SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



Wherever the ground is penetrated by the stream of the springs, 

 these fragments are soon decomposed, or changed into coloured 

 clays. In other places the surface of the ground is covered with 

 incrustations deposited by the springs, or with a luxuriant vegetation 

 of grass or dwarf bushes of willow and birch, and the empetrum 

 nigrum *, the berries of which were at this time ripe and in great 

 abundance. 



Above the great spring, the bill terminates in a double pointed 

 rock, which Mr. Baiue found by measurement to be 310 feet higher 

 than the course of the river; the rock is split very strangely into 

 lamina, and at first sight has much the appearance of a schistus or 

 thick slate. It consists, however, of a grey coloured stone of a 

 very close grain, the separate pieces of which, although divided as 

 thev lay, do not break in the hand in any particular direction. I 

 should suppose the substance of the rock to be chiefly argillaceous, 

 and that like every other stone in the island, it lias suffered some 

 change by the action of fire. I do not mean to call it lava, as it bears 

 no mark of having been once in a melted state, whatever baking or 

 induration it may have sustained in the neighbourhood of subterra- 

 neous heat. It contains no heterogeneous matter, or cavities, in which 

 agates, or zeolites, or vitrified substances of any kind, could have 

 been formed. 



All these rocks that have been either altered or created by fire, 

 seem much more liable to decay and decomposition than any others 

 I have ever seen. Moimds, similar to those in the valley of R)knm 

 have been formed by the ruins of the hill half way up its ascent be- 

 tween the Geyzer and the pointed rock. Springs boil in many places 

 through these mounds, and i.ear to one of them 1 observed that the 

 coloured clay felt much more soapy than any I had tried before. 

 Tiiis quality probably was owing to a greater proportion of the earth 

 of magnesia in its composition, as in other respects it agreed perfect, 

 ly with the rest. 



My attention, during the four days I remained in this place f was 

 so much engaged with the beauties and remarkable circumstances of 

 the two principle springs, that I cannot (were I so inclined) give you 



* The crow berry. This is almost (he only fruit we met with in Iceland, Mr 

 Wright found a few strawberries. Neither gooseberries nor currants will come 

 to perfection by any management whatever. 



