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i 
in the Neighbourhood of Iceland. 285 
be overturned. It is.known alfo that the fame year.a con- 
fiderable quantity of pumice-ftone and volcanic fubftances. of 
. the like kind, the fpecific gravity of which was lighter than 
ihat of water, was caft on fhore in Iceland, and found float- 
ing on the fea by mariners. 
Had the eruption taken place in a calmer fea, and the 
depth around it been lefs abrupt, the thrown up mafs. would 
have confolidated itfelf by its own weight, and would have in 
time become an ifland; of which we have had inftances in 
the Archipelago, in the Eaft Indies, and different parts of 
the ocean. Had it taken place on the continent, or in an 
ifland, it would have formed a mountain. It is not necef- 
fary that a voleano fhould always arife from a mountain: 
volcanoes have been feen to burft forth in plains; but the 
invariable confequence is, that the volcanic matter, by being 
accumulated, and, as it were, piled up, forms a mountain. 
Now, as the violence of the waves may have eafily wafhed 
away the loofe matter accumulated round the crater, there is 
no abfurdity in fuppofing, that, as the billows rolled over the 
mouth of the crater, the fire was at length overcome by the 
water, and the volcano extinguithed. 
The crater, confifting of rock, has remained. It is well 
afcertained that a rock exifted in this place before the erup- 
tion; and it is confirmed, by late obfervations, that it exifts 
fill. An obfcure notion prevailed among the feamen who 
frequented Iceland, that there was a blind rock * in this 
neighbourhood called Fugle-Skzir (Bird’s rock). This name 
T have retained in my charts, though the exiftence of it is 
denied by many feamen, becaufe they paffed without feeing it. 
But, under fuch circumftances, the teftimony of one who 
has feen it is of more weight than a hundred who deny its 
exiftence becaufe they did not fee it. This confirms me in 
the opinion that the crater had exifted long before in,the 
fame ftate. 
To conclude, it may not be fuperfluous to remark, in 
order to ftrengthen this opinion, that, nearly in the fame di- 
reCtion from the fouth-weft extremity of Iceland, as already 
Jnentioned, there are five fmall iflands or rocks, the outer- 
* Rocks lying under the water, and'which are therefore more dane 
gerous, are by feamen calle dlind rocks. 
moft 
