ICELAND. £5 



in the neighbourhood. In several of these hot springs the inhabitants 

 who live near them boil their victuals, only by hanging a pot, into 

 which the flesh is put in cold water, in the water of the spring. 



The largest of all the spouting -springs in Iceland is called Geyser. 

 It is about two days' journey from Heekla, and not far from Skalholt. 

 In approaching towards it, a loud roaring noise is heard, like the 

 rushing of a torrent precipitating itself from stupendous rocks. The 

 water here spouts several times a-day, but always by starts, and after 

 certain intervals. Some travellers have affirmed that it spouts to "the 

 height of sixty fathoms. The water is thrown up much higher at 

 some times than at others : when Dr. Van Troil was there, the 

 utmost height to which it mounted was computed to be 92 feet. 



Basaltine pillars are likewise very common in Iceland, which are 

 supposed to have been produced by subterraneous fires. They have 

 generally from three to seven sides, and are from four to seven feet 

 in thickness, and from twelve to sixteen yards in length, without any 

 horizontal divisions. In some places they are only seen here and 

 there among the lava in the mountains ; but in others they extend 

 two or three miles in length, without interruption. 



Iceland contains great numbers of yawning fissures of the earth, 

 and prodigious caverns, formed by volcanic explosions. The largest 

 of these, as yet described, is that of Surthellar, which is above 5000 

 feet, or about an English mile, in length ; above 50 feet high, and 35 

 feet broad. At Almengaia, near the water of Tingalla, is a fissure of 

 a great but unmeasured length, from north to south, and 105 feet 

 wide. Its western side, or wall, is above 107 feet high, but its east- 

 ern only 45 feet. 



Immense masses of ice, are every year, the cause of great damage 

 to this country, and affect the climate of it. They arrive commonly 

 with a N. W. or N. N. W. wind from Greenland. The field ice is of 

 two or three fathoms thickness, is separated by the winds, and less 

 dreaded than the rock or mountain ice, which is often seen fifty and 

 more feet above water, and is, at least, nine times the depth below 

 water. These prodigious masses of ice are frequently left in shoal 

 water, fixed as it were, to the ground; and in that state remain many 

 months, nay, it is said even years, undissolved, chilling all the am- 

 bient part of the atmosphere for many miles round. When many 

 such lofty and bulky masses of ice are floating together, the wood that 

 is often drifted along between them is so much chafed, and pressed 

 with so much violence together, that it is said it sometimes takes fire ; 

 which circumstance has occasioned fabulous accounts of the ice be- 

 ing in flames. A number of bears arrive yearly with the ice, which 

 commit great ravages, particularly among the sheep ; they are, how- 

 ever, commonly soon destroyed, for the government allows a premium 

 often dollars each, for killing them, besides the price of the skins, 

 which are purchased for the king, and not allowed to be sold to any 

 other person. 



Population. ...The number of inhabitants in Iceland is computed 

 to be about 60,000. The country was formerly much more populous, 

 but it has frequently been ravaged by contagious diseases. The plague, 

 in the beginning of the fifteenth century, destroyed many thousands of 

 the inhabitants, and almost depopulated the island ; and in the years 

 1707 and 1708, the smallpox carried off 16,000 persons. Iceland has, 

 also repeatedly suffered extremely by famines, the consequence of 

 severe winters in that inclement climate. 



