CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 119 



them towards the Scamauder may have been the AOIAI ITHrAI 

 of Homer *, is at least possible : and when it is considered, that 

 a notion still prevails in the country, of one being hot, and the 

 other cold; that the women of the place bring all their garments 

 to be washed in these springs, not according to the casual visits of 

 ordinary industry, but as an antient and established custom, in the 

 exercise of which they proceed with all the pomp and songs of a 

 public ceremony ; it become perhaps probable |. 



[Clarke's Travels to Greece , Egypt , and the Ilolyland. 



5. Hot Springs in Iceland. 



In a Letter from John Stanley, Esq. M. P. F.R.S. &c. to 



Dr. Black. 



1. Reykam Springs. 



You received two kinds of water, one from a spring near a farm 

 called Rykum and the other from the fountain known by the name 

 of the Geyzer, the most remarkable in the island. It rises near 

 the farm of Haukadale, about forty miles from Rykum. They are 

 both situated in the S. W. division of the island. 



I shall begin with a description of the country and the springs 

 near Rykum, and of the first view we ha<> of them in our way 

 from llykavick to Mount Hecla. Rykum is situated in a valley, 

 which, on account of its fertility, and the strong contrast it made 

 with the dreary scenes we had passed since our last station, appeared 

 to us with great advantage while we approached it. We had 

 traversed a country, seven or eight miles in breadth, entirely over- 

 spread with lava, and other volcanic matter. It was surrounded 

 with hills, not sufficiently high to be majestic, and too rugged and 

 too barren to be pleasnig. We were told by our guides, that, oil 

 a clear day, the summits of Hecla might be seen above those which 



* The following is a literal translation of the words of the Venetian Sholiast, 

 upon II. X'. 148. " Two fountains from the Scamander rise in the plain ; but 

 the fountains of the Scamander are not in the plain. 



f The full description of such a ceremony occurs in the sixth book of the 

 Odyssey, where it is related, that the daughter of Alcinous, with all the 

 mnidens of her train, proceeds to wash the linen of her family. According 

 to Pausanias, there was an ancient picture to be seen in his time, in which 

 this subject was represented. 



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