0/i the Expeditions to the North Pule. ' 2S5 



expert. The polar countries, such as Iceland and Greenland* 

 abound in warm, and even boiling, springs. Who has not read 

 the descriptions of the Geyser, that marvellous boiling water- 

 spout, which surpasses in magnitude all theye/5 d'eau which art 

 has produced ? But the ceconomical use which may be made of 

 these singular fountains, is not so generally known. The histo- 

 rian Snorron, the Herodotus of the North, and a long time judge 

 or president of the republic of Iceland, made a bath for a hun- 

 dred persons to be constructed, which still exists ; and the water 

 of which is furnished from a natural source. Some monks, who 

 settled in Greenland in the middle age, went a step further; they 

 heated their monastery with the vapour of boiling springs. The 

 following is the curious account of it given by the brothers Zeni. 



" There is," he says, " in this place (the monastery of Saint 

 Thomas) a spring of boiling water, with which the monks heat 

 the church, the refectory, and their cells ; when it arrives at the 

 kitchen, the water is still so hot, that they have no need of fire to 

 prepare their meats. To make bread, it is sutficient to put the 

 paste into copper-vessels, and to hold these in the water; the 

 bread becomes baked in this mansier, as if it were in an oven. 

 He found also in this monastery, small gardens in full vegetation 

 in winter ; the monks irrigate them with this water, and by this 

 means grow flowers, ripen fruits, and rear different sorts of 

 plants, which vegetate as well as if they were favoured with a tem- 

 perate climate. The rude savages, who inhabit these countries, 

 astonished at effects which they regard as supernatural, take the 

 monks for gods; and carry them all sorts of presents, such as 

 birds, meat, and various other things." 



Although the situation of this monastery cannot now be traced, 

 the relation is too circumstantial to permit of our supposing it to 

 be an imposture, though, perhaps, there may be some confusion 

 in respect of places. "The monks," continues the narrative, 

 *' employ no other materials for the building of their monastery, 

 than what are supplied by the neighbouring vclcano; they take, 

 for this purpose, the stones which are ejected in the form of 

 scoria from the crater of the mountiiin ; and while thev are yet 

 hot throw water upon them, by which means thev are entirely 

 dissolved, and converted into an excellent iime. The scoria, when 

 it is cold, serves in place of stones to form very solid walls 

 and arches ; for when once cooled, it cannot be broken but by 

 an instrument of iron. The arches made with this scoria are 

 so light, that they do not require any support. The want of 

 rain is never felt as an inconvenience in this country; for the first 

 snow which falls remains frozen for the space of nine months, the 

 time which winter la.'-t^. The people live upon wild birds and 

 tish. 



"■ The 



