5i8 Histoij of Animal Plagues. 



was really astonishing how the wretched animal could walk, or 

 even stand upon its legs ; and yet its owners, in the confusion 

 and distress occasioned by their flight from the spot, were under 

 the necessity of laying a burthen upon it. No striking external 

 marks of the disorder were perceptible among the horses out of the 

 district of Skaptefield, but it has nevertheless prevailed there, if 

 not as the sole cause, yet certainly in union with others, to pro- 

 duce a general destruction both among them and the horned 

 cattle; many having died suddenly when they had a plentiful 

 supply of hay ; others when in pastures where there was a suffi- 

 ciency of grass, of which they were never deprived either by ice 

 or snow. To our utter astonishment, we saw horses in the most 

 miserable state of leanness in the richest meadows, and even 

 actually starved to death, having preferred eating substances the 

 most injurious, such as the wood of houses, the hair from each 

 other's coats, or whatever else was within their reach, rather 

 than touch the grass of last year's crop, still remaining in the 

 pastures. This appears to me to be a sufficient proof of the 

 poisonous state of the herbage during the year 1783; and, 

 although the circumstance has not yet been investigated, I am 

 fully convinced that the internal organs of the horses have been, 

 equally with those of other animals, infected with the dis- 

 temper. The few inhabitants who had still left them some of 

 the old hay in the year 1783, preserved their cattle in a healthy 

 and good condition; but even here, when the new hay came 

 into use, the disease began to appear among them. 



' I have further to remark, that during the last summer 

 several of the younger beasts were recovered by feeding upon 

 the new grass. 



' It might seem contradictory were I here to assert that the 

 whole destruction among the cattle is to be considered merely 

 as an effect of the volcanic eruption; because I have before 

 stated that, in certain districts which vyere within the operation 

 of the fire, no particular distemper has yet made its appearance. 

 I must, nevertheless, still maintain my opinion, that the fire has 

 mostly contributed towards it, since this was, beyond a doubt, the 

 cause of the unwholesome air and frequent tempests, as well as of 

 the failure of the crops of grass and hay, in the summer of 1783. 



