54 



LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 



[VII. 



the other hand, in the Almanna Gja, you can easily distinguish 

 on the one face marks and formations exactly corresponding, 

 though at a different level, with those on the face opposite, so 

 cleanly were they separated. 



a, si r q^ 



I Plain of Thingvalla. 

 3 Lava plateau. 



5 Rabna Gja. 



2 Lake. 



4 Almanna Gja. 



2. Is the sea of lava now lying on the top of the original 

 surface. Its depth I had no means of ascertaining. 



3. Is the level of the surface first formed when the lava 

 was still hot. 



4. Is the plain of Thingvalla, eight miles broad, its surface 

 shattered into a network of innumerable crevices and fissures 

 fifty or sixty feet deep, and each wide enough to have swal- 

 lowed the entire company of Korah. At the foot of the plain 

 lies a vast lake, into which, indeed, it may be said to slope, 

 with a gradual inclination from the north, the imprisoned 

 waters having burst up through the lava strata, as it subsided 

 beneath them. Gazing down through their emerald depths, 



