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after its eruptions, as has been sufficient to load a number of horses. On the night of the 19th of June, they at length approached the summit, and found themselves on the edge of the crater, in a place covered with ice and snow; yet not of such a nature as that of the glaciers, since it generally melts away in the summer months, excepting only what

de ses éruptions, et les autres volcans de l'Islande plus éloignés de lui qu'il ne l'est de la mer, et même les plus éloignés."-What might be considered as still farther proving the connection between volcanoes and the ocean is, that Etna is related by Seneca in his second book Naturalium Quæstionum to have thrown out a quantity of burning sand; so that "involutus est dies pulvere, populosque subita nox terruit;" but probably that philosopher meant nothing more by sand than minute particles of pulverized matter, a quantity of which, resembling gunpowder, was lately shewn me by the Countess of Gosford, picked up during the last eruption of the same mountain (March, 1809), in the very streets of Messina, fifty miles distant in a straight line, where it fell in such quantities that several cart-loads might have been collected.-The most extraordinary proof of the connection between volcanoes and subterraneous waters seems to be afforded by Humboldt, who, in the zoological part of his travels, speaks of the volcanoes of Quito casting out innumerable quantities of a species of fish that is found in the streams that run into the sides of the mountains.

lies in the hollows and clefts; for Hecla is to be classed among the Icelandic mountains of inferior height, rising to no greater elevátion than five thousand feet above the level of the sea. What rendered their walk more uncomfortable was that a flight of snow had recently fallen, the depth of which was not less than a foot and half. Through this they had a long and toilsome passage, before they at last found themselves arrived at the object of their journey, the summit of Mount Hecla*, where the most dreary solitude and silence the

*Sir Joseph Banks thus describes his ascent of the same hill: "we ascended Mount Hecla with the wind blowing against us so violently that we could with difficulty proceed. The frost too was lying upon the ground, and the cold extremely severe. We ourselves were covered with ice in such a manner that our clothes resembled buckram. On reaching the summit of the first peak, we here and there remarked places were the snow had been melted, and a little heat was arising from them, and it was by one of these that we rested to observe the barometer, which was 24. 838. Th. 27. The water we had with us was all frozen. Doctor Lind filled his wind-machine with warm water: it rose to 1..6 and then froze into spiculæ, so that we could not make observations any longer. We thought we had arrived at the highest peak, but soon saw one above us, towards which we hastened. Doctor Solander remained with an

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most profound reigned all around them, and they could discover no traces either of fissures in the rock or falls of water, and still less of hot springs or smoke or fire. Though now midnight, it was as bright as day, so that they enjoyed an immensely extensive prospect; looking over all the glaciers to the east, beyond which in the distance towered, like a great castle, the ancient volcano, of Hoerdabreid; while to the north they had a view of all the lofty hills of that quarter, and of a number of lakes of which they could not learn the names. Finding nothing on the top of

Icelander in the intermediate valley; the rest of us continued our route to the summit of the peak, which we found intensely cold; but on the highest point was a spot of three yards in breadth, whence there proceeded so much heat and steam that we could not bear to sit down upon it.-H. 9..25. Bar. 24,722. Th. 38. The last eruption of 1766 broke out on a sudden attended by an earthquake. A south wind carried a quantity of ashes to Holum, a distance of an hundred and eighty miles! Horses were so alarmed as to run about till they dropped down through fatigue, and the people who lived near the mountain lost their cattle, which were either choked with ashes or starved before they could be removed to grass. Some lingered for a year, and on being opened their stomachs were found to be full of ashes.”—Sir Joseph Banks' MS. Journal.

Hecla to induce them to prolong their stay, they descended on the west side by a deep ravine, which, commencing at the summit of the mountain and continuing to its very base, appears evidently to have been the bed of a current of lava, and was, most probably formed at the time of the eruption of 1300; since the annals of the country relate that at that period Hecla was rent from the top to the bottom. This cavity has now only the appearance of a deep valley, but it is nevertheless certain, they say, that it was orignally open to the very centre of the volcano, but was choked up by the falling in of stones and rocks, which forced their way downwards on the cessation of the eruption, when the subterraneous fires ceased to lend the earth unnatural strength. Many large masses of rock thrown from the volcano still hang upon the edges of the ravine, where they were cast by the eruption; but far greater heaps of melted and burnt substances are met with at the bottom of this singular and immense chasm.-Thus much for the general and exterior conformation of Hecla. The effects of its subterraneous fires, mischievous as they have been, are small compared to

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those of other mountains; for which reason I shall proceed to a short description of two or three that have been the most remarkable

in this respect.

Krabla, in the north-eastern part of the island, vomited forth great rivers of burning and melted matter between the years 1724 and 1730, one of which was four miles and a half in width and nine in length; it flowed into the adjoining lake, Myvatn, where it continued to burn like oil for many days, filling the lake, drying up its waters, and destroying the whole of the fish. Another torrent overflowed the presbytery of Reykelid, which it so completely buried as not to have left a vestige of the place. These floods of fire are called by the natives Stenaa (stoneflood), and afforded, during the day, a blue flame, resembling that of sulphur; but the smoke, which arose from all parts, in a great measure hindered it from being seen. During the night the whole extent of the horizon was illuminated, and the higher regions of the atmosphere became red. Balls of fire were hurled from the stenaa as well as from the burning mountain, and

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