ICELAND. 31 



In recent years there have been frequent eruptions on the north side of the 

 Vatna-Jokull, the most violent of which occurred on March 29th, 1875, when the 

 snow-fields on the east side of the island were covered by a layer of at least 

 392,000,000 cubic yards of pumice reduced to impalpable dust. Towards the east 

 the heavens became almost pitch dark at noon, and a strong westerly gale wafted 

 the ashes across to the Norwegian snows, and even to the neighbourhood of 

 Stockholm, 1,180 miles from the centre of activity, the greatest distance on record. 



Iceland abounds no less in submarine than it does in sub-glacial volcanoes. 

 About a month before the eruption of 1783, one of these, some 60 miles south- 

 west of Reykjanes, discharged such a quantity of pumice that the surface was 



Fig. 13. — NYbE AND Eeykjanes. 

 Scale 1 : 660,000. 



Under 60 Fathoms. 



60 to 120 Fathoms. Over 120 Fathoms. 



^-^— ^^— ^.^ 10 MUes. 



covered fjr a distance of 150 miles, and ships were impeded in their course. A 

 triple- crested mountain, Nyoe, or " New Isle," rose from the waters, but being 

 composed of ashes and loose lavas, it soon became disintegrated, and gradually 

 disappeared, as did afterwards the Sabrina Islands, near the Azores, and Ferdi- 

 nandea, in the Sicilian seas. Breidi-Fjor^r Bay, on the north-west coast, seems 

 also to enclose a volcanic area, especially about Flatey ("Flat Island"), where 

 hot springs bubble up from the deep. One of these covers the surrounding shingle 

 with incrustations, and others are utilised by sailors and fishermen at low water. 



But the lava streams discharged during the ten centuries of the historic period 

 are of little account when compared with the vast beds, or hraans, which, with the 

 tufas, constitute so large a portion of the Icelandic rocks. Thus for a distance of 



