I C E L A N D, 



tFie lava running between thefe two villages, followed the courfe of the river, and 

 pafled between two others, Therna and Selialand, about a mile lower down ; 

 coming then into an open and level ground, it fpread itfelf out, and formed a fmal! 

 lake of fire, about two miles long and one broad ; lying in a diredion a little 

 weftwardly from the fouth. The only damage done by this branch was the de^ 

 ftruftion of the corn and grafs land, and fome wood ; no villages having fufFered. 

 Upon the i6th o^ Jtiguji this branch flopped. 



It appears then, from the whole, that the utmoft extent of the ground co- 

 vered with lava, and- making the appearance of a fiery take, was fifteen miles long, 

 and feven broad, in its utmoft extent. The edge of it, reckoning all that part 

 iouih oi Buland, with all its inequalities on the fouth fide, is upwards of thirty 

 miles long ; what it may be on the north is not known, as nobody chufes to ven- 

 ture himfelf near that part as yet. The perpendicular height of the edge is 

 from 1 6 to 20 fathoms, fo that wherever it came it covered every village it 

 met with, as well as feveral hills ; and thofe which, on account of their great 

 height, it did not cover, were melted down by it, fo that the whole furface was 

 in a fluid ftate, and formed a lake of fire, in appearance like red hot melted metal. 



The whole number of villages totally deftroyed are 20 or 21, either by the fire 

 or the water overflowing them. About 34 are very materially hurt, having their 

 lands- and woods burnt up ; but moft of them may be furnifhed with frefli- 

 ground being taken up in their refpeftive neighborhoods. Befides villages, there 

 are feven parifh churches and two chapels deftroyed. In the whole there were 

 220 lives loft by the fire, and 21 by water. The rivers that were dried up are 

 twelve ; nT^mtly ,Tuna, Axafardi, Hwerfisjiiot, Skapta, Stelns-myrijliot, Landa, Mel- 

 quiJJ, Green-laekur-) Tungu-laeker, Fedaquijl, Kararvlkarjh-urdur, and Hraunfa. 



Befides this immenfe fire, there liappened two other circumftances that are 

 equally wonderful. Two iflands have been thrown up. One of thefe was thrown 

 up in the month of jP£'irr/(7r)' 1784, where there was before upwards of 100 fa- 

 thoms deep water; it lies about fixteen miles from the land, fouth-weft from Rei- 

 klanefe in Iceland., and about eight miles from the clufter of iflands called Gler- 

 fiigla. By the laft accounts this ifland continued burning with great vehe- 

 mence, and fent forth prodigious quantities of pumice, fand, and other matters,, 

 fimilar to other burning mountains. The ifland is fomev/hat above half a mile in 

 circumference, and full as high as the mountain Efian in Iceland. The other 

 ifland which has been thrown up, is at a greater diftance from Iceland to the north - 

 weft, lying between Iceland and Greenland: it has burnt without intermiflion, day 

 and night, for a confiderable time, like the other; is very high, and larger in cir- 

 cumference than the other. 



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