12 ICELAND. 



but it is very far from being the most destructive of the 

 " Eruptors " of Iceland. On an average, there has been 

 an explosion somewhere in the island every thirteen 

 years, and several of these have been unsurpassed for 

 their violent and devastating effects. 



It is very remarkable that in a land where bravery 

 and enterprise have never been wanting, a region some 

 3,000 square miles in extent, lying in the south-east 

 corner of the island, should never have been penetrated 

 by man. In that wild and untrodden desert stand some 

 of the most destructive craters. 



Age after age, wave upon wave of burning lava has 

 been poured over it, earthquakes have rent it and tor- 

 mented it, without the eye of man ever resting on its 

 mysteries. From out of this solitude, perfect seas of 

 molten lava have, at various times, flowed over the 

 pastures and laboriously cultivated fields of the wretched 

 inhabitants. Considerable hills have been thrown up, 

 water-courses cut deep in the hills filled full to the 

 brim, and long reels and islands cast far out into the 

 sea. 



One stream is 50 miles long, 15 miles broad, and 

 600 feet deep ; and it has been calculated that one volcano 

 in that wilderness threw out, during one eruption, fifty 

 to sixty millions of cubic yards of material ! Into the 

 inhabited regions alone a greater bulk than Mont Blano 

 was projected ! 



The accounts which have been handed down of this 

 event present to us a picture too terrible almost to? 



