General View of the Mode of Formation of Iceland. 107 



valleys of the Alps, in the Pinzgan and in the Vallais, exten- 

 sive peat-formations, frequently accompanied with bog iron- 

 ore, and boggy marshes, which the traveller in Iceland soon 

 comes to know rather too well. 



The action of the volcanoes still continues, in our day, as 

 in former times : showers of ashes and streams of lava destroy 

 the organic creation, the fumaroles decompose the rocks, and 

 the Geysers and Strokkr hurl forth, from their orifices, their 

 jets of boiling-water mixed with steam. As it has been going 

 on for thousands of years, so will it still continue for thou- 

 sands of years to come, until the thickness of the outer crust 

 of the earth opposes unsurmountable obstacles to the pres- 

 sure from within ; the mountains of Iceland will still slowly 

 increase, and its coasts gradually become changed. 



Such, I think, is the probable mode of origin of this, in 

 many respects, remarkable island. 



My theory has not, if I may be permitted so to speak, been 

 caught up at random, but is founded on manifold and, I be- 

 lieve, careful observations.* 



1. On the Cause of the recent Oscillation of the Waters in the 

 Lake Ontario. 2, An account of the extraordinary Agita- 

 tion of the Sea in Cornwall and Devon, on Sunday the 23rf 

 May 1847. 3. An Account of four Whirlwinds which passed 

 through St Just, on the 12th of December 1846. 4. On the 

 rapid Dimimition of the Sand-bank in Mount's Bay. By 

 Richard Edmonds, Jun., Esq. 



1. On the Cause of the recent Oscillation of the Waters in Lake 

 Ontario.^ 



" On 20th September 1845, was witnessed a singular phenomenon on Lake 

 Ontario. In the afternoon, the waters suddenly moved, in a mass, out of the 

 rivers, bays, coves, harbours, &c., lowering the water to different depths in dif- 

 ferent places. In 10 or 12 minutes the waters returned and rose to a higher 

 level than they had before. This oscillation, or efflux and reflux, was repeated 



* Phyisch-Geographische Skizze von Island. 



t I'enzance, Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Society's Kcport for 1847. 



