Jökull - 01.12.1967, Page 54

have lived in a spaceous dwelling, been well
equipped with implements and other tools such
as nets, lived there for a considerable period
of time, as evidenced by the 10 cm thick hard-
trodden earth layer on the floor and the space-
ous buildings. Finally they evidently leave the
place in no haste intending to return as the
net studs show, or direct others to the huts,
although it never came to be so.” Because of
the seclusion of the huts compared with the
present Veidivötn they have been regarded as
having been the refuge of outlaws. With regard
to what has been revealed as to the location
of Stórisjór it is quite as likely that those who
inhabited them were ordinary rural people,
perhaps from Skaftafellssýsla. Whoever the
fishermen have been their way to the catch
has been short since the huts were situated on
the bank of the lake. Gestsson describes the
soil overlying the layer on the floor of the
huts in the following way: “On the top at the
point of the greatest thickness (just inside the
wall) were accumulated about 13 cm of fine-
grained drift sand, underlain by a black tephra
layer, 90 cm thick . .. At the bottom again a
10 cm thick layer of a somewhat similar drift
sand as at the top was found, but the bottom
layer was considerably more compact.” The
tephra layer dates from the eruption of Laki,
1783. The thickness of the upper ancl lower
drift sand layers is comparable, indicating that
both required approximately the same time for
formation or about 170 years. According to
that the huts should have been abandonned
for ever not later than about 1600. That prob-
ably occurred in connection with Tungnaá be-
coming glacier-fed resulting in a great decrease
or even a total absence of fish in Stórisjór.
5. LAKE LANGISJÓR
As has been related in the historical account
there are strong indications that lake Langisjór
was known before and in the beginning of the
cold climatic period. But during that period it
gets totally lost and its name too. Around the
middle of the nineteenth century even the
country folk of the nearest settlements did not
seem to have any knowledge of the lake and
its surroundings. That nothing was known about
the local conditions west of the Skaftá river in
that time is evidenced by the story of two
shepliards driving a flock of sheeps in those
parts in 1858 (Nordal et al. 1931).
The first unequivocal description of Langi-
sjór is the note “Fréttir” (News) in the news-
paper ísafold from the year 1878. It says: "On
Sfdumannaafréttur mountain pasture at the
south-western corner of Vatnajökull two grassy
valleys have been discovered. North of the val-
leys is a Iake, which Skaftá is considered to
drain. The mountains encompassing these val-
leys were formerly called Skaftárfjöll, but are
now termed Fögrufjöll. They seem to be con-
tinuous to Vatnajökull except that Skaftá flows
between them and the main glacier.”
The first naturalist to explore lake Langisjór
and its surroundings was Thorvaldur Thorodd-
sen. He made two trips to the lake, the former
in the summer of 1889. In this trip he crossed
Tungnaá in Tungnaárbotnar near the glacier
and climbed a high mountain just east of the
river wherefrom he had a splendicl view of
Langisjór and its vicinity. Tlie following lines
are taken from his account: “But to the south
of us there rises a jagged, high mountain
range parallel to the one we are standing on .. .
The depression separating these two ranges is
occupied by an extensive lake having the colour
of glacier water. .. The glacier projects into
its north-eastern end and blocks up the valley
between the ranges, therefore the lake has the
milky colour of glacial water. We call the lake
Langisjór.”
Thoroddsen visited Langisjór a second time
in 1893, this time approaching the lake at its
south-western end and in his account of that
trip he a.o. says: “In the spring as ice and
snow are thawing the amount of water increases
considerably; signs of liigher water level give
an evidence of this.” These signs most likelv
indicate the upper shoreline, and at this time
Utfall, the outlet of Langisjór, probably was
formed. Útfall was discovered in 1894, i.e. in the
subsequent year to Thoroddsen’s second trip.
In this year the Fögrufjöll mountains were
herdecl for sheep for the first time.
From the time of Thoroddsen’s explorations
and measurements at Langisjór in the years
1889 and 1893 the area was not explorecl until
it was aerially photographed and mapped by
the Geodetic Institute, Copenhagen in 1937—
288 JÖKULL 17. ÁR