﻿190 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



were set free, and returned to their own country, promising to molest 

 the white man no more. Henry was of course ignorant of all learn- 

 ing, but, as he was quick and industrious, he soon learned, and in 

 time became one of the most distinguished men of the colony. 



And this adventure of Henry Morton's, my dear little readers, is 

 only one out of many with which the first years of the settlement of 

 this country are full. Do you not thank God for having enabled 

 these heroic men to create this smiling and fertile country out of the 

 desolate wilderness ? 



Iceland and Norway, 



ALL hands ahoy ! Here we are in ICELAND, one of the most north- 

 ern portions of the earth which is inhabited. Yet, cold as it is, we 

 shall find a lofty mountain here, more than five thousand feet high - 

 a volcano, which frequently spouts out fire, and stones, and lava. It 

 is called Mount Hecla. It lies on the southern part of the island, 

 about south-west from Reikiavik. This mountain, in times past, 

 has sent forth lava and melted stones in such quantities, that whole 

 tracts of land have been covered and ruined by it. Yet it is a re- 

 markable fact that while flames issue from the crater, a huge chasm 

 at the top of the mountain, which Maurice Wilkins will describe to 

 you in the course of his thrilling adventures, while the melted mat- 

 ter is running down the sides, sizzling along, and destroying every- 

 thing in its way, the snow at the bottom, in unexposecl places, is not 

 melted. These volcanoes are sometimes called " Pluto's Stoves," 

 but I think a stove is rather a poor affair, when sufficient heat can- 

 not be raised to melt away the snow on the outside of it. 



At the foot of this mountain, and, as is universally supposed, con- 

 nected with the internal fire in some way, there are several places 

 from which columns of boiling water are frequently thrown up, 

 sometimes sixty, or even one hundred and fifty feet. Some travel- 

 lers, who saw these springs, or geysers, as they are called, in 1804, 

 declare that they measured the jet, and found that the water was 



