50 



VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN ICELAND. 



[Ch. XXVII. 



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Not only did tlie lava fill up this great defile to the br' t 

 but it overflowed tlie adjacent fields to a considerable exte \ 

 The burning flood, on issuing from the confined rocky ^or 

 was then arrested for some time by a deep lake, which fo ' 

 merly existed in the course of the river, between Skapt 

 and Aa, which it entirely filled. The current then advanced 

 again, and reaching some ancient lava full of subterraneous 

 caverns, some of them apparently filled with water, melted 

 parts of the rock and blew up others, throwing large frag'- 

 ments to the height of 150 feet into the air. On Jnne 18 

 another ejection of liquid lava rushed from the volcano, which 

 flowed down with amazing velocity over the surface of the 

 first stream. By the damming up of the mouths of some of 

 the tributaries of the Skapta, many villages were completely 

 overflowed with water, and thus great destruction of property 

 was caused. The lava, after flowing for several days, w 

 precipitated down a tremendous cataract called Stapafoss 

 where it filled a profound abyss, which that great waterfall 

 had been hollowing out for ages, and after this, the fiery 

 current again continued its course. 



On August 3, fresh floods of lava still pouring from the 

 volcano, a new branch was sent off in a different direction ; 

 for the channel of the Skapta was now so entirely choked up, 

 and every opening to the west and north was so obstructed, 

 that the melted matter was forced to take a new course, so 

 that it ran in a south-east direction, and discharged itself 

 into the bed of the river Hverfisfliot, where a scene of de- 

 struction scarcely inferior to the former was occasioned. 

 These Icelandic lavas (like the ancient streams which are 

 met with in Auvergne, and other provinces of Central 

 France), are stated by Stephenson to have accumulated to 

 a prodigious depth in narrow rocky gorges ; but when 

 they came to wide alluvial plains, they spread themselves 

 out into broad burning lakes, sometimes from 12 to 15 

 miles wide, and 100 feet deep. When the ^fiery lake' 

 wdiich filled up the lower portion of the valley of the Skapta 

 had been augmented by new supplies, the lava floAved up 

 the course of the river to the foot of the hills from whence 

 the Skapta takes its rise. This affords a parallel case to one 



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