

hi 





K. 



ht 



■^neo 



53 



-■•'o'-' frag. 

 n June is 



ace of tie 

 of some of 



>f pr ^ rtr 



i 



, the fieij 



from tii^ 

 direction ; 



bstruct^ 



COUTs^) ■ 



iit^ 



:^ : of df 



•<re* 





) 



ut 





1 



.-} tti 



15 



" to »" 



Ch. XXYII.1 



IMMENSE VOLUME OF THE LAVA 



51 



remote 



volcanic region of the Vivarais in France, where lava issued 

 from the cone of Tlmejts, and while one branch ran down 

 another more powerful stream flowed up, the channel of the 

 river Ardeche. 



The sides of the valley of the Skapt4 present superb ranges 



mbling 

 descending from Mont 



more 



inferior in magnitude to those of Iceland, have also usurped 

 the beds of the existing rivers. The eruption of Skaptar 

 Jokul did not entirely cease till the end of two years • and 

 when Mr. Paulson visited the tract eleven years afterwards 

 m 1794, he found columns of smoke (or vapour) still risino- 

 from parts of the lava, and several rents filled with hot 



water.* 



much 



and did not exceed 50,000, no less than twenty villages were 



inundated by water; and more 



9,000 human beings perished, together with an immense 

 number of cattle, partly by the depredations of the lava 

 partly by the noxious vapours which impregnated the ai/ 

 and, m part, by the famine caused by showers of ashes 

 throughout the island, and the desertion of the coasts by the 



But the extraordinary volume 



■i-'U' ;• 



matter 



'/ 



„„ ,. , produced in this eruption deserves the 



r^ td'r ll"!f L?^.''?^"^ ^'T-*^-' «- ^"-test ™s 



miles 



which the SkapU branch attained 



extreme 



miles, that 

 oth currents 

 sometimes amounted 



in the low countries 

 other about 7. The 



^as calculated, that the 



Professor Bischoff 

 mass of lava brought up from 



the qnr^+^ ""^ ^^^^ orougnt up from 



^'^gnitude the bulk of Mont Blanc.'f But a more 



niagnitude the bulk of Mont 



* Henderson's Journal, &c., p. 228. 



t Jameson's PhiL Journ. voL xxvi. p. 291 



E 2 



