Jökull - 01.11.1998, Qupperneq 31

Ascent of Oræfajökull
Sveinn Pálsson
Edited by Richard S. Williams, Jr., U. S. Geological Survey
and Oddur Sigurðsson, National Energy Authority, Hydrological Service
THE GLACIER BOOK
OF SVEINN PÁLSSON
Sveinn Pálsson did glaciological research in Ice-
land in the years 1792-1794 after academic studies in
Copenhagen. In 1795, he sent a manuscript of a trea-
tise on Icelandic glaciers in Danish to the Society of
Natural History in Copenhagen. For a variety of rea-
sons it was not printed in full until 1945 and then only
in an Icelandic version (Pálsson, 1945). The “Glacier
Book“ is “the culmination of a glaciology which may
be called Icelandic in the sense that it was principally
based on knowledge of Icelandic glaciers” (Tho-
rarinsson, 1960).
One of the most noteworthy chapters in the
“Glacier Book” is the description of Pálsson's ascent
of Öræfajökull where he became convinced that his
previous ideas of the plastic motion of glacier ice,
were correct, when he observed the regular pattern of
ogives on Hrútárjökull or Fjallsjökull. That idea had
not been published before, except in the works of the
French naturalist A. C. Bordier in 1775 (Bordier,
1775). That piece of writing also lay obscure for al-
most a century before being revealed to the glacio-
logical community.
Flosi Björnsson, farmer at Kvísker, studied the
route supposedly taken by Pálsson (Fig. 1) and found
a caim and Pálsson's initial “P” engraved on a rock
close to the glacier (Bjömsson, 1957, 1965).
EXCERPT FROM
THE “GLACIER BOOK”
Here follows an excerpt from A Physical, Geo-
graphical, and Historical Description of Iceland's
Glaciers on the Basis ofa Journey to the Most Promi-
nent ofThem in 1792-1794 (Including Four Plan and
[Eight] Perspective Drawings) by Sveinn Pálsson.
Translated into English by Bjöm Netland and edited,
with annotations (endnotes), by Richard S. Williams,
Jr. and Oddur Sigurðsson.
Ascent of Öræfajökull
On 11 August [1794] we were already well under-
way long before sunrise with our intention of climb-
ing Öræfajökull; the weather was quite calm, without
a cloud in the sky. Eggert Ólafsson' considered Ör-
æfajökull to be the highest mountain in Iceland.
Equipped with a barometer, thermometer, pocket
compass, pickaxe, glacier cane, and a length of rope
measuring eight fathoms, my two companions and I
set out from the abandoned Kvísker farmstead at 0545
hr after having indicated our destination on a piece of
paper that we fastened to our tent, in case we should
get lost on the glacier. We made our way up rather
steep foothills and finally reached the margin of the
glacier at 0845 hr, where we rested on a hill for a few
minutes. At the foot of this hill, we observed a few
plants of the beautiful alpine species Ranunculus ni-
valis [co/r. Ranunculus glacialis (mountain butter-
cup)] growing on the barren gravel; a few of them had
even shed their blossoms. The ones that had just
bloomed had snowy-white petals, but the large ones
had saffron-yellow and later [stage of the blooming
cycle] red ones. I had not come across this species of
plant before in the mountains of the southem districts.
At this location, it grows at a higher altitude than Sta-
tice armeria [Armeria maritima (thrift)], which had
still not started blossoming here, and even higher up
than the little Salix herbacea [least willow], which,
however, usually grows in the highest location and is
second only to lichens [that grow at the highest eleva-
JÖKULL, No. 46, 1998
29