ROUTE III.-A SUMMER’S TOUR IN ICELAND. 157 Upon both occasions the floor of Aslcja, notwithstanding it lies 3,700 feet above sea-level, has been free from snow at the time of the author’s visit; owing, probably, to internal heat, as 20 miles south we have the glaciers of the Vatna Jolcull, with a mean altitude of less than 5,000 feet, and in the north-west of Iceland, at an altitude of less than 3,000 feet, there are the icy wastes of the Glamu and Dranga Jolclar, neither of which tracts can possibly be more favour- ably formed for glacial deposit than Askja. The encircling moun- tain wall is highest on the south and north, and lowest on the north-east, where it does not rise more than 800 feet above the floor of Aslcja for over a mile. East of this there is a gap to the level of the lava-floods deposited in Aslja, through which lava has coursed down the outer slope and spread over the O'da^ahraun. There is another gap in the mountain wall in the south-west, but the author cannot say whether lava has also streamed out there or not, ho having never been in that part of the crater. The whole surface of Aslcja, save in the south-east where there is a tepid lake five miles in circumference, and an extensive tract covered with pumice erupted in 1875, is a chaos of rugged lava- floods that have issued here at different periods. Prom those on the left, looking south across the crater from the pass, over an area ex- ceeding a square mile, ascend innumerable small jets of steam. These do not mark the site of the 1875 eruptions, however, for these stufa are dwarfed into utter insignificance by enormous volumes of steam that belch forth on the farther side of the amphitheatre close under its encircling mountain wall in the south-east. These bursts of steam issue from rifts and vents opened by the 1875 eruptions. The crossing of the lava-coloured floor of Aslcja from the foot of the pass, where one perforce leaves his pony, is most fatiguing work ; each time that the author has crossed, it has taken him—a young and active man—four hours to proceed as many miles, most of the way by the aid of his hands, protected by thick woollen mit- tens that they might not be cut by the lava. He may also mention that it utterly ruins the pair of boots worn while crossing ; so that an old pair with good soles should be taken by any one who purposes in the future to visit this volcano. When within a mile of the northern- most of the large bursts of steam, one is able to walk upright, the lava being buried under a covering of pumice, which rapidly increases in depth as the site of the 1875 eruptions is approached. The pumice is of three colours, light silvery grey, black, and golden- brown, the latter very fibrous, and presenting the appearance of

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