280 ICELAND : ITS HISTOEY AND INHABITANTS. 



and ashes were thrown up that, at a distance of '226 miles, high liills 

 and downs were formed by them, and a violent earthquake laid waste 

 the part of the district spared by the earlier eruption/' The ashes 

 reached the north of Iceland. The air was darkened. P^amine and 

 loss of life followed and houses were shattered by earthquakes. 



The tenth eruption, July 25, 1510, was so violent that huge blocks 

 of lava were thrown out of the crater as far as Skalholt, 25 miles 

 distant, and men were killed there by them. In May, 1554, at the 

 time of the eleventh eruption, people were obliged to live in tents for 

 the greater part of the summer on account of frequent earthquakes. 

 The thirteenth eruption took place fi^om January to March, 1597. 

 Loud reports were heard for twelve successive days in the northmost 

 parts of Iceland, and eighteen columns of fire were seen to rise 

 simultaneously from the mountain. The ashes covered about one- 

 half of the island. In the fifteenth eruption which began May 8, 

 163G, thirteen craters broke out. The sixteenth eruption, in 1693, 

 may be compared to that in 1300, and lasted from Febuary to August. 

 " The earthquake was felt on the high seas, and endangered ships. 

 Clouds of ashes changed day into pitch dark night, but glowing lava 

 streams lit up the darkness with a red glare. Ashes were borne to 

 Xorway. The fall of ashes and downpour of rain lasted all the time 

 till Easter. The cattle saved from instantaneous death, having to 

 eat the singed grass under the ashes, suffered from a scorbutic dis- 

 ease, and lost their teeth or perished." 



The eighteenth eruption commenced September 2, 1845, and continued 

 for seven months. Halley says the flames were seen in Orkney. The 

 ashes were carried over to the Orkneys and the column of smoke 

 ascending from the crater was found by the mathematician Gunn- 

 logsen to reach a height of 14,000 feet. The lava stream was 80 

 feet in depth and covered 8 to 9 square miles. It moved on, scooping 

 up hills of sand and earth in its way, the red-hot liquid breaking 

 forth now and then from under the cooled surface with violent 

 crashes. The lava ejected is computed at 14,400 million cubic feet. 



The peninsula of Reyk janes is volcanic throughout, containing no 

 less than 300 volcanoes with about TOO craters. The ranges of 

 volcanic peaks, some of which rise to 2,000 feet, run in the same direc- 

 tion as the Hekla Range. They are mostly extinct ; six of them have 

 broken out in historical times. A number of volcanic springs and 

 chasms cleft by earthquakes are also found in the peninsula. 



Eldeyjar (Fire Isles) or Fuglasker is a cluster of volcanic rocks 

 situate 10 to 12 miles off the southwest point of Reykjanes. Nine 

 eruptions, the earliest in 1211, are known to have taken place in the 

 bottom of the sea near these islets. In 1783, during the Skapta 

 eruption, an island called Nyey (New Isle), about 10 to 16 square 

 miles, appeared near the Eldeyjar, about 150 miles distant from the 



