other side is perfectly perpendicular,and at the spot I saw it upwards of one hundred feet high.In the lapse of years the bottom of the Almanna Gja has become gradually filled up to an even surface,covered with the most beautiful turf,except where a river,leaping from the higher plateau over the precipice,has chosen it for a bed.You must not suppose,however,that the disruption and land-slip of Thingvalla took place quite in the spick and span manner the section might lead you to imagine;in some places the rock has split asunder very unevenly,and the Hrafna Gja is altogether a very untidy rent,the sides having fallen in in many places,and almost filled up the ravine with ruins.On the other hand,in the Almanna Gja,you can easily distinguish on the one face marks and formations exactly corresponding,though at a different level,with those on the face opposite,so cleanly were they separated.

[Figure:fig-p051.gif with the following caption:

1Plain of Thingvalla.

2Lake.

3Lava plateau.

4Almanna Gja.

5Rabna Gja.]

2.Is the sea of lava now lying on the top of the original surface.Its depth I had no means of ascertaining.

3.Is the level of the surface first formed when the lava was still hot.

4.Is the plain of Thingvalla,eight miles broad,its surface shattered into a network of innumerable crevices and fissures fifty or sixty feet deep,and each wide enough to have swallowed the entire company of Korah.At the foot of the plain lies a vast lake,into which,indeed,it may be said to slope,with a gradual inclination from the north,the imprisoned waters having burst up through the lava strata,as it subsided beneath them.

Gazing down through their emerald depths,you can still follow the pattern traced on the surface of the bottom,by cracks and chasms similar to those into which the dry portion of Thingvalla has been shivered.

The accompanying ground plan will,I trust,complete what is wanting to fill up the picture I so long to conjure up before the mind's eye.It is the last card I have to play,and,if unsuccessful,I must give up the task in despair.But to return to where I left myself,on the edge of the cliff,gazing down with astonished eyes over the panorama of land and water embedded at my feet.Icould scarcely speak for pleasure and surprise;Fitz was equally taken aback,and as for Wilson,he looked as if he thought we had arrived at the end of the world.After having allowed us sufficient time to admire the prospect Sigurdr turned to the left,along the edge of the precipice,until we reached a narrow pathway accidentally formed down a longitudinal niche in the splintered face of the cliff,which led across the bottom,and up the opposite side of the Gja,into the plain of Thingvalla.By rights our tents ought to have arrived before us,but when we reached the little glebe where we expected to find them pitched,no signs of servants,guides,or horses were to be seen.As we had not overtaken them ourselves,their non-appearance was inexplicable.Wilson suggested that,the cook having died on the road,the rest of the party must have turned aside to bury him;and that we had passed unperceived during the interesting ceremony.Be the cause what it might,the result was not agreeable.We were very tired,very hungry,and it had just begun to rain.

It is true there was a clergyman's house and a church,both built of stones covered with turf sods,close by;at the one,perhaps,we could get milk,and in the other we could sleep,as our betters--including Madame Pfeiffer--had done before us;but its inside looked so dark,and damp,and cold,and charnel-like,that one really doubted whether lying in the churchyard would not be snugger.You may guess,then,how great was my relief when our belated baggage-train was descried against the sky-line,as it slowly wended its way along the purple edge of the precipice towards the staircase by which we had already descended.

Half an hour afterwards the little plot of grass selected for the site of our encampment was covered over with poles,boxes,cauldrons,tea-kettles,and all the paraphernalia of a gipsy settlement.Wilson's Kaffir experience came at once into play,and under his solemn but effective superintendence,in less than twenty minutes the horn-headed tent rose,dry and taut,upon the sward.

Having carpeted the floor with oil-skin rugs,and arranged our three beds with their clean crisp sheets,blankets,and coverlets complete,at the back,he proceeded to lay out the dinner-table at the tent door with as much decorum as if we were expecting the Archbishop of Canterbury.

All this time the cook,who looked a little pale,and moved,I observed with difficulty,was mysteriously closeted with a spirit-lamp inside a diminutive tent of his own,through the door of which the most delicious whiffs occasionally permeated.Olaf and his comrades had driven off the horses to their pastures;and Sigurdr and I were deep in a game of chess.Luckily,the shower,which threatened us a moment,had blown over.Though now almost nine o'clock P.M.,it was as bright as mid-day;the sky burned like a dome of gold,and silence and deep peace brooded over the fair grass-robed plain,that once had been so fearfully convulsed.