OF HJbtL.i, 261 



a necessary of lii'e; accordingly search was made at a place which 

 had long been suspected as being a glacier covered with lava, at 

 the foot of the highest cone, when for several hundred yards a 

 solid bed of ice, so hard that it was quarried with the utmost dif- 

 ficulty was found, covered entirely by lava. 



We now turn to Iceland, an island subject to tremendous vol- 

 canic eruptions, and containing several volcanic mountains* 

 Mount Hecla has been in continual activity, with but a short oc- 

 casional rest, from the earliest period ; its eruptions have lasted 

 sometimes as long as six years without cessation. In the year 

 1783 two great eruptions happened, about a month apart, one 

 about tlie middle of May, and the other the llth of June. The 

 first was a submarine volcano which threw up so much pumice 

 that the ocean was covered to a distance of 150 miles. A new 

 island was formed, consisting of high cliffs, within which, fire, 

 smoke, and pumice, were emitted from several different parts. 

 This island, which, was claimed by his Danish Majesty and called 

 .Nyoe, or new-island, was destroyed before a year, by the sea, 

 leaving nothing but a reef of rocks from five to thirty fathoms 

 under water. The eruption of June llth was on the island, a 

 distance of 200 miles from Nyoe, when the crater of Skapta Jokul 

 emitted a torrent of lava which flowed down into the river Skap- 

 la, and entirely dried it. This river was about 200 feet in breadth 

 and from 400 to 600 feet deep, running between high rocks, not 

 only was this great bed filled with the lava current, but, rising 

 higher, it overflowed the neighboring fields; after filling the bed 

 of the river, the lava current flowed into a deep lake, which was 

 in a short time completely filled; still flowing on, it penetrated 

 die caverns which had been formed in the older lava, and melted 

 down portions of it, and in some cases where it could not get 

 vent, it blew up the rock with a tremendous explosion. On the 

 18th of June another ejection of melted lava, flowed with great 

 swiftness down the mountain, over the bed of the former erupt- 

 ion. By the damming up of tho rivers, and lakes, and conse- 

 quent displacement of water, many villages were completely de- 

 stroyed and overwhelmed. This lava current, after flowing for 

 several days, was finally precipitated down a tremendous catar- 



