Many of them were upwards of 4 feet high, generally
sharpened at the extremity, and about 2 feet in thickness. A more
brilliant scene perhaps never presented itself to the human eye, nor was
it easy for us to divest ourselves of the idea that we actually beheld
one of the fairy scenes depicted in Eastern fable. The light of the
torches rendered it peculiarly enchanting.'
Captain Forbes found much ice on the floor, but he did not enjoy the
cold and wet, and seems to have ascended by the last opening in the
roof, mentioned by Olafsen, before reaching the cavern where the more
beautiful parts of the ice-decoration were found by his predecessors.
The two engravings of the interior of the cave given in his book are
copied from the magnificent lithographs of Paul Gaimard,[110] but much
of the effect has been lost in the process of copying.
Mr. Baring Gould mentions this cavern in his book on Iceland, and
believes that its interest has been much overrated. He seems to have
visited the cave, but makes no allusion to the existence of ice.[111]
Mr.
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