The common people are convinced that it is
inhabited by ghosts; and Olafsen and his party were assured that they
would be turned back by horrible noises, or else killed outright by the
spirits of the cave: at any rate, their informants declared they would
no more reach the inner parts of the cavern than they had reached the
traditional green valley of Aradal, isolated in the midst of glaciers,
with its wild population of descendants of the giants, which they had
endeavoured to find some time before.[109]
The cave is in the form of a tunnel a mile or more in length, with
innumerable ramifications, in the lava which has flowed from the Bald
Yoekul. It lies on the edge of the uninhabited waste called the
Arnavatns-heidi, in a district described by Captain Forbes as distorted
and devilish, a cast-iron sea of lava. The approach is through an open
chasm, 20 to 40 feet in depth, and 50 feet broad, leading to the
entrance of the cave, where the height is between 30 and 40 feet, and
the breadth rather more than 50. Henderson found a large quantity of
congealed snow at this entrance, and along pool of water resting on a
floor of ice, which turned his party back and forced them to seek
another entrance, where again they found snow piled up to a
considerable height.
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