Bie CHa Gy Al Na Be, 
im very remote periods, is very evident, from the quantity of /uturbrand met with 
in feveral parts; which ftill retains traces of its vegetable origin; the marks 
of branches, and circles of the annual growth of the wood: fome pieces are 
even capable of being planed. It is found in the fiffures of the rocks, much 
comprefled by their weight, and in pieces fometimes big enough to make a 
raiddle-fized table. This is fometimes ufed as fuel; but the want of it is fup- 
plied, in fome meafure, by the drift-wood, by peat, and by feveral ftrange fubfti- 
tutes, the effect of neceflity. Smiths prefer the futurbrand to fea-coal in their 
bufinefs. The beds of this fofil ftrongly refute the notion of Iceland having 
been entirely formed by vulcanic violence, fince the original creation; and 
raifed out ef the fea in later times, as others have been known to have done. 
Delos and Rhodes, in very remote ages; Thera, the modern Santorini, and 
Therafia, in the 135th Olympiad ; Thia, inthe time of Pliny * ; and in the beginning 
of this century another fprung from the fea, by the force of fubterraneous fires, near 
to Santorini t+: and, while I am now writing, an ifland is forming by the fame 
caufe, not remote from the Reickenes, part of the very ifland in queftion. But thefe 
futur or forte brands are certainly the remains of antient forefts, overturned and 
buried by earthquakes, after the golden age of the ifland. Let me add to this 
another proof, from the number of its vegetables: there being found on it not 
fewer than three hundred and nine perfect, and two hundred and thirty-three 
cryptogamous plants. On the ifle of A/cenfion, which is totally and aboriginally 
vulcanic, a Flora of not more than feven plants is to be feen {. 
Tus vaft ifland extends from 63. 15. to about 67. 18. north latitude: is 
reckoned to be five hundred and fixty Englifh miles long, and about two hundred 
and fifty broad |. It has a rugged coaft, indented deeply with fecure bays; but 
faced with very few ifles. It lies in the A’yperbarean ocean, divided from Greenland 
by a fea about thirty-five leagues wide §. The whole is traverfed with great ridges 
of mountains ; the higheft naked, and ufually free from fnow, by reafon of the 
faline and fulphurous particles with which they abound. The lower, called Fok- 
keler, are cafed with eternal. ice and {now ; and afe the g/acieres of Iceland. Of thefe, 
Snafiall Fokkel, which hangs over the fea in the weft part of the ifland, is far the 
higheftq. Out of thefe, at different periods, have been tremendous eruptions of fire 
and water, the burft of which is attended with.amoft terrific noife: flames and balls 
of fire iffue out with the fmoke : and fhowers of ftones are vomited up; of which there 
has been an inftance of one weighing near three hundred pounds being flung to the 
* Aift. Nat. lib. ii. c. $7. + Moft admirably defcribed in the Ph. Tranf. Abridg. v. 196, &co 
$ Ofbeck’s Voy. ii. 98. Furfler’s Voy. ii. 575. 576» Mallet, i. 15. § Kerguelin, 175. 
@ See Olaffen, i. tab, xvii, 
2 diftance 
XLV 
PLANTS, NUMBER 
OF 
