History of Animal Plagues. 513 



injured vegetation by covering the ground with black dust, mixed 

 with the hair-hke ravelings, ashes, sand, and sulphur ; thus 

 poisoning the animals, and consequently cutting oft' the verv life- 

 springs of the inhabitants. The feet of the poor cattle, and their 

 heads, as far at least as their eyes, and the inside of their mouths, 

 became changed, by their going into these pastures, especially 

 such as are damp and marshy, to a sulphureous yellow colour, 



and were filled with wounds and boils The volcano 



likewise affected the fisheries in the year 1783; as the thick 

 clouds of smoke and dust, which continually covered the land, 

 rendered it too dangerous for the fishermen to put out to sea. 

 In the district of West Skaptefield the fire had a still greater and 

 more destructive effect on the trout-fisheries, in the fresh-water 

 lakes; foralarger quantity of volcanic ashes and sand had naturally 

 fallen here than in other parts of the country, and these imparted 

 an unusually blue colour, sometimes tinged with yellow, to the 

 waters, which at length became so foul and putrid, that great 



numbers of the fish were driven dead upon the beach 



Exclusively of the damage and loss occasioned to the fisheries bv 

 the fire, this calamity has likewise driven from the country vari- 

 ous kinds of birds that used to build their nests there, among 

 which the jjrincipal were the s\\;ans. The inhabitants were well 

 acquainted with the time that these birds cast their feathers, 

 which was in the month of August, when the people used to 

 climb the rocks and take a great number of them ; but the sul- 

 phureous smoke and stench effectually banished them all; and 

 the few Q.SLS^% that were found in the deserted nests were so 



CO 



thoroughly impregnated by the smoke, as to be unfit for eating. 

 .... What influence the volcanic eruption lias had on the 

 growth of the grass, and the miserable consequences that have 

 ensued from the failure of the latter, cannot be described in lew 

 words. It is easy to conceive that the progress of veuctation, in 

 the district of Skaptefield, where the fields were iinmediatelv 

 covered by the poisonous black substances, nui>t unavoidably be 

 stopped. But the misery was far from being cnnlinetl to this 

 place alone; for, even out of the district, where the volcanic 

 sand and sulphureous ashes did not fall in any considerable 

 (juantities, the growth ol the grass, which, until the eruption 



