The crew consisted of five men, all Danes.
"How long will the passage take ?" my uncle asked.
"Ten days," the captain replied, "if we don't meet a nor'-wester in passing the Faroes." "But are you not subject to considerable delays ?" "No, M.Liedenbrock, don't be uneasy, we shall get there in very good time." At evening the schooner doubled the Skaw at the northern point of Denmark, in the night passed the Skager Rack, skirted Norway by Cape Lindness, and entered the North Sea.
In two days more we sighted the coast of Scotland near Peterhead, and the _Valkyria_ turned her lead towards the Faroe Islands, passing between the Orkneys and Shetlands.
Soon the schooner encountered the great Atlantic swell; she had to tack against the north wind, and reached the Faroes only with some difficulty.

On the 8th the captain made out Myganness, the southernmost of these islands, and from that moment took a straight course for Cape Portland, the most southerly point of Iceland.
The passage was marked by nothing unusual.

I bore the troubles of the sea pretty well; my uncle, to his own intense disgust, and his greater shame, was ill all through the voyage.
He therefore was unable to converse with the captain about Snaefell, the way to get to it, the facilities for transport, he was obliged to put off these inquiries until his arrival, and spent all his time at full length in his cabin, of which the timbers creaked and shook with every pitch she took.

It must be confessed he was not undeserving of his punishment.
On the 11th we reached Cape Portland.

The clear open weather gave us a good view of Myrdals jokul, which overhangs it.