128 An ACCOUNT of 
I muft, in a great meafure, repeat ‘what he has faid. It may 
be fatisfactory, however, to you to have his relations corro- 
borated; and fome further details, with an account of the 
changes which, in a few inftances, have taken place fince he 
vifited thefe particular {fprings in 1772, may contribute to ex- 
plain their hiftory, and the caufe of their very fingular appear- 
ances. 
You received two kinds of water, one from a fpring near a 
farm called Rykum, and the other from the fountain known 
by the name of the Geyzer, the moft remarkable in the ifland. 
It rifes near the farm of Haukadal, about forty miles from 
Rykum. They are both fituated in the S. W. divifion of the 
ifland. 
I sHAut begin with a defcription of the country and the 
fprings near Rykum, and of the firft view we had of them in 
our way from Rykavick to Mount Hecla. Rykum is fituated 
in a valley, which, on ‘account of its fertility, and the ftrong 
contraft it made with the dreary fcenes we had pafled fince our 
laft ftation, appeared to us with great advantage while we ap- 
proached it. We had traverfed a country, feven or eight 
miles in breadth, entirely overfpread with lava, and other vol- 
canic matter. It was furrounded with hills, not fufficiently 
high to be majeftic, and too rugged and too barren to be pleafing. 
We were told by our guides, that, on a clear day, the fummits 
of Hecla might be feen above thofe which were immediately 
before us; but heavy and lowering clouds, which threatened 
us inceflantly with a ftorm, concealed every diftant obje@ from 
our fight. 
We faw many diftricts in Iceland covered with lava; but I 
do not recolleét one fo uncouth and defolate as this. No vege- 
tation was to be feen but that of a few ftunted buthes of willow 
and birch, growing between the crevices and hollows of the 
lava, into which the wind had drifted fufficient foil for them to 
take root. We could difcover no mount or crater from whence 
we 
