Number in series 26; Year of publication 1932 - Fell and Rock ...
Number in series 26; Year of publication 1932 - Fell and Rock ...
Number in series 26; Year of publication 1932 - Fell and Rock ...
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128 THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB JOURNALthe stone debris. Climb<strong>in</strong>g on a pile <strong>of</strong> boulders, one sees closeat h<strong>and</strong> the river, but not a vestige <strong>of</strong> green on its banks. Thecolour <strong>of</strong> soap-suds, it ambles between banks <strong>of</strong> the same colourfrom nowhere, by way <strong>of</strong> nowhere <strong>in</strong> particular, to the empty,blue, sunny Arctic Ocean, receiv<strong>in</strong>g no tributary above ground<strong>in</strong> the last sixty-five miles <strong>of</strong> its course. Scrambl<strong>in</strong>g amongs<strong>and</strong>-floored mazes <strong>of</strong> rectangular boulders, we come <strong>in</strong> anothertwenty m<strong>in</strong>utes to the great fall. This is, <strong>in</strong> pattern, just likeother Icel<strong>and</strong> waterfalls—or rather, it is one <strong>of</strong> the two alternativetypes which there are here. Everyth<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the scenery <strong>of</strong>this l<strong>and</strong> is clear-cut <strong>and</strong> hard, as if on the morrow <strong>of</strong> Creation.Hills have vertical sides <strong>and</strong> flat tops or else are symmetricalcones. Only the lava keeps its feast <strong>of</strong> misrule, <strong>and</strong> even itswild disorder is only apparent <strong>in</strong> its details, not <strong>in</strong> the greatsweep<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>es, glacier-like, <strong>of</strong> its flows. This river seems tohave little <strong>in</strong> the way <strong>of</strong> a valley, but suddenly it comes to adeep rift extend<strong>in</strong>g longitud<strong>in</strong>ally up its bed, at once tumbles<strong>in</strong>to it <strong>and</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>ues its course between perpendicular, symmetricalcliffs <strong>of</strong> three hundred feet or so. (In the other type<strong>of</strong> waterfall, as one may describe it, there is a sudden transversestep <strong>of</strong> cliff, <strong>in</strong>stead <strong>of</strong> a longitud<strong>in</strong>al one). All that rema<strong>in</strong> <strong>of</strong>the half-conscious hopes with which one has been consol<strong>in</strong>goneself for hours are f<strong>in</strong>ally dashed. Not here the mysteriouscharm <strong>of</strong> damp mosses <strong>and</strong> ferns, <strong>of</strong> swirl<strong>in</strong>g bottle-green depthswith their dance <strong>of</strong> bubbles; none <strong>of</strong> that which, <strong>in</strong> other places,attaches to waterfalls a sentiment not to be accounted for bythe notion <strong>of</strong> so much mere water obey<strong>in</strong>g gravity. No troths,I am sure, are plighted here. The opaque flood is not fit to dr<strong>in</strong>k :full <strong>of</strong> greyish clay <strong>and</strong> large gra<strong>in</strong>s <strong>of</strong> black s<strong>and</strong>, with pieces <strong>of</strong>pumice-stone float<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> it, like dirty bath-water. A carpet,consist<strong>in</strong>g exclusively <strong>of</strong> d<strong>and</strong>elions <strong>and</strong> yarrow, oddly clothes <strong>in</strong>places the black s<strong>and</strong> on top <strong>of</strong> the cliffs. At one place whichit is possible to reach, the spray <strong>of</strong> the fall accumulates <strong>in</strong>to arivulet, where the wafer is slightly more dr<strong>in</strong>kable than <strong>in</strong> thema<strong>in</strong> river. I come across two or three old food-t<strong>in</strong>s, verymuch rusted. Is it a month, or a season, s<strong>in</strong>ce the last humanbe<strong>in</strong>g was here, or have whole years passed without <strong>in</strong>trusion ?It is time to be <strong>of</strong>f. Lead<strong>in</strong>g the horses with difficulty up theslopes <strong>of</strong> deep black s<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> through the rocky gates above theriver, we emerge at last on the unbroken heath. Hours pass,