CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 131 



:& -variety of plants* near their summits, which were certainly, in 

 some places, not less than sixteen hundred feet above the plain. 



To the eastward, the plain, several miles in breadth, was bounded 

 "by a long range of blue mountains, extending considerably to the 

 south. Beyond these, the triple summit of Heckla may be seen from 

 the western hills ; but I could not distinguish it from the plain, or 

 veu from the heights whence the view of the surrounding country 

 \vas taken which I am now describing. 



To the north behind Haukadal, there were many high mountains, 

 "but at a great distance, and of which the most distant were covered 

 with snow. They formed pan of a dreary assemblage of Jokuls or 

 ice.mouutainSj, which occupy a considerable extent of the interior 

 country. Their forms were mostly conical ; and from their general 

 resemblance to other mountains in the island, from which streams 

 of lava have been emitted, I think it probable they were once 

 volcanos. 1 iiey are not so connected as to form a continued range 

 x>r chain of hills. Each stands insulated ; and therefore the snows 

 which have for ages rested on their sides, are no more accumulated 

 in valleys and converted into lakes of ice and glaciers, as amidst the 

 Alps of Switzerland a^id Savoy. 



A view so different from the general features of the country, im- 

 pressed us with the most agreeable sensations. Hitherto we could 

 "but compare one scene of dreariness with another ; and although, 

 the view before us was destitute of trees, yet the verdure and plea- 

 'sant distribution of hills and plain, in some measure compensated 

 for this deficiency. 



I now return to the account of the springs, which I have already 

 observed break out in different places from the sides of a hill, and 

 4he space enclosed between its base and the windings of a river. 

 The soil through which they rise is a mixture of crumbled materials, 

 washed by degrees from the higher parts of the hill. In some places 

 these have been reduced into a clay or earth ; in others, they still 

 remain loose and broken fragments of the rocks from whence they 

 have fallen, or a dust produced by their friction against each other. 



* Amongst others, he found the salix herbacea (test willow) the cerastiuni 

 tomentoswn (woolly mouse ear duckweed), the rumex digynus (round leaved 

 mountain sorrel), and the koenigia, (a plant peculiar to Iceland), growing ia 

 jgrcal abundance, though generally in low and marshy grounds, 



K 2 



