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the district of Western Skaptefield; for there, provided the continued rains have not altogether prevented the hay from being harvested, there is no fear of a similar scarcity; the grass having grown in the greatest luxuriance, nay, even in an almost incredible quantity, both in the Medallandet and in Siden, and likewise on the two most easterly and deserted farms of Nupstad and Raudaberg, in Fliotshverfet.

I am strongly inclined to believe that this extraordinary degree of fertility is chiefly ascribable to the ashes, which have been thrown out by the volcano, and have fallen in the vallies, serving them both as the means of protection to the herbage and as manure. The great and rapid growth of the forests around Ætna* has always been attributed to a similar cause, and it has likewise been remarked in Iceland that a luxuriant vegetation generally succeeds the eruptions of Hecla†. This, therefore, in

* See Brydone's Letters through Sicily and Malta, p. 89-93.

† See Bishop Finsen's Account of Hecla, 1766, p. 38.

VOL. II.

duces the opinion that we must seek for the cause of the failure of the crops of grass all over the country, except in the places just mentioned, in the dreadfully severe frost and cold of the preceding winter, when the earth was frozen to the depth of five or six feet; so that it was not entirely thawed in the beginning of the month of July, even in the neighborhood of the fire.

The loss sustained in this district by the destruction of the ground which used to produce the Sea Lyme-grass (Elymus arenarius) is the more deeply felt, since this plant has become an article of consequence among the inhabitants. The flour it yields is considered to be finer in quality and more nutritive than any which is imported; so that, although the drying and preparing of

C *In the winter of 1784, the thermometer upon Réaumur's scale varied from ten to twenty degrees of cold, and at Skalholt, Bishop Finsen once remarked Réaumur's thermometer at twenty-one degrees below the point of congelation. The excessive severity of that season continued till the end of the month of April.

+ See Olafsen and Povelsen's Travels in Iceland. § 810.

the grain are but imperfectly understood in this district, it was nevertheless in so general use, that little or no other corn was bought at the trading towns. There are, however, notwithstanding the general calamity, some few of these grounds still remaining uninjured, and these, so early as the latter end of the month of July last year, appeared in a most flourishing state; for the remark, already made as to grass in general, holds good also with the Elymus arenarius, that volcanic ashes are its best

manure.

In the district of Western Skaptefield, and especially at Siden, the Hvannarot (the root of Angelica Archangelica), the Holltarot, or Hardasoe (the root of Silene acaulis), and the Gelldingarot (the root of Statice Armeria), have also been used by the inhabitants as common articles of food, particularly in the spring, or in seasons of scarcity. They are also not unacquainted with the means of preserving their stock of Angelica root, which they gather in the autumn, and secure during the winter, by burying it a sufficient depth in the earth to be out of the reach of the frost, or by laying

it in dry sand, from which they take a part as it is wanted for use, and eat it with butter. The other kinds of roots are generally dug up in the spring, and, as soon as freed from the soil, are eaten either raw, or boiled in water with a little milk. In the summer season a quantity of the Lichen islandicus (called in the Icelandic language, Fiallagros), is likewise collected from the rocks for winter use: but immediately after the bursting out of the fire, in the year 1783, this plant, so important to the inhabitants, was, together with those before mentioned, which grew in great abundance in Sidumannna-afrett, buried under an immense covering of volcanic ashes, and coarse sand. Even to the present day the natives have to regret, in all parts of the country, that this Lichen, so valuable to the farmer, has not yet recovered itself.

§ XXXII.

Effect on animals. In consequence of the deficiency in the pastures, and particularly, of the poisoned state of the herbage, a great mortality naturally ensued among the cattle. In the district of West Skaptefield, where the

fields were entirely covered with the infectious sand, ashes, and sulphur, mixed into a pasty consistency by the heavy rains; where the showers of red-hot stones and pumice had totally destroyed the face of vegetation; where a stinking and suffocating smoke, accompanied by tempests, continual lightnings, thunder, and noises in the air, heavy subterraneous reports and dreadful shocks of earthquakes, obscured the atmosphere; where a terrific stream of fire, a melted mass of lava, had urged its impetuous course; in short, where all the most fearful phænomena in nature had concentrated themselves, as it were, in one spot, it was common to see the animals running about the pastures as if in a state of madness; and I am credibly informed, that many of them, unable to find food, or even shelter to defend themselves from the surrounding horrors, in a fit of desperation, plunged into the fire. The cows were in many instances secured and fed in stalls, but the sheep and horses were dispersed in such a manner, that scarcely half of the original number could again be collected. All the quadrupeds of the island had thriven wonderfully, and

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