Olafsen also mentions collections of snow under the
various openings in the lava which forms the roof of the cave. The
latter explorer discovered interesting signs of the early inhabitants of
the Surtshellir, as, for instance, the common bedstead, built of stones,
2-1/2 feet high, 36 feet long, and 14 feet broad, with a pathway down
the middle, forming the only passage to the inner parts of the cave. The
spaces enclosed by these stones were strewn with black sand, on which
rough wool was probably laid by way of mattress. This could scarcely
have been a bedstead in the time of the giants, for a total breadth of
14 feet, deducting for the pathway down the middle, will not give more
than 6 feet for the layer of men on either side, unless indeed they lay
parallel to the passage, and required a length of 36 feet. He also found
an old wall, built with blocks of lava across one part of the cave, as
if for defence, and a large circular heap of the bones of sheep and
oxen, presumably the remains of many years of feasting. Captain Forbes
scoffs at these bones, and suggests errant wild ponies as the depositors
thereof.
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