midday
This connecting link was doubtless a prudent precaution , but not by any means unattended with danger . Nevertheless , and despite all the manifold difficulties of the descent , along slopes with which our guide was wholly unacquainted , we made considerable progress without accident . One of our great parcels of rope slipped from one of the Iceland porters , and rushed by a short cut to the bottom of the abyss . By midday we were at the end of our journey . I looked upwards , and saw only the upper orifice of the cone , which served as a circular frame to a very small portion of the sky -- a portion which seemed to me singularly beautiful . Should I ever again gaze on that lovely sunlit sky ! The only exception to this extraordinary landscape , was the Peak of Scartaris , which seemed lost in the great void of the heavens .